Writes of Passage

It’s a gorgeous day with cerulean skies. But it’s also cold and windy by the shore: I thought my fingers would frozen off when I took photos.

The Matinecock Point isn’t accessible because the gate to the beach is closed. During the warm time, I think one can.

Dosoris Pond is on the southern side of the island. Dosoris Island, also called Salutation Island, was once a home to two generations of Morgans, John Pierpont Morgan, Jr. (JP) and his son Junius Spencer Morgan.

• Private Island off the north shore of LI for $125m by Hamptons
• Buy a $125 Million Island Compound Under an Hour From New York by Bloomberg
• Salutation by Sotheby
  

My first experience with this tour operator begun in 2021, to Turkey. For some reason, Turkey proves to be untrainable for me, since 1984.

Booking the tour is a bit of struggle: the site Gate 1 Travel isn’t function well. When I wake up this morning, it still Applying Payment..

I called, and after 18 minutes wait, the rep says that after the long pandemic hibernation, they’re slowly waking up. Yes, the site has bugs. He helped to book my tour and honored the $560 discount that was expired last night – which is why I signed up as quickly as I could. The total is off but I feel it’s ok, give them some time to work it out.

The single room supplement is $700 for the trip. After finding a roommate, they reimbursed me. The roommate signed up two days later but since we use the same reservation number, I asked the company to offer her the same discount because she would see mine – they agreed. This made my roomy very happy.

An interesting house on East Island south of Dosoris Pond – the low roof

and a few more homes on Westland Drive:

The winter rhyme @ Cedarmere 冬韵

冬季的骨干 夏季的抚媚

手指几乎冻掉 [捂脸] 谢谢小蜜

The Qianlong Emperor’s southern inspection tour, Scroll Six: Entering Suzhou along the Grand Canal, by Xu Yang, ca 1770, at the Met. Purchased with Dillon Fund, 1988.

徐扬: 大运河至苏州 乾隆南巡图

In 1751, Qianlong (r. 1736-95) made a ceremonial tour of the Yangzi River delta, the cultural and economic heartland of China. Later, he commissioned the court artist Xu Yang to create a set of twelve monumental hand scrolls to document his journey.

This is one of two places I always visit when I go to the Met, to day dream, reflect, or just sit around. The other one is the Egyptian Temple.

The Court was built by 26 workmen and engineers from Suzhou (Soochow) Garden Administration, plus one chef. Below, are Met’s own words:

The Astor Chinese Garden Court, 1981. Modeled on a Ming dynasty (1368

170 E 81st St
New York, NY 10028

A small Italian restaurant near the Met: will return, for a little trouble (changing tables) and definitely for the desserts.

Very good service: one of my friends asked to switch table because of the draft from the door, after we began working on our bread. The new corner table was as cold, anyway.

The food were all decent: my headless brazino was good, the string beans were tender. The filet mignon was ok, not steak house quality. The pasta was huge and the friend said, wasn’t al dente enough – she hand makes her pasta, so you go figure her comment.

The desserts are heaven: cookies, cr

The new train station at the old post office that includes LIRR has cool bathrooms: the three spigots, from L to R are soap dispenser, water and dryer, very convenient. Of course, it has gender neutral restroom too.

The waiting area offers work table and plenty outlets to recharge your phone/laptop. The hall is super clean. Keep it up!

Q line, which is also called the 2nd Avenue and Broadway is the newest subway line in the City, running around between Manhattan and Brooklyn. The 34 St Herald Sq station is a short walk to Penn Station.