Fine Tea Infinity

"Two drifters, off to see the world; there's such a lot of world to see."

[fineteainfinity]

The Day After Two Lovely Weeks

Well hello, Janine here. :)

So it is clear that Joseph & I have not been active with this blog since leaving our cozy apartment back in the springtime. However we have mentioned to each another countless times since that we should keep this going and I guess this is my attempt today (& by ‘attempt’ I mean trying to be fancy with my words like Joseph).

I just arrived back home yesterday after an adventurous and memorable two weeks with Joseph in Williamsburg, N.Y….or how Joseph likes to call it “The Burg“. It was truly wonderful to find curious bars and crafty shops with him but even the relaxing nights of sitting in playing Gears of War 3 ( our version of relaxing ) or watching pixar films was just as enjoyable.

I guess these two weeks were short and sweet, and perhaps eye-opening. We met a lovely bartender/barista, Michael, at what became our “go-to place” called theSugarburg. A place with friendly faces and where they serve a mean plate of poutine, I definitely recommend stopping by during the week if you’re ever in The Burg. Michael makes a grand chai latte too I must say.

The day after Joseph and I say our “See you soon”‘s and head back home is always a bit blue and tough to take in, but right now I’m in bed with my grandma’s hug blanket on this chilly rainy day, with candles lit, music keeping me company and feeling lucky for the two weeks I had with my best friend. So thank you love for those 14 days, I learned a bit more and laughed a whole lot more. <3

Here’s some other photos of our mini Burg adventure…

Franklin ^___^

A random book we found with the page turned to “Best Day Trips from London” during our last few hours together…I think The Burg already knows where I’m heading to next…

xxx

[do-not-touch-my-food]

Thai Chili Peanut Chicken and Grilled Pineapple Stir Fry

[fineteainfinity]

My meal tonight.

[fineteainfinity]

Day 60: Two Drifters, Off To See The World

Hey everyone,

With 60 straight days of New York City life under our belts, we're all packed and ready to depart. Joseph back to London and Janine back to Long Island. There's so much to say about the time we've spent here. So much that our blog posts never really touched upon. But here are some highlights:

A homemade brunch with our good friend, Conor.

A Harry "Pot-Luck" Potter Party

Coney Island with Joseph's cousin and brother

Ratatouille night...

And so so many more...

Now, it's time for us to bid goodbye to New York for the moment. But this doesn't really have to be the end for our rather quaint blog that we've only just got started with! From both ends of the Atlantic, there's so much more to write about. And that's what we'll be doing. Our not quite professional, not nearly daily, online twee attraction of a journal might just persist as we say our own "see you later"s.

Thank you all for reading, and we'd just love to keep you along for the future.

Joseph & Janine

P.s. Joseph's currently on a plane back to London and we didn't get to press "publish" before leaving the apartment. So I'll leave this photo taken from today here...

Safe journey home my love. I'll see you soon. <3

[fineteainfinity]

Day 45: After The Flood

On Monday, our lovely cosy apartment suffered a burst water pipe, leading to a little flood.

Fortunately, nothing was damaged, but it did leave a right nasty mess to clean up. Even more fortunately, the hosts of this apartment are so kind and organised, they arranged for a cleaner after a few days. Those few days of a dirty apartment (and two days of no running water whatsoever) meant we had to improvise a bit. We didn’t shower, we played “the floor is lava” to avoid dirty feet, we brushed our teeth with tonic water! It was even more nightmarish to know that the flood was only hours before I (Joseph) was going to perform a show at LIC Bar in Astoria. It was muddy mayhem for a bit…

But then it was clean and fresh – mostly. And it was time to enjoy the place again!

It was Janine’s birthday back in March, and I was unable to celebrate it with her, so I thought a three-course meal and a screening of Pixar’s Ratatouille (which she hadn’t seen before) would perhaps make up for it.

Entrée (starter) Salmon duo tartare with red onion and chive

Plat principal (main) No nonsense, chunky, traditional ratatouille!

