Niceland!

What a great little city Reykjavik is, especially in late summer with moderate temperatures and cloudless blue skies. The living is easy, if expensive. The nightlife is wasted on me, having given up getting wasted, but I've been making the most of the long days. The city is pretty, with a working harbour against a background of stark mountains (no snow at this time; it must be stunning in winter) and a little lake in the centre of town. There's lots of parkland, and miles of running and cycle paths. I love the funky-coloured corrugated iron facades of many of the older timber buildings. I've been working all week, so most of the local attractions are still on my "to do" list, but I've done lots of exploring on foot in the evening and know my way around the town. There are also many excursions out of town and to other parts of the country that I won't have time for this visit, which definitely feels like a first one.

The main thing I've accomplished is to make contact with a regular running group that meets on three weekday evenings and on weekend mornings for quality training runs from Vestubaer swim centre, one of the geothermal pools in town. I've had three runs with them (c. 8 km, 10 km and 22 km). Maggy, a transplant from Namibia, has become my number one running buddy, mostly because she kindly held back on two runs to run with me! Yesterday she and I ran a half marathon at a fairly fast clip for me, which we followed with a dip in the hot pot (thermally heated pod) back at the pool. She is good, fun company. As always, running is a great way to get the lie of the land, parks, seashore, harbour, hills and city streets.

I got talking early in the week with a guy from New York who spends a lot of time in my Upper West Side neighbourhood. He and his wife both work in film and TV. There are a couple of movies in production here at the moment. He put me on to Cafe Babalu, run by another American, Glenn. I've had lunch there a few times.

Tomorrow I'm heading off on a week-long organised trek through some stunning glacial and volcanic areas.

I flew to Iceland overnight last Sunday after two weeks spent back in New York following my quick trip to St Kitts to visit Renee. Straight back into early-morning runs with Maria and the 5.30 crew. Ran the 4-mile Central Park Conservancy race. Saw documentary films with Sarah ("The Queen of Versailles") and Sung ("Planet of Snail"), and the Mira Sorvino film "Union Square". Caught up with Lisa, who was down from Woodstock for a night; for meals with new friends Gary, Anne, Diane, Caroline and Gene; and for dinners with Dead Runners Susan and Adrian, Mike, Michael and Mary at Fusha, and with Maria and Barry at Recipe. Morning regulars Maria, Susan, Marie and Lissy shared some of my farewell 14-mile trail run in Central Park last weekend, which we followed up with breakfast at Alice's Tea Cup on the Upper East Side (also with Sun). Also, just before I left I saw the Sydney Theatre Company production of "Uncle Vanya", with Cate Blanchett, Hugo Weaving, Richard Roxburgh, John Bell, Jackie Weaver ... It was a very Australian interpretation of this Russian classic.

Caribbean capers on St Kitts & Nevis

I returned to New York last night after a six-day flying visit to the formerly British-administered islands of St Kitts and Nevis, in the Caribbean. My main purpose was to meet Renee Petrillo, who with her husband Michael sold up everything about six or seven years ago, bought a 37-foot catamaran called Jacumba, and set sail for the Bahamas and the Caribbean. Renee wrote a book called A Sail of Two Idiots about their adventures, and now writes a blog, Island Babble, about life on St Kitts. I was introduced to Renee by email by a woman I sat next to on a plane from Miami to Belize City last November.

I quickly learned not to expect anything to go according to plan. You have to bend and sway like a tropical palm in the island breezes.

I stayed at Timothy Beach Resort, at Frigate Bay, which is on a beach and has a pool and a dock bar. It's a "resort" only in a lowercase sense, though.

On Saturday, Renee took a morning off from a totally insane workout program she has been following (appropriately named something like "Insanity") to run with me on a relatively flat six-mile course. The next day I joined a bunch of runners who run regularly around the golf course. Two of that group, Kat and Anthony, will be in New York for the marathon in November.

Renee and Mike showed me most of what there is to see on the island without going for a serious hike. St Kitts and Nevis are both in the volcanic zone, along with nearby Montserrat and other islands, and there's not much that's flat once you're away from the coast.

On Sunday we spent some time at a gorgeous private club by a beach. Renee and Michael shared a long story about what is going on with these sorts of developments. It 'aint pretty...

On Nevis, which we travelled to by ferry, Renee and I checked out a couple of plantation resorts, including the gorgeous Golden Rock. It's up on the slopes of Nevis Peak, high above the ocean. Very funky design and beautiful landscaping.

