Ask a New Yorker: What’s new in your life, Kate?
Kate: Well, I just moved to New York for real estate. I was in Boston for five years doing real estate residential sales, and I’ve been in Manhattan for about six weeks. I got a one way ticket to the Radisson Hotel in midtown, stayed there for a short time, and then I found a place in Tribeca with a cat and a girl who was a friend of a friend. I was allergic to cats but did not realize, so I had a terrible month. Now, I’ve finally got my own place in Union Square. So basically, I was terrorized by a cat for a month.
Ask a New Yorker: I detect an accent.
Kate: Yes, I’m English. My father is English and my mother is American and they met in New York. I was actually born here and lived here until I was five, then moved to Cape Cod until I was ten.. Then moved with my three younger brothers and my parents to London.
Ask a New Yorker: What happened in London?
Kate: I was privately educated, just joking.
Ask a New Yorker: An all girl school?
Kate: An all girl boarding school.
Ask a New Yorker: Lovely. Where there any boy schools nearby?
Kate: There were, actually. Eton was around forty miles and I was famous for sneaking out and I always got caught because the cab divers would always turn us in even though we paid them and tipped them well.
Ask a New Yorker: And then…..
Kate: And then I was expelled for being too cool for school and I was considered to being a bad influence on the other girls.
Ask a New Yorker: So what’s the most expensive piece of real estate you’ve sold?
Kate: $4.7 million in Beacon Hill, in Boston.
Ask a New Yorker: Who are you working with in New York?
Kate: I’m working for Bond in Tribeca, and I specialize in Tribeca, Soho and the Financial District.
Ask a New Yorker: What’s the difference between a Bostonian, New Yorker and a Londoner?
Ask a New Yorker: Bostonians are very conservative, very, very unfriendly and they like to stick in their little groups. I thought New York was going to be this really tough, scary town. But everybody talks to me. It’s very exciting. New York has the friendliest, most helpful people. Londoners are different because there is so little variety, in a way. In London it is more of a club, and so you either belong to the club or you don’t.
Ask a New Yorker: What kind of crustaceans do we have here?
Kate: These are Blue Point.
Ask a New Yorker: Do you know your oysters?
Kate: No, I just remembered what the waiter said. Actually, I do kind of because of my parents having a house on Cape Cod. I know the big ones, like Well Fleet.
Ask a New Yorker: What’s that on your key chain?
Kate: I have a bronze oyster shell on my key chain that my mummy gave me.
Kate takes a phone call
Ask a New Yorker: Who was that on the phone?
Kate : That was one of my brothers.
Ask a New Yorker: Is he o.k.?
Kate: Oh, no he’s fine. He’s on the cape at my parents’ house. He’s decided to be a novelist, like my Dad, Patrick Robinson…and he was filling me in on the house, because my Dad now has decided to sell it.
Ask a New Yorker: A sad day in the Robinson Family.
Kate: Well, he decided four days ago. He’ll probably get like 15 times what he paid for it. So you can’t really blame him.
Ask a New Yorker: Let’s talk about Pops, the novelist.
Kate: He writes books. Technical thrillers on like what happens when the wrong country gets a hold of the wrong amount of weapons. They’re kind of like Tom Clancy type books. He also writes about submarines. In fact, four of his books are named after submarines. He recently wrote a book called Lone Survivor ,which is about a navy seal in Afghanistan. The book is coming out June 12th. And you should read it because it’s great!