Dessert Créme Brûlée (Little tip: If you don’t have a kitchen torch, you can brulée the top by heating a metal spoon on the stove and pressing against the top)

Sooooo we’re over the flood. And dining like royalty.

Speaking of royalty, it is a wonderful woman’s birthday today.

Happy Birthday fractaldust, my incredible friend. I’m so glad I could be in the city to celebrate with you.

That’s it from us for now! It was a hell of a week, and logging has been difficult. But we’re still here, with two weeks left!

[fineteainfinity]

Day 35: *Do you wanna make an album*

Hey motherfolkers.

I (Joseph) am here in NYC to record a new album with the help of my friends and acquaintances in the city. 36 hours in the studio down and I’m so much further to having a real album to present. I’ve learnt so much and have gained a whole new level of confidence. On Tuesday in the studio, listening to Oskar, my drummer perform my music, I felt like I was cheating life. The feeling of bringing musical thoughts and concepts to fruition is the biggest rush. 10/10 would recommend to a friend.

[fineteainfinity]

Day 27: Harry Potluck

Once again, hello all. And apologies for a desert of silence in our absence from this blog. It appears that we are simultaneously incompetent at maintaining the discipline that a daily blog requires. But let’s hope this post is a wake-up call to work on the regularity of this journal. Some of you have been kind enough to shout “Daily!” a lot at us. We won’t promise daily, but we will strive for it nonetheless.

NOW, what have we been doing? Aside from all the challenging artistic work…

Harry Pot-Luck!

A host of witches and wizards from a variety of origins gathered together on Friday night for drinks, games and eventually a screening of The Prisoner of Azkaban.

The night started out with a Sorting Hat, placing each guest into their rightful Hogwarts House (I, Janine, was sorted into Slytherin and Joseph into Ravenclaw). Although sorted into Houses we did all dress up a bit into characters we admire, with myself as Moaning Myrtle, Joseph as Luna Lovegood and our lovely friend Dhakshila of course as the Golden Snitch.

One thing there was plenty of…..Butterbeer, lots and lots of Butterbeer.

If you ever fancy having some yourself, here’s a simple recipe:

Butterbeer ( 1 cup serving)

– A little ice

–  3 thimbles of butterscotch schnapps (perhaps 4 if Snape isn’t looking over your shoulder)

– A hatful of canary cream soda ( minus the canary)

–  A house-elf ‘s handful (scoop) of vanilla ice cream

It ain’t  Three Broomsticks’ brew but it’s quite delicious. ^__^

[fineteainfinity]

Day 10...& The Last Few Days

Happy May!

We must apologise for our lack of regular correspondence in the past few days. We’ve never had a daily blog before, and we seem to be creating ways to be busy every second of the day. Nevertheless, we’re going to be far more diligent (in a fun way) with our posts, so expect more and more.

The last few days have been eventful. We visited the dreaded post office to rescue a package I (Joseph) sent for Janine’s birthday – a shoebox filled with wonders. We made our way to Astoria, eating at Blue Orchid (excellent Thai food – try the Thai Ice Tea!… but make sure to check for pieces of plastic in your drink!), and stopping by our marvellous anglophilic friend Ian’s for a night of ‘Whosday’ (Dr Who on a Tuesday). We were delighted to receive a tremendously thoughtful care package from our friend over in Germany, Lena, who provided us with some creative tools and motivational sweet treats! Thank you Lena! <3

Last night, we had the delight of watching Peppina perform a solo set at Rockwood Music Hall. Her presence on stage was strong enough to easily support herself as a solo artist. She creates a humbling atmosphere with pretty much no visible effort, just passion.

Her song, Lo Siento Juan, had the casual wit of an experienced songwriter and the clever chord progression to match – and it’s worth mentioning that a few funny lines got the whole audience cracking up. For the last song of her short, sweet set, she performed We Can Go Back Again from her recently released debut album, Follow Your Gravity. With the crowd singing along in chorus, it was the ideal conclusion to her last night in NYC. See you again soon, Peppina!

