The fastest 6 months of my life

Well, as of next week, I will have been in New York for 6 months. I am shocked because part of me feels like I'm still just getting started and part of me feels like I'm already very used to living here.

Tonight I re-read the blog from the start and had a laugh. The TV ads don't sound strange anymore, I recognize the brands in the supermarket and I know how to cross the road without bumping into 50 people. I know which part of the platform to stand in so I can exit my train at the right subway stairwell. I know which subway lines to catch to different neighbourhoods without consulting a map. I finally know how much to tip and when. I'm probably talking funny. It all happens so quickly.

Jus and I scoped out winter coats last weekend. We tried on puffy jackets, fur lined hoods, coats filled with down that come to your shins. The coats have warmth ratings like doonas. The store was jostling with people preparing for the winter. I've bought wellingtons and two other pairs of boots to insulate against the creeping cold. The stores are full of woollen tights, turtlenecks, fleece tops and pants, gloves, scarves, ear warmers, thermal t-shirts, beanies, heavy woollen dresses and cashmere everything. You can't help but feel a little dread.

Ange, Jon - your scarf and leather gloves have been getting a work out, respectively. I think of you every time I put them on.

Burger odyssey: update

Well let's cut to the chase. We've been having a burger a week. I haven't even bothered looking at a McDonald's because every restaurant - including Asian, $40 mains and Mexican restaurants - have some kind of burger on the menu. They are nigh on impossible to avoid. And let's face it there is atleast a day week when you feel like ripping into one. So we do. I am doing what every good American does and am living in denial and taking supplements instead to deal with my dietary deficiencies.

The weight is under control thanks to the YMCA and walking home from work, and Jus bought a fairly fancy bike and christened it by riding around the entirety of Manhattan island. So all that ice cream blubber slid off and I can fit in most of my pants again.

Note: my cousin Jade just gave birth a few weeks ago to Merric and is back into all her pre-pregnancy clothes already. I admire the discipline. Check out her baby boy. Divine!

Let me hear you say 'yeah - eh'

So, as we descend into a frigid winter all the awesome theatre and concerts are hotting up New York. Suddenly every actor and his dog is on Broadway: Claire Danes, Bill Pullman, Kevin Kline, Harvey Keitel, Bob Saget(!), Rosie Perez, Chazz Palminteri, Hank Azaria, George Wendt (Norm!), Rufus Sewell, David Morse. We haven't bought theatre tickets yet as the stage hands are on strike and most shows are dark, but once the strike ends I'll be sneaking out at lunchtime and getting tickets. May as well make the most of working in Times Sq and go for the discount tix.

Our credit card is singed as we are off to see Sly & the Family Stone, Jose Gonzalez, Caetano Veloso and Cornelius, but I missed out on tix to Stevie Wonder, which I can't believe I didn't notice the advertising for. The genius himself...one day.

Aretha Franklin and Don Mclean are doing the rounds, as well as blasts from the past like Suzanne Vega, Hall & Oates, Alanis Morissette and The Lemonheads, Ween, Bazza Manilow, Neil Young, Ozzy Osbourne, Patti Smith and uber groups like Sigur Ross, the Polyphonic Spree and Public Enemy. Wu Tang clan or R. Kelly, anyone? Ne-Yo? Queensryche? Xavier Rudd maybe? Eric Clapton?

Like our dear departed Big Kev, I'm very excited.

My new favourite websites: farecast.com & farecompare.com

The Farecast travel site lets you search for airfares across multiple sites and airlines and tells you whether fares are rising or falling and whether to buy now or wait. You can compare airfares over the next 30 days to work out when's the cheapest time to go.

So for example if I fancy a long weekend in Miami I can check and see that mid-December is the best time to go and I should fly from JFK or La Guardia as they're hundreds of dollars cheaper than Newark airport. Love it.

It has international fares too.

Farecompare gives you a 1 year price history of a fare so you can see when the numbers dip. It also specialises in discount first class seats that are comparable in price, or cheaper, than economy seats. Freaky, but apparently true. I can't wait to try it out.

Celebrity sighting #21

The heavily made up Ivanka Trump was dining next to our table at Kingswood, a restaurant in the Village. There was a murmur through the restaurant when she entered, all blonde mane, foundation and big designer handbag. She looked a bit like sour puss but maybe it was all the low key staring.

(And yes, Kingswood is owned by an Aussie.)

Celebrity sighting #15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20

Well this weekend I stumbled across the cast of Scrubs, a TV show I was addicted to until my addiction was rudely cut short by not having a TV. This is the last season of Scrubs and the cast were in NY for one day to give a panel Q & A. I went along and saw Zach Braff, Sarah Chalke, Don Faison, Judy Reyes, Neil Flynn and the creator Bill Lawrence and Christa, who plays Jordan, in their funny glory.

It was a good way to kill a couple of hours on a cold Saturday afternoon. Bill Lawrence was insightful, saying how he had wanted to create a show that was a cross between the nostalgia of The Wonder Years, the silliness of The Simpsons and the drama of Mash. Given the 7 years I think he was successful. He also mentioned that out of all the guest stars they had on the show Tara Reid was the worst. The audience loved this speck of goss.

And what's been funny is that Jus and I have discovered that NBC and ABC have full episodes of current series available to watch for free with minimal ads, online. So if you want to get a fix of the latest seasons of Heroes, Grey's Anatomy, Scrubs, My Name is Earl, The Office, Brothers & Sisters, Desperate Houswives, you know where to go. We've also discovered Joost and Hulu, another way to watch TV on your PC. Their lineup includes the Adult Swim cartoons, The Simpsons, Family Guy, and a whole bunch of The Onion and Comedy Central programs as well as lots of old stuff, like Who's The Boss.