Basseterre, the capital of St Kitts, is ramshackle and without much obvious appeal. Cruise boats stay only long enough to take passengers up to Romney Manor (to see its gorgeous gardens) and a few other places out of town. The town centre has a clock tower and an interesting-looking restaurant overlooking 'The Circus". Nearby is a prison, and a stadium where the West Indies and New Zealand cricket teams played a match yesterday.

I went to St Kitts and Nevis to meet Renee. She and Michael were easy company, and it was an interesting time to talk with them about their hopes for the future.

Film note: Just before I headed south I saw the wonderful film "Beasts of the Southern Wild", which tells the story of a young girl and her father, and some other members of their small community, on the edge of an unnamed New Orleans at the time of Hurricane Katrina.

The heat is on...

It's been mostly more of the same, but hotter, since my last entry.

Two races: Pride 5 miles in Central Park (second in my age group) and the very hot Queens 10K on Sunday (third in my AG).

I'm still enjoying my own mini film festival: "Marina Abramovic: The Artist is Present" was amazing. The documentary traced her career but focused on her piece for the MoMA retrospective in 2010, when for about ten weeks she sat all day in a chair without speaking. About 750,000 people visited the exhibition, and many of those who sat opposite her for a while were moved to tears. 

"Ordinary Miracles: The Photo League of New York" was a documentary about a group of photographers working in New York during the 1930s and 1940s. 

In the documentary "Kumare", filmmaker Vikram Gandhi posed as an Indian guru in Arizona.  

I saw a new print of "Annie Hall" at Film Forum. I've seen it many, many times, but it was fun to see it in New York in a re-release and to recognise many of the locations.

"Thelma" (Philippines) was disappointing. This movie about a young woman who became a runner in order to help her family felt like a TV soap. It was laboured and melodramatic.

I spent an afternoon back at Brooklyn Preparatory High School last week, where I had spoken at a careers day a month or so ago. With a teacher, I helped review portfolios of work done by three boys aged 16–17. The boys peer-reviewed each other, and we ended up with a final mark for each student that reflected all our assessments. A very interesting process.

One personal goal I've had for a while was to walk from 220th Street, at the top of Manhattan, down Broadway to Battery Park, at the southern tip, in one day. (Broadway actually continues up into the Bronx and further north into Westchester County and far beyond...) Broadway has many "faces" other than the Theatre District, and I wanted to see how they all flow into and out of each other.

My phone/camera battery died at around 105th Street, where I took a break for lunch. I still wanted to do the whole walk in one day, so I carried on (it took about six hours in total), but I re-walked the sections from 97th Street to Houston, and Houston to Battery Park, over the next two days with a working camera. It was a fun excursion and filled in some bits of Manhattan I didn't know very well.

Mornings from Monday to Thursday have been spent training in Central Park with the 5:30 crew. It's already a little darker at 5:10 when I leave home...

Saw a terrific retrospective exhibition of portrait photography and video works by the Dutch artist Rineke Dijkstra at the Guggenheim yesterday.

Dharma Bum

I've been able to strap work into the backseat this past month, instead of having it in the driver's seat. While it's been great not to be under constant pressure, I'm now keen for the pace to pick up again. I have a planned holiday coming up in August, so enough already with the unplanned one!

Most days I've been able to see a film or visit a gallery. Cindy Sherman has a new series on show in Chelsea (a nice pairing with the retrospective at MOMA). I also saw new works by Gilbert & George and Anish Kapoor. (I loved his paint-firing cannon, which I saw in Mumbai early last year.) I also was bowled over by Judy Chicago's "The Dinner Party", which is on permanent display at the Brooklyn Museum. The big Keith Haring works look great, too.

Judy Chicago, "The Dinner Party"

Films: "Moonrise Kingdom" (by Wes Anderson, who made "The Royal Tenenbaums") is a real treat. "Found Memories" (Brazil) is a small film about finding one's place, and about photography. "OC87: The Obsessive Compulsive Major Depression Bipolar Asperger's Movie" is a documentary by a filmmaker whose career was disrupted by these disorders. I saw the very powerful Palestinian film "Five Broken Cameras" with writer friend Lisa, and "Jiro Dreams of Sushi" with running pal Natalie. I also loved "The Intouchables" (France).

