What would you do if you had three months to live….

We have less than three months left in New York. Three months to do all our favourite things again and three months to get round to everything we’d put off.

I asked the kids what their favourite thing in America they’d like to do again was and they said “the ice-cream shop!” . I asked them with genuine curiosity which ice-cream shop and they said the one across the street. This is going to be easy.

I asked David what he’d really like to do and he said cycle lots round Manhattan. Since when does everyone have such simple needs? Not me. My needs are complex and varied.

I’ve been compiling a list and the great thing about the imminent deadline is that we are getting stuck straight in!

This past weekend, David ticked off one of his own bucket list items: realising a childhood dream with a trip to NASA. He flew down to Florida from New York and his best flew in from Dublin to join him. On Sunday morning, I called David and he texted back immediately to say he couldn’t answer as his friend “is asleep beside me”. This gave me pause. I texted the friend’s wife to ask if she ever wondered if they were having an affair and she said she assumed many people they’ve encountered have wondered this. Then she sent me a photo of her kids at a hurling march in Parnell Park and I sent her a photo of my kids in the Barclays Center in Brooklyn because back in New York, our own bucket list was well under way.

It’s been a priority of mine to bring the girls to a Liberty Game ever since it emerged that they think only men play basketball (they also think that only men work but that’s a worrying world view I’m going to sweep under the carpet to deal with another day). I went online to book tickets for Liberty’s next game which was at home the following weekend and they were playing none other than Indiana Fever and who plays for Indiana Fever only Caitlin Clark.

As we left for the day, an elderly man in the lift of our building asked us our plans for the day. I told him we were going to see New York Liberty in the Barclays Center and he looked completely confused. He turned to his son who explained (the way you do to your parents): “WNBA. It’s women’s basketball”. But the old man was no daw because he turned back to us and asked “Is Caitlin playing?” and my two kids responded excitedly to tell him that yes she was.

That filled a Saturday in the city and on Sunday, the kids were getting a better appreciation of the whole bucket list thing. They realised the error of their modest ways saying they wanted to go to the ice-cream shop across the street and they told me they wanted to go back to the Slime Museum. Oh the museums my cultured children have visited in NYC! Slime! Ice-cream! Color! After the museum, we walked to Chinatown and tried our hand at chopsticks and sampled dumplings in the Golden Unicorn, followed by a stroll through Little Italy for a slice of pizza for the 5 year old who refused to touch anything in Chinatown.

As a family, we want to ride the Roosevelt Tramway to Roosevelt Island, catch some Sunday morning Gospel in Harlem and visit the American Dream Mall. We’ve booked a weekend trip back to Camp Jellystone and we’re hoping to squeeze a Wedding People inspired weekend in Newport, Rhode Island in too.

We’ve planned to get a diner breakfast in each of the 5 boroughs with Manhattan already ticked off the list after a strong start in Old John’s. I’m thinking Kellogg’s Diner for Brooklyn but am open to suggestions. What’s your favourite diner in Brooklyn/The Bronx/Queens/Staten Island?

I’ve pencilled in a Sunday in The Brooklyn Botanic Garden and we want to go back to the American Girl store but this time get the kids a souvenir American Girl doll from our time here. How lovely would that be?

I want to have as many Central Park picnic dinners as possible so that it’s their lasting memory and I can say “remember we used to always have dinner on the rocks in Central Park?” Ditto post-Zabar’s strolls in Riverside Park which apparently is where true Upper West Siders hang out but I’ve never claimed to be a true Upper West Sider. I thought the turning point in my happiness in New York came when I finally had the gumption to leave the Upper West Side Moms Facebook group but actually, that moment came a few seconds later when a list of options popped up as to why you left the group and I got to click on “Don’t like the people”. Oh my days, what a relief. That is most certainly a post-slash-book for another day but for now, please enjoy this Twitter thread I prepared earlier:

Aisling Marron@aislingmarron

I've joined a couple of Facebook groups since arriving in New York. Irish Mammies in New York and Upper Westside Moms. They are two very different places. The Irish Mammies are like: "Does anyone in Woodlawn have the cure for the shingles?"