Before heading off to ‘Whosday’ in Astoria, Joseph and I went for a walk along the East River for some(what) fresh air. We walked up to Carl Schurz Park where there are more dogs to be seen trotting along than there are humans. I was in quite a blue mood at the time, thinking to myself that the walk would do me good but to my surprise it was actually something else besides the dogs that cheered me up…

While watching a dad teach his kids badminton and a kid skateboarding, Joseph and I came across two lonesome books sitting on a bench nearby. One titled “Coping“ and the other “A Whack on the Side of the Head: How You Can Be More Creative” and the latter couldn’t have come at a better time.

I’ve always been anxious about my art, struggling not to compare my own work to others and believing my doodled characters and I have the compatibility to achieve success whether big or small. So to find this one particular book, or should I say (with no cliché intended) to have it find me, is truly pleasing and overwhelms me with reassurance.

I’m happy to say that I went back to the apartment holding not only Joseph’s hand but a book in the other hand that will hopefully give me the whack on the side of the head I’ve been needing.

I’ll leave you with one of the first pages I opened to…

Chapter 10: I’m Not Creative

“[…] If you want to be more creative, believe in the worth of your ideas, and have the persistence to continue building on them. With this attitude, you’ll take more risks, and break the rules occasionally. You’ll look for more than one right answer, explore for ideas outside your area, tolerate ambiguity, be foolish every now and then, play a little bit, engage in asking “what if” questions, and be motivated to go beyond the status quo. And finally, you’ll be able to whack yourself into doing all of these things.”

xxx

[fineteainfinity]

What We Love 1: Mrs. Dorsey’s Kitchen

What We Love will be our way of reviewing some of the events and venues we’re visiting while in the city. None of this scornful slandering like those pro critics may do. We’re focusing on what we love, and this first one is something we LOVE.

Mrs. Dorsey’s Kitchen, set up in Crown Heights, was quite a last-minute affair. We were on our way to a bar to watch a friend perform and discovered we were both equally peckish. Fortunately, Yelp took us somewhere unexpected.

The Kitchen prides itself for its American neighbourhood atmosphere, with traditional American flavours to boot. As we walked into this small empty counter area, it did admittedly feel like a Spaghetti Western-style saloon entry. However, upon sitting down, we were greeted warmly by manager and head cuisinier, Ron. Ron is an openly stress-free chef, and takes such care with the food he prepares. We also appreciated that he had a striking resemblance to comedian Hannibal Buress (Broad City).

We both ordered grilled sandwiches, a common order for the place. Janine got a ‘Guac and Bacon’, while I got ‘The Mac’. Ron let me know that the sweet onion jam initially found in ‘The Mac’ was out of stock, and instead suggested balsamic glaze, to which I quickly accepted. I later highly praised Ron for this suggestion. The ‘Guac and Bacon’ was perhaps the most basic sandwich on the menu, with Janine later noting that she’d like to try others for more exciting flavours. Fortunately, there were many more to choose from.

For an almost empty place, the energy was captivating. The music was disco, the chef was dancing, there was self-service water with lemons floating at the surface. The food, high-quality, homey and affordable. It was the ideal spot before heading out for a night on the town.

Head to mrsdorseyskitchen.com to look at the menu, photos, and some of the pop-up markets and festivals they’re featured in.

[fineteainfinity]

Day 6: Gotham Brunch

What’s a Sunday without a little Sunday Brunch? However this brunch (what we called a “french ass brunch” to be exact) was nowhere near small….

Our amazing and all-round lovely friend Conor came over, supplying us with the mimosas and pastries. I must say the picture doesn’t serve justice to how tasty it was, especially the oven-baked croissants with yogurt and berries (okay now I’m hungry for next Sunday). After having what I’d call a “Brunch for the Books”, we unintentionally spent the rest of the day jamming to old favorites and music mash-ups, something that came easy to me after a few mimosas but Joseph and Conor had it down to a tee.