So Jus and I can dip into TV whenever we feel like it, without actually owning a TV or paying for cable, or sitting through 20 mins of ads each hour. hallelulah. This is kind of a god send as Sunday nights with single digit temperatures and a wind that would freeze the smile off Hannah Montana are a one way ticket to Cosyville. Does this mean the experiment failed?

And thanks to all of you who placated my laundry room fears, advising that it's perfectly acceptable to remove someone else's washing from the machine if their cycle is done. Monday seems to be washing night in our building: let the games begin.

Holiday to hunt

Surprise of the morning: our client company has this Friday off for the first day of the hunting season. What the? That's the most bogus holiday ever. A horse race, perfectably understandable, but hunting?

Calling all aspiring filmmakers and cinephiles

May 10 2008 will be Pangea Day, where a 4 hour program of films will be broadcast live simulataneously all over the globe, with the aim of promoting better understanding of our common humanity.

Watch the brief video below: I dare you not to be moved!




Send in a short film or keep a watch out for screening info.

Depressed in Detroit

I don't know if its the cold overcast weather, or the fact that there is nothing to eat in this whole airport terminal except disgusting Quiznos subs or stale Starbucks sandwiches with far too imaginative fillings, but I am not in a good mood.

This is where blogs can be dangerous as the temptation to vent superficial, self-absorbed rants is so strong.

I'll stop whingeing now and go and buy a Detroit Red Wings souvenir pencil.

Celebrity Sighting #14

Saw actress Catherine Keener at Madison Square Garden, watching the ice hockey.

More on that extrvaganza later...

Halloween Highlights & Celebrity Sighting #13

The parade went right by our apartment and some pals came by to watch it with us. We were not disappointed, rather I got over-excited and turned into Squeaky. Was it the costumes, the sheer number of participants or the 12-deep crowd on the sidewalk?

The highlight for me was when a float went by booming Michael Jackson's Thriller, followed by 100 people dressed up as zombies, staggering around the street. I said "If they break into the routine from the Thriller video clip I'll die." And you know what, they did. It was awesome. On every block they would line up and crank out the moves. The zombie arm sway, the quarterback shuffle, the wanking hand motion....if you need a reminder, check out Youtube clip from 8.28 mins.

Other people felt the need to dress up as:

• a giant asshole


• the senator who was caught soliciting gay sex in the men's toilets at the airport, complete with pants around the ankles, toilet cubicle and fake hand tapping


• Posh & Becks


• an iPhone


• Wii controllers


• huge penises (there were countless numbers of these. why?)


• Jedis, replete with glowing light sabers


• Scrabble pieces (I can't escape it)

There were all the usuals - ghosts, scarecrows, witches - and some families where the parents evidently had got the kids involved in something elaborate, that they had no choice about participating in. There were also a lot of people who looked like they had dusted off costumes from Gay & Lesbian Pride / Puerto Rico Day Parade / Mermaid Parade and just wanted to get their kit off in public.

Just to give you some context of the size of this thing, the parade started at 7pm and went until about 11pm, and it was thick with people and floats, stiltwalkers and marching bands.

Work was a sea of people dressed up from Kermit to satan worshippers to Lara Croft to House, and we had a party with dry ice wafting out of the punch bowl, as well as a lot of orange food. Its one of the biggest adult party weeks in the year.

And who was the celebrity in the parade? Ron Jeremy. Truly scary.

Three days in Beantown

Boston was lovely. We jumped on the train Saturday morning and it beelined through Stamford Connecticut, Providence Rhode Island and on to Massacheusetts (there's my spelling test over), where the number plates proclaim 'spirit of America'.





Boston was one long history lesson, with the Institute of Contemporary Art thrown in for good measure. This is where Samuel Adams, John Hanock, Paul Revere and others got the whole American Revolution started ( we even saw their oddly engraved graves). The Boston Tea Party, Paul Revere's Midnight Ride and the 'lobsterbacks' (redcoats) taking on local militia and sparking the War of Independence all became clear after a historical trail we followed around Boston and Charlestown (every tourist in Boston was following the same trail).


Boston is known as the 'Cradle of Liberty' (they really do take their freedoms seriously here.)and we also learnt that Boston is called Beantown because they have celebrated baked beans recipes, featuring molasses. (The tinned baked beans here have lots of sugar and are rather sweet. Unexpected...not altogether gross.) New England is also the home of seafood: oysters and lobster particularly. So you can imagine Justin was in heaven ordering 6 different varitieties of oysters and a famed lobster roll for dinner. It seems sacrilege to me to put a lobster in a hot dog bun, but when in Rome...



This weekend was also the playoffs (finals) for the baseball, and the Boston Red Sox won on Sunday night. So you can imagine the whole city was sporting some piece of Red Sox merchandise and Sunday night in the hotel there was a lot of hoo haaing from the big screen TV in the lobby. We watched the game until midnight, where it was 4-3 and then fell asleep. It's pretty hard to get into even when there's a cliffhanger.

Across the river from Boston is Cambridge, home to Harvard, and we had a Sunday pub lunch there before wandering around the campus. Very atmospheric: lots of leafy trees changing colour in the squares and historic residential buildings, libraries and halls lining the yards. It was getting really cold (people wearing fleece pants) so we hustled through. I didn't realise Harvard was founded in the 1600s and named after its principal patron who donated money and his library to get it going.

And there endeth the history lesson.

Getting amongst it

So this week we really hit our stride, it feels. The apartment is feeling lived in and loved, with the addition of some more