1:45 PM · Nov 5, 2022

39 Replies · 43 Reposts · 1.91K Likes

As a couple, we are going to continue to try out new restaurants on weekly date nights prioritising the Polo Bar, Ha’s Snack Bar, Dirty Candy, a vegetarian restaurant on the Lower East Side, Hags in the East Village (which does a vegan dessert tasting menu I learned about in here. Lucciola for a treat on the Upper West Side. Lucali’s for pizza in Brooklyn (my list has a note to put my name down then go play shuffleboard in nearby Royal Palms). Mari Vani which I read about in this great post by Lucite Vision and Vinieros Pasticceria and Caffe because it is just so pretty. Please Don’t Tell because I’ve wanted to go there for about 10 years and maybe a Spot of Friday lunch in the Modern after a spot of Friday morning modern art at Moma?

By myself, I want to go see Ragtime at Lincoln Center Theater (booked), do a food tour of Chinatown and a food tour of Queens. I want to take myself for coffee and a cake in Cafe Sabarsky and spend a Sunday afternoon at the jazz in Marjorie Elliott’s parlor. If tickets to Shakespeare in the Park landed in my lap, I’d go to that but I am not going to either a) stand in line for hours or b) pay a lot of money for them and anyway, the upcoming NY Phil in the Park satisfies my desire for any culture in Central Park beyond hot dogs and busking. I should probably go to the Guggenheim because it is right there but also..could you be arsed? I definitely want to see Manhattanhenge (next up 28 and 29 May) and visit the Woolworth building (booked!!). I want to stay on the 6 train after the last stop and see it loop through the old city Hall. I think I want to go up Lady Liberty. I definitely want to go to Kingdome Basketball, an outdoor community basketball tournament in Harlem. It starts back up in June.

Trips

It is David’s birthday today and for his birthday, I wanted to book a night away to the Mayflower Inn, the guesthouse on which the Gilmore Girls is supposedly based. I’ve been in too many parenting Whatsapp groups here and whenever someone asks “can anyone recommend a spa break somewhere within two hours drive of the city?”, you have 0.6 seconds before someone will link the Mayflower Inn. Like a dope, I always click in and every time I am shocked anew at how expensive it is. I have the same reaction every time I see the price of Golden Goose runners.

Leaning in to the last hurrah vibes however, I thought feck it...I’ll do the Mayflower Inn. But the cheapest I could find was $1300 for one night!!!! It’s insane...am I insane? I definitely am insane because I convinced myself that was OK and then when I clicked ‘book’, it asked did I want breakfast and eh hello? Of course I want breakfast. You are in the middle of nowhere in Connecticut I’m hardly going to be popping out to Zabar’s to get the bagels I imagine I always get but don’t. So I click to add breakfast and the price jumped to $1800!!!! And I’m sorry but five hundred fucking dollars for a guesthouse breakfast for two??? Who is staying in this place???????? I completely gave up the ghost on the Mayflower Inn but did not give up on the idea of my (I mean Dave’s) Upstate overnight getaway and we are heading away in a few weeks to Kenoza Hall in the Catskills.

I just love the Catskills which is such a funny thing to say because I’d never heard of the Catskills until a few years ago. OK the Catskills is where Dirty Dancing is set but Dirty Dancing kinda passed me by. The first time I heard of it was way before we moved and David was working with an elderly New York lawyer and he told me that this lawyer said he wouldn’t be available for a call at a particular time as he was driving to his house in the Catskills that weekend to collect his fur coats. God, it seemed so absurdly hilarious at the time and now I just see it as something people do.

The other bucket list thing I’m doing which is not bucket list at all but basic life admin I should have done a lot sooner than now and probably shouldn’t even bother at this stage but I am doing my driving test!!! Between now and next Thursday it is scheduled in Jamaica (a soft centre apparently) so wish me luck and if I don’t mention it next week, you’ll know I failed. Which will be pretty embarrassing cos I’ve been driving for 24 years and how can you fail on an automatic. (I shouldn’t have said that).

I’m actually in Jamaica right now. This post is coming to you from Gate 4 of Terminal 7 of JFK where I am waiting to board the midnight flight! Happy May bank holiday everyone!!!!

What is on your bucket list???