The evening wound down to a more serious jam session, actually a first rehearsal for Joseph’s upcoming gig at Rockwood Music Hall… speaking of which, if you’re going to be in the NYC area on May 3rd I recommend you click the link below for more info and come along, it’s going to be a fun night!

Yes, THIS link!

It was a relaxing first rehearsal, with good company and Gotham Pizza… really good pizza which luckily happens to be a short walk away from our apartment but also delivers (score once again).

In regards to my art, I took some time to draw outside on our balcony, something I’ve been looking forward to for months, and will continue to do so throughout our stay. I’m surprisingly happy with my first sketch, but then again trees have been a pastime for me so maybe the next sketch will have people and children that roam about the playground outside our window. Maybe my oddball characters will even make an appearance? We’ll see. :)

[fineteainfinity]

Day 5: Dendrobium Mermaid

The East River is practically a stone’s throw away from our little balcony, looking over a children’s park area, so our day is accompanied by the sound of playgrounds throughout. We’ve unintentionally made a habit of waking up at about 6:30am each morning, watching the sun rise and reflect against our wall of mirror tiles that often face us as we work from our bed.

On Day 1, we were led through the complex by the apartment’s owner, who explained to us almost immediately that the building was initially used as a tuberculosis hospital, conjuring real-life comparisons to season 2 of American Horror Story. But, once we set foot in the apartment, we saw instead an aesthetic combination of Wes Anderson and Frida Kahlo.

The space is, to put it simply, cosy. But noticeably personalised. We immediately saw a shelf stacked with books organised by colour. The bed is covered with a range of different shapes and sizes of cushions. One cushion stood out for its endearingly shoddy stitching of the little mermaid.

We’ve been spending our first week here “settling in”. Wandering around the area, looking for notable locations of inspiration, paying most of our attention to the plethora of small dogs that are led around the Upper East Side. We’re cooking, learning new songs to sing, watching nostalgia-inducing children’s television, and generally just catching up on our time apart. The real work is yet to begin for us both.

In the spirit of catching up, we had an argument yesterday, which was followed by Joseph going for a wander and coming back with a bouquet of orchids and a bottle of what we deduced to be “children’s wine”.

So far, it’s been quite a start, lovely and challenging. We’ll be sharing much more in the coming weeks. But for now, thank you for following and stay tuned!

[fineteainfinity]

A little introduction...

“fine tea infinity”

– Living on an endless supply of Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference Assam Fairtrade Fine Tea.

Well hey, this is Joseph & Janine, and we’re in an apartment on the East River of New York City for two months, for art’s sake.

I (Joseph) write songs. And I’m here from London to record a new album with a group of very talented musicians. I’ve been to New York a couple of times – last summer also for two months – but never quite with such an objective. I somehow breezed through US customs with a box of tea, biscuits, recording equipment, a ukulele, a mandolin, a 12-string guitar and enough bow ties to set up a shop. Inevitably, the album will not be my only port of call while I’m here, as I’ve discovered New York to be a place of infinite avenues for spontaneity and beauty. Those avenues double in number when accompanied by the lovely Janine.

I (Janine) illustrate misfit characters. I’m here in hopes of finding creative opportunities with my doodles and to discover where my art can take me (maybe Paris ehh?! ^__^). Born and bred on Long Island, I’ve developed overtime a crave for the Big Apple and after commuting to Fashion Institute of Technology for 4 years, it’s safe to say I’m ready to take a bite out of the apple(?)… or embark on a much needed art adventure. Okay if there’s one thing to know about me besides being an illustrator is that I am horrendous at typing (my apologies in advance) but with Joseph being a marvellous singer-songwriter, I’m sure he’ll proofread my words into making sense.

We’ll be showing you all a bit of the life we’re leading while here in the city, with photos and videos and illustrations and music and more!

Now for a nice hot cup of tea.