I may not be a fan of running and I may not be a fan of Electronic Dance Music, but it turns out I quite like it when they’re mixed together. Last weekend, Ryan and I donned our running shoes – honestly the first time I have worn mine in many, many months years – and drove 40 …
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…discovered Shuffleboard at Royal Palms
If you want to take on Royal Palms‘ shuffleboard courts in Gowanus, not only do you need to be surprisingly agile and focused – you also have to be very, very prompt. Ryan and I headed there on Sunday at 1pm – just an hour after it opened – and there was already an hour’s wait. …
Read More…dosey doed at a barn dance
Some parts of this country remain completely alien to me. The way you write the date? Weird. American supermarkets? I’ll never understand them. That plastic neon yellow stuff you put on burgers and claim is ‘cheese’? No thanks. So every now and then it’s nice to get a little taste of home. Enter… the barn dance. …
Read More….went scuba diving in Dutch Springs
Before I went to Dutch Springs – a lake in Pennsylvania filled with sunken helicopters, school buses and fire trucks – I had no idea how I’d react. Having only ‘dived’ in a swimming pool in Chelsea, I didn’t know how I’d cope with that murky expanse reaching beneath me on my first ever open-water …
Read More…went roller skating in Prospect Park
A couple of weekends ago in Lydia’s List, I told you about the skate rink that had opened at the new LeFrak Center in Prospect Park. This weekend, I re-lived my days as a six-year-old roller disco queen and gave it a spin. It was great. The rink, which is on the northeast side of …
Read More…went on an egg hunt
The last time I went on an Easter egg hunt was in Atlanta about five years ago, courtesy of my friend James: But I’ve discovered that leaving school and being a grown up means that no one organizes an egg hunt for you anymore. Thankfully, there’s always New York. Over the weekend, the Big Egg Hunt hid …
Read More…went snowboarding at Hunter Mountain
I woke up this morning aching and bruised… and it was well-earned. Yesterday, a Sochi-inspired Ryan and I headed to Hunter Mountain, a small ski-resort town about two hours north of New York City. We had nabbed a Groupon deal, which included equipment, ski passes and a bus trip organized by Sourced Adventures. The only problem was …
Read More…went scuba diving
A few months ago, Ryan and I spotted a Gilt City deal for an introductory scuba diving class. A little bit random perhaps… but why not? After months of canceled classes and wrangling with the company, we finally managed to use the deal tonight. And while there was even more waiting once we got there, …
Read More…review the best and worst of NYC
*** This post was first shared in January 2014 after I finished a year of doing a new activity in New York every day. This blog is largely defunct so this post is a great place to start if you’re visiting New York and looking for things to do! For more on this project, visit …
Read More…cheered at the New York City Marathon
When I woke up late after a few G&Ts last night, thousands of others were already in Staten Island to start a 26.2-mile run through the city. Feeling surprisingly okay and excited by the idea of cheering them along as they completed this amazing feat, I headed to the ING New York City Marathon’s route with …
Read More…was the queen of King Pong
The title of this post is a little deceptive. I did play table tennis at King Pong, but I still need a bit of practice before I rule. After work, Ryan and I headed to SoHo for an hour-long game at the ping pong club and it looked pretty serious when we got there – …
Read More…square danced in Bryant Park
After work today, I was tired and just wanted to go home. But Ryan and I had made plans to go square dancing for my new thing, so I dragged myself to Bryant Park and screamed, ‘I hate todaysthedayi!‘ when I met him. Thankfully, it turns out that square dancing is the best remedy for …
Read More…played stoolball
These days, my friends from Sussex live all over the place. One of my best school friends, Will, has to be the farthest away in Hong Kong. But ridiculous luck would have it that we were both here this weekend and both had a couple of free hours this afternoon. So I joined him and his …
Read More…played musical chairs in Bryant Park
I’ve played tag on Wall Street and taken part in a massive pillow fight at Washington Square Park, and today I headed to Bryant Park for another of New York’s bizarre free activities: Musical chairs on a very, very large scale. A team of meticulous organizers had placed 20 circles of chairs with around 25 …
Read More…built sand dunes in the Rockaways
Right at the start of the year, I went to Red Hook to help with the clean-up in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. Eight months on and some communities are still getting back on their feet. Today I headed back to another Sandy-ravaged area to help out again, but in a very different way. Ryan, Meghan …
Read More…won a Bocce ball match
Ryan and I have battled each other in a fair few activities in recent weeks (with me losing, mostly), but last night we combined our powers and took the Bocce ball world by storm. We headed to Floyd in Brooklyn Heights and added our names to a waiting list for its only court. I’d never …
Read More…played mini golf beneath Freedom Tower
A couple of months ago I smacked some golf balls at the driving ranges at Chelsea Piers, and tonight I attempted to complete my game by perfecting my putt at Manhattan’s mini golf course. The greens, which are at Pier 25 in Tribeca, overlook the Hudson River and New Jersey as the One World Trade …
Read More…took a fencing class
Quite often when I do my new things, the experience turns out very different from the one I expected. Like how normal I found all the girls at The Bachelorette audition, or how I left an air guitar competition convinced it was a serious sport. And tonight my reaction felt more extreme than the others. …
Read More…bowled at a retro alley
A few weeks ago, I took part in a bowling league with my colleagues at Frames in Midtown. I did very, very badly and wanted to see if I fared any better by approaching the sport in a new way. And as it turns out, I would have been better in the 1970s. Ryan and I …
Read More…sweated at Bikram yoga
As if enduring 90-degree heat (34C) outside wasn’t enough, I decided to sit in a room at temperatures of 105 (41C) tonight while attempting to contort in a number of painful, painful poses: Today’s the day I took on Bikram yoga. Before this blog, I used to take yoga classes sporadically, but I’d never been …
Read More…won at the Chinatown Arcade
Yesterday I learned I’m pretty bad at life drawing. But it’s okay, because I’ve found my calling: Arcade games. Tonight Ryan and I hid from the rain in the Chinatown Fair, which is crammed full with games from air hockey to skee ball, street fighter to punching bags. When I watched Before Midnight a couple …
Read More…kayaked on the Hudson
It’s summer! So today Ryan and I headed to the Hudson to kayak – and to get some pretty horrendous sunburn. The kayaking is held at various points along the Hudson – and although it’s free, there was not a queue in sight. Of course, don’t do what I do, which was dress for winter. …
Read More…cheered for the Yankees
I consider myself a Braves fan, so when us MailOnliners whizzed up to the Bronx for a baseball game tonight, I was left with a choice: Yankees or LA Dodgers. Of course the choice was easy. It just ended up being the wrong one. About 10 of us descended (ascended) to the nosebleed seats at …
Read More…took part in a bowling league
Tonight I headed up to Frames at Port Authority to take part in a bowling league for media types. With several Mail colleagues, I took on the likes of the BBC, NBC and Nickelodeon on the lanes… and did terribly. I’m definitely somebody that requires some senior bowling tips whenever I hit the lanes. We …
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