Charlotte meets New York... homecoming

Oh no...we are reunited...can New York handle this? So far it is doing a pretty good job. Charlotte has entered Jacqueline's world with no time to combat her jetlag. No rest for the wicked! She has been introduced to iced coffee (a new favorite), different American cultures, tip etiquette, the art of the metrocard swipe, late night films...and that was only on day one!

We have just come back from a yoga retreat in the Catskills mountains.- the Goddess Retreat. There are no words that will do the retreat justice; it was such a unique and special experience. Lots of laughter, fantastic women and beautiful scenery. We found a new 'goddess' hairstyle courtesy of style guru Annie, ate the most amazingly-healthy-yummy-food created by Marie and Paco, danced the night away with Jaycee and all of the lovely ladies, swapped cooking stories and food movement ideas with Kiki in the car. The power of a

 group of soul sisters eating, laughing, yoga-ing, healing and empowering one another for a weekend is truly astonishing.

In other news:

we have been eating...

seeing friends...

walking & cycling...

shopping...

reading... (Char found a copy of her great-grandmother's book in the Strand Bookshop!)

Today we ate lunch at Ella in Williamsburg. We both had two different salads to eat but the real star of the show was what we had to drink. Yerba Mate Tea Lemonade! It was so hot and Jacqueline spotted another customer drinking a pale yellow-thirst-quenching drink and said ''we will have two of those please!'' Yerba Mate is drunk mostly in Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Brazil. It is a tea filled with vitamins and antioxidants and gives you a kick of caffeine (without the negative side effects of coffee).

Yerba Mate Lemonade

1 part brewed Yerba Mate tea (or any other brewed tea)

1 part lemonade
ice cubes

We think you could jazz it up by adding some sprigs of mint or some lemons to this too.

Still to do...Central Park, Kula Yoga classes, Concerts, MOMA, Rooftop gardens, eating - bagels, pizza, cheesecake, sushi, Neighborhood exploring, clothes shopping, dancing, sightseeing ... recommendations are welcome!

C&J

p.s if you want to check out the Rooftop farms being featured on BBC International PLeaSE DO (and see if you can spot someone you know ; - )