Now I realise how bad Melbourne's weather truly is

The sultriness has gone and left behind it sweet warm nights and gentle sunny days, without the need for baby powder or Frizz Ease. The weather here is divine right now, and no one told me it would be this way. I know they don't like the humidity here but I can't believe more people don't rave about how warm the weather is here. Summer was hot and sunny, as summer should be. The start of fall is turning out to be sunny with crisp mornings and cloudless skies. The weather stays the same all day: no nasty surprises!

I know that come winter I will be a snivelling mess of shivers, and this may have been a mild summer, but I guess I am just relieved that it was warm and not a Vancouver or London summer, for example, where you need to purchase a picture of the sun and go to solariums to avoid SAD and to get enough Vitamin D.

A crash course in American vino

When Jus and I wander into a bottle shop, or liquor store I should say, it's not the usual smash and grab affair that it was at home when we had sampled a fair amount of the selection and recognised the regions and labels and varieties.

Here it's another story. We don't know the labels, we have only heard of the most lauded regions and they grow some varieties I've never heard of. They also seem to organise their stores in way that is hard to work out with a mishmash of foreign and local among the varieties. I need a drink just to cope with the places.

The good part is that they deliver. They will deliver one bottle of wine to your home without even asking for ID (which i don't get since at bars they ID geriatric people). We haven't used this service yet as we're trying to make ourselves expend physical energing before gorging on more unhealthy things (we had one piece of cherry pie and a slice of chocolate layer cake delivered the other night from 1.5 streets away: a new low, or high, depending on how you look at it.)

So we're going to launch ourselves into the wonderful world of US wine. Without a TV - yes, we will be sans TV in the new apartment, on purpose, its an experiment, an awful, thrilling experiment - we'll have hours and hours and hours to listen to wine podcasts or read books or tasting notes or whatever and get to know the oeni-scape. How else are we to cope without TV, I ask you? No Scrubs, no Will & Grace. Farewell my friends! I shall never forget you!

Jus and I went for a run around Central Park on Saturday. We're moving soon and I thought it would be ridiculous to have lived so close to the park and not have jogged around it at least once. Jus has been pounding the pavement up there a few times. It was great! There was a street market leading up to it so all the pedestrians had left the sidewalk free to browse the arepas, Philly cheesesteaks, I Heart New York t-shirts and fake handbags. We beelined and joined the steady throng of joggers.

There are signs telling you to run/rollerblade/cycle anti-clockwise only: I guess there's so many people that if you went any old direction there would be carnage. And unlike most cities where if you appear for your jog at 11am you're basically the last one there and all the 'serious runners' have had their shower and are airing their sneakers and on their way to brunch, in New York there are always people jogging at any time of the day or night. Lots of them, and not just the lazy-looking people. There are still dickheads with mini water bottles strapped to them, and those running without a shirt to show off their abs (think Mohawk Man at the Tan) and the ones who insist on wearing those floaty, see-my-tackle running shorts. A heavily pregnant woman ran past me and I had to sigh. Yes, it had been a long time between runs.

We ran past the carriage horses and the pedicab dudes and looped into an area of the park I hadn't really seen before. The horse poo makes you run faster, which is a handy incentive.

Half way through it began to rain, which I actually love because its fun to run in the rain with your tongue out and because I always overheat when running (which is why I could only ever contemplate the Tan in winter) and this actually makes it more bearable for me. After about 2 minutes we were both saturated.

The pedestrians in the street market had fled to the sidewalk for cover, so Jus and I had 8th Avenue, which was blocked to traffic, to ourselves. We jogged right down the middle of the road, straight towards the glimmering flashing neon of Times Square. I felt like raising my arms in the air and cheering: it was quite a Rocky moment. I would never have thought "This time next year you'll be jogging down the middle of 8th Avenue with Justin in the pouring rain."

I would have said, "What? Me jogging with Justin? I don't think so."

La La Land

The highlight of visiting LA last week was catching up with my 8.5 month pregnant cousin, Jade, and meeting her boyfriend, Eric. She was totally radiant and the both of them were so excited about the impending birth of their baby boy, and anxious for him to hurry up and just get here.