Just three weeks into June I've run races in Central Park to celebrate Israel (4 miles), women (10K) and Portugal (5 miles), and a 5K trail race up in the Bronx. Natalie, Maria and I took second place in each of our age categories in the 5K, which we celebrated over dinner with Joe and Steve. I sign up for races so that I'll do the training, which I really enjoy. I love the routine of 4 am alarm call, 5:10 am greeting from the night concierge, and the 5:30 am meet-up with Maria and whoever else is running that day. Dead Runners Susan and Mary also sometimes join us now, which is fun. I've also had a run on the trails in Central Park with new pal Lori, a singer/songwriter/novelist I met through a writers group.

A week ago I went by train up to Scarsdale to have lunch with Selma and Murray, friends made in Santiago in December. Sometimes people just "take", and I've enjoyed their company every time I've seen them.

My first real excursion since I arrived back in New York was up to Woodstock for three days last week. Each summer, my friend Lisa rents an apartment over the "carriage house" on a small property by the reservoir that supplies water to New York, 90 miles to the south. I stayed in town at the Woodstock Inn on the Millstone, where a stream ran past my back door. It was very peaceful, and the lawns and gardens sloping down to the stream looked very lush after recent rains.

We visited the Tibetan Buddhist Monastery near Overlook Mountain, and then walked up to the scenic lookout. Really stunning views across the valley to the Hudson River. This is where the Hudson River painters, such as Thomas Cole, developed the first really American school of painting in the 1800s.

View of Ashokan Reservoir and the Hudson River valley from Overlook Mountain

There are some historic sites where once-grand hotels stood. Travellers would come upriver by steamboat, and were then transported by carriage and steam train to the cooler mountain resorts. Cars and roads put an end to that form of travel. This area, the Catskills, is still very popular as the site of many kids' summer camps, as well as for hiking.

I loved the architecture in Woodstock and Tannersville: very funky shapes, with the weatherboards and ornamentation painted in groovy colours. I found it very interesting, though, that nearly every photogenic view was marred by heavy black power lines slung low across the roads.

Lots of art, some challenging walks, yummy food, beautiful sunny days, and a little bit of retail therapy. What's not to like about Woodstock?

Maydays

Forest Park, Portland


A very busy month...

I had to turn the work volume up to 11 in order to stay on top of everything while I was in Portland, but  I was able to spend some quality time with two Dead Runner friends. Chris (mountain/rock climber) and I walked (in the Hawthorne District and Forest Park), gawked (at a movie set in Portland) and talked (about anything and everything). He is good company. Nangel and I put a big tick against the Hippie Chick half marathon, which had been on our calendars for many months. Nangel had been injured, so it was great for her to get her groove back. I improved on my Vancouver time, which had been an improvement on my Rotorua time, so I was happy with that ... as a starting point for the next few months of racing. It was my fourth half marathon in four weeks in four countries. Nangel and her husband Mark took me to their favourite frozen yoghurt place after making us a steak dinner.

I spent a night just over the Washington State border in Pasco, where my cousin Karen lives. Her mother, Joyce, my mother's oldest sister, moved to the States after the Second World War as a war bride. We were lucky to be able to get to know Joyce and Karen, and brother David, when they spent a year in Oz in the late 1960s. I also met Karen's daughter Jennifer (my second cousin) and third cousins Walker, Brynn and Paige. I'm glad I was close by and could spend some time with family there. On the Greyhound bus back to Portland (via Seattle) a newly released inmate of some nearby correctional center, carrying a cardboard box marked with that day's date as his release date, looked uncomfortable in all-new duds.

I spent another night at Venice Beach Suites in LA before heading back East. I recognise people on the boardwalk now... Dinner was a repeat of last time: the Andy Warhol salad at a nearby restaurant!

It's so wonderful to be back in New York. I've been saying to friends that I feel like everyone has squished up to make room for me. I don't feel like a visitor. I'm definitely not a tourist. Whenever I come back, I feel that I'm coming home. Being able to stay in Fran and Renee's apartment on Central Park each time (except in January/February, when they were here from Switzerland) really adds to that feeling of homecoming.

After unpacking and getting up to scratch with work over the first weekend (May 19–20) I started straight back into the 5.30 am runs with all or some of Maria, Sarah, Heather and Joe. Sung has been injured since her marathon. I haven't caught up with the rest of the crew yet: Lissy, John, Steven, Natalie... Joanne is doing the Utah marathon in a couple of weeks and I did part of her last long run with her in pouring rain on Saturday morning. Marie headed out today to South Africa to run the Comrades ultramarathon next weekend. We had a chatty brunch at "3 Guys" on Sunday.