We talked a lot about tatts and I reconsidered what I might get one day, when all my other whims are fulfilled. I was thinking of some Mercator projection of the world mapped to my ankle, covering my 'Spring Racing Carnival' scar (you know the one, you've heard the sorry story).

We grabbed some Japanese for dinner and wandered past what would have had to be a 100 people lining up outside a game store, waiting for the midnight release of the new Xbox game 'Halo 3'. Dedicated souls, given it was only about 6pm. When we left a while later the queue had quadrupled. This was a sleepy suburban outlet so i can't imagine what itmust have been like at game HQ in New York if the iPhone line was anything to go by. It retails here for about $60. In Australia that would be at least $100. Its a pity i don't have a gaming console here, but maybe I can wangle a copy of Halo 3 and expense it as part of my gaming research. It is supposed to be cutting edge...

We have a place!

Relief of reliefs! Jus has secured us an apartment. I haven't seen it but I don't care: it's somewhere to park our stubby coolers and hotel-size toiletries for the next 12 months. It's just near Union Sq (shoe heaven, daily farmer's market, art market, Wholefoods!) and a variety of subway stops (easy access!), on the threshold of the Meatpacking District and Chelsea, just north of Greenwich Village (everything in the middle of everything). So happy...can't wait to move in!



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Anne and Anna do the NY art scene

Anne and Anna do the NY art scene
Originally uploaded by Meesy

Macca came to town for the weekend, fresh from the Toronto Film Fest fair thingo, and she hooked up with some friends who took us to an art gallery opening in Chelsea. The headlining artist was Malcolm McLaren, yes, THE Malcolm McLaren, who had two sexually motivated installations that defied description....until he struck up conversation with Anna and gave her the explicit descriptions personally. Let's just say someone had to comb through a lot of 60s porn to put those particular works together. All a bit disjointed coming from a man wearing pastel blue cashmere sweater, boxer shorts and sensible Oxfords.
We were also celebrating Anne's first night out alone since Annabelle was born: momentous, and she kept it together without the anxious home dialling. Everyone was happy.
More photos on Flickr.

Mum and Allan are in New York this week and I am in LA doing user research. Figures! (Luckily they're coming back in a week or so after their Laurentians cruise.) I've been finding out what people think about traffic and road directions here. Listening to Los Angelinos talk about traffic is like Londoners talking about the weather, or New Yorkers talking about their rent. Its totally put me off ever living here, apart from the whole 'its Los Angeles' thing.

What to do on a Saturday night?

One of my colleagues is off to see the Windy City Rollers, an all-girl roller derby where sisters on skates rip each other to shreds til the last chick is standing.

This might be a fantasy come true for some of you guys and gals out there who either love to see scantily clad women fighting or have always wanted to get Mad Max-ish on their Rollerblades as a pivot, blocker or jammer.

The Injury Gallery tells the real story. F-reaky.

Beer can chicken, baby

Mum was fascinated by beer can chicken, a recipe we saw on a cooking show when she was here. The concept is that you stick a full beer on the Weber, sit the chicken on top so the beer can slips into its cavity, and the beer evaporates and lends flavour to the chicken.

So you can imagine I was delighted that we went to the Weber Grill for dinner last night and they had beer can chicken on the menu. I had to try it. It was delicious, and apparently according to Jez, you can do Jack & Coke chicken or any other type of flavourful can of liquid and shove it in the chicken's keister, with similar tasty effect. The imagination runs wild, doesn't it?

The Weber Grill was kinda fun: a gimmick taken to its fullest extent. The chefs were indeed cooking all the food on big industrial sized Webers, lined up like timpani, and there were Weber base plant pots and Weber lid light fixtures. There were pictures of the Weber brothers and their original BBQs back in the 50s. And I had always thought Weber was an Australian brand. The things you learn.

Last night I asked about the difference between BBQ and grilling. So grilling is what we call barbecuing: cooking meat on a open flame. (What we call grilling they call broiling, cooking under an element/flame.) And barbecue is (slow) cooked meats over an open fire, which are often slathered in bbq sauce, and kind of extends to a whole cuisine type with corn bread, corn, coleslaw or mash...the whole Southern thang. The African Americans who brought the blues to Chicago also brought the BBQ, and Chicago is really into it. The restaurant was a block long.

The rather phallic image above is a colleague displaying how you butter corn American style. The corn is served with a little triangle of bread and a tub of butter, and you butter the bread, and then run the bread on the corn. In the restaurant I only saw men ordering this corn.

I found the food here really novel: I've never seen these items on a menu at home and certainly not served this way. I felt like I was looking for once at true American cuisine that wasn't junk food and hadn't been globalised through pop culture. And for once I didn't go home with a bloated belly.

You should have seen the desserts though. The waiter came around with slices of all the pie and cheesecake offerings on a tray, and the slices were HUGE. I was 'this' close to pointing a finger at the cheesecake, but I stayed strong. You would have been proud of me.

30 hours of this

At work we sit and watch real people, who don't live on the internet like us, step their way through websites we're designing.

We show them concepts, prototypes and mock ups and ask them to complete a typical task for that site.

A moderator guides them and we observers huddle behind the one-way mirror in a dark sound proof room and furiously take notes.

We wince, clap, roll our eyes, laugh, nod, grimace and try not to eat an entire bowl of mints, as the research reveals usability problems with the web site. Its fascinating, humbling, crucial, inspiring and can be incredibly tedious.

We're watching 21 Chicagoans this week, while the sun shines outside.

Burger odyssey abort abort!

Jus and I had decided on a dedicated US burger review, where we would sample them here, there and everywhere and rate them, kind of picking up where I left off with the delicious SEEK St Kilda Gourmet Burger Odyssey (Grill'd won BTW).

So last night I ventured off to Boston Blackie's, a joint that a colleague at work mentioned as having the best burger in Chicago (the work crew flaked on dinner after 11 hours of usability testing - fair enough).

The menu was all chili, burgers, sandwiches, and I settled into a booth and I watched baseball on the big screen and tried to decipher the baseball scoring, while eavesdropping on a drunken Boomer table of four next to me slagging their hopeless siblings and claiming biased parenting.

The Houston Astros were playing the Cubs (sponsored by Bubba Burger, the official burger of the Chicago Cubs). Go Cubs.

The eponymous Boston Blackie burger was on its way, bursting with bacon, grilled onions and cheese. It was a sloppy delight. They ask you how you want your burger done here - this is serious stuff - and it was perfectly medium. In fact I would say its the tastiest burger pattie I've ever had. Good fresh slaw with not too much mayo...I almost wore it, managed to get most of it in my mouth, and made a right mess of the serviette while washing it down with a $4 glass of house red. (Chicago is so cheap compared to NY.)

And then I thought "what am i doing? i can't do a review of US burgers. I have a cholesterol problem. i'm testing the seams of my pants at this very moment. am i stupid?"

It must have been the hypnotic effect of the baseball that relaxed me enough to have this epiphany. My last 12-week-tummy blog posting was barely indexed and already I was hoeing into more junk. I really am in denial.

On the long walk home, trying to assuage the guilt, I passed a store poster crying 'Everything in the middle of everything'. That's the problem. I need new boundaries. Talking to other Aussies, everyone who moves here seems to go through a little porky moment while they get the novel food out of their (through their?) system, and then you find your way down the notorious supermarket aisle without picking up a box of double coated Oreos with chocolate cream and go "Hey, we dont have these at home. they look awesome. let's try 'em." (they're friggin sublime by the way).

I am tempted to post a 'Mia at 3 months' belly photo.

who's afraid of Sept 11?

had to fly to Chicago yesterday and it only occurred to me late last week that I'd be flying on Sept 11. i was a little perturbed by it but hey, you just soldier on right?

La Guardia airport had military in camouflage with automatic rifles wandering around but they're a permanent fixture at all the airports here now. the only thing I noticed out of the (new, clear plastic bag for toiletries, shoes off) ordinary was a conspicuous air marshal on the flight. the flight was delayed three hours and packed to the shiny metal gills, and if any shenanigans had have happened I imagine the passengers would have just rolled their eyes and said 'typical, whatever'. i was more distressed by the prospect of no entertainment and no food, not even proper food to buy, since AA cut all those 'luxuries'. i haven't been that hungry since...I arrived in the US.