Dead Runner friend Mike (we met at the Dead Runners Society World Conference in Texas in February) had invited me to speak with him at a careers day at a preparatory high school in Brooklyn last week, organised by a NYC Dead, English teacher/drama coach, Michael. I think I got more out of the morning than the kids did. I enjoyed meeting Michael, as well as Selena, who works in media relations, and Joe, a photographer. He had spent the previous evening filming Philip Seymour Hoffman in "Death of a Salesman".

Michael's wife Mary, and friend Susan, are also Dead Runners. Susan and I have caught up a few times in the past week, including seeing the Prada and Schiaparelli exhibition at the Met on Sunday, and running on the trails in Central Park on Monday (Memorial Day) with Maria. I saw places in the park I hadn't seen in four years of running there. The waterfall shown here is in the North Woods, not far from my apartment!

Waterfall, North Woods, Central Park

Michael and Mary are serious runners (marathons and ultras). Last night they cooked a barbecue up on their roof in Harlem and I heard about Mary's experience of running the Leadville 100-mile trail race last year, with Michael among her support crew.

I've been feasting on films over the past ten days: "Polisse" (a French drama about the Child Protection Unit); "First Position" (a documentary about kids from all over the world competing in a ballet competition for scholarships, positions and prizes); "Oslo, August 31st" (about a young heroin addict who is in treatment but relapses); "Elles" (Juliette Binoche as a journalist doing a story on young prostitutes); "The Kid With a Bike"; and "Never Stand Still" (documentary about "Jacob's Pillow", a place in Massachusetts set up as a showcase for modern dance). My film-going pal Lisa is still away in Woodstock, in upstate New York...

I went to a celebration on Saturday morning for friends having an anniversary. I spent some time talking with Liz, a psychotherapist. Always good to see my friend Daniel, whom I met last August. Four guys sang a couple of songs, including "My Girl", in perfect harmonies. What a treat!

A bridge too far

I got lost this morning running along Portland's Willamette River after I crossed back to the east side by a bridge too far north. The city is divided east and west by the river, and north and south by Burnside Street, which is where my hotel is located.

Yesterday morning I did a walkabout in the Hawthorne district and the bottom reaches of (I think) Laurelhurst Park with local Dead Runner Chris. It's a nice, laid-back neighbourhood.

There are lots of tulips and other bulbs in flower, and the weather is mild and gorgeous. I think I'm seeing Portland, Oregon at its best.

Another weekend, another half marathon...

The BMO Vancouver half marathon this morning felt as slow as my recent halfs in Bali and Rotorua, but in fact I shaved 12 minutes off my times for those races. I'm still off my game, but I'm hopeful I'll get my mojo back over the next couple of months.

In any case, Vancouver turned on a fabulous event on an absolutely gorgeous day. The new courses for the half and full are very scenic, with views across the city and harbour to the snow peaks, and a long section through Stanley Park. It's a lovely city. Dead Runner friend Rita will also be pleased to have achieved her goal of a Boston qualifying time. I caught up with Rita and her husband George (I met them both in Austin, TX in February) and another long-time Dead, Vancouverite Vida, yesterday for a coffee.

Stanley Park and downtown Vancouver

My other goal while in Vancouver was to spend time with pal of 25+ years, Sarah. We started our long weekend on Thursday night at a fundraiser for Bard on the Beach, which Sarah's brother Christopher started here many years ago. It was really nice to see Sarah's mum Joy again. I spent a Christmas with Joy, Sarah and Joy's sister Darkie in Devon, in England, in 1989.

On Friday evening Sarah and I saw the award-winning Canadian film "Monsieur Lazhar", and yesterday we caught two films from the Vancouver DOXA Documentary Film Festival: "Mostar Round-Trip" (Israel) and "Scarlet Road" (Australia). I've seen some really good films over the past fortnight in Rotorua, Auckland and Vancouver, and I have 10 weeks of film-going in New York to look forward to...

Today after the race we collected Dora from the Rex Dog Hotel and Spa and drove up to where Sarah lives in a village on a fiord north of the city. Lunch outside in the sun, followed by gelato and time to read a chapter of Lionel Shriver's "The Post-Birthday World", which I found in a secondhand bookstore in Rotorua.

It's been a perfect few days.

I broke the journey from Auckland with an overnight stay at Venice Beach Suites in LA (my second time there).

My room was the one on the left above the blue awning.