i have to admit i am sporting a new roll of blubber 'tween bra and belt, and its rather uncomfortable and I have to sit up straight all the time cos my flesh doesn't seem to fit any more. maybe its the burger bash Jus and I have been on, or the bran muffins I was eating for breakfast thinking they were actually healthy (its cake, just cake!),or the second lunches I nibble on when there are leftovers in the kitchen? maybe its the cheap goats cheese, or the massive meal sizes? maybe its the absence of aerobic exercise over the last 3 months? really, i'm at a loss here at how this happened.

regardless of the cause I've got to nip it in the bud because I've only been here 12 weeks and I'm 100% sure I'm setting a PB on the scales, and I don't mean a good PB.

so now I'm in the land of deep dish pizza (i would have called it a frittata, its that thick) and ribs (you can see the predicament I'm in) and tonight we're contemplating having a work dinner at Weber Grill, a restaurant chain by the actual manufacturers of Weber BBQs who decorate said restaurants with oversized replicas of said BBQs. yee har.

anyway, the flight was fascinating because we flew over a thunderstorm for a lot of the way and i watched the fluffy cumulo nimbus illuminate with flashes of silver and white, fork lightning giving a brief glimpse of the land far below. was beautiful. took a few photos...you might have noticed I have a penchant for taking shots of clouds.

Celebrity sighting #11

From the giddy high of Ashton to the humble shallows of Richard Kind, best known for his stints on Spin City, Mad About You and pretty much any other sitcom shot in the 90s, as well as all the other long running staples like Scrubs, Law & Ords, Curb, as well as any animated comedy like Cars and A Bugs Life. This is one hard working character actor...obviously plenty of roles out there for an av looking guy with a funny voice.

He was looking rumpled and sweaty walking up 7th Ave in the 50s, like he'd just finished an enormous lunch and ate too much and didn't realise it was still so hot outside, as Jus and I wandered home from a lazy paper reading session in the park.

Saw some good apartments on the weekend and have put in an application on one in Chelsea. Hope it comes off!

Emergen-C

Lots of plane travel in the last week and next couple, so have taken to these sachets of vitamin powder stuff to ward off germs as the temperature also descends. Actually this post is just a test blog from a site called Thisnext.com, a site whose raison d'etre I'm still trting to work out.

The apartment hunt resumeth

Jus is feeling sooo excited about the next few weeks, not. Our move out date approaches and so Jus is combing Craigslist and collecting real estate brokers' contact details to find our ultimate New York pad. Will it be Park Slope in Brooklyn, or one of the cheaper hoods of Manhattan - Lower East Side, Hell's Kitchen - or will we get lucky and land something in the West Village, East Village or Soho or Noho or Nolita?

I don't really care where we live anymore as long as its not noisy, is clean and has a laundry in the building and a dishwasher and a bath and is close to the subway. Frighteningly, that rules out a lot of the inventory on Craigslist. Anyway, if you have 8.40mins to spare, watch the Brooklyn Hipster Olympics. You can spot a hipster by their tight jeans, nonchalance, accessories, tatts (sorry "ink") piercings and cool frames. There's millions of them.

Nick & Talya's wedding

Originally uploaded by Meesy

Jus and I spent the Labor Day long weekend in Quebec to attend Nick and Talya's wedding. We flew to Montreal, hired a car, zoomed up to the Laurentians and hung out at CAMMAC (aka band camp), a beautiful music camp on Lake Macdonald, with the rest of the wedding party.
Perfect weather, a dip in the lake, copious amounts of food, bonfire singalongs, badminton, cocktails on the beach...was a sublime way to spend 3 days.
The wedding ceremony was held right on the water in a gorgeous boathouse at dusk.
Caught up with Ed, Mim, Sacha and Plum, Adam and Smoothy, which was great. Took lots of photos, which you can view on Flickr.
Funniest news of the weekend: Sach, of Expat Woman fame, is now a judge on Dubai Idol. And she's the mean one.

Celebrity Sighting #10

Jus and I went to the Maritime Hotel in Chelsea last night for the best pizza I've had so far in NY, and who should be there chatting with a buddy but Ashton Kutcher. Three giggling models (its Fashion Week here) sat at the table next to ours asking how you spelled his name so they could text their pals. If he didn't have his cap pulled so low I would never have recognised him.

Finally, someone you will have heard of. Getting closer to sightings of the A list. I'm finding it helps if you actually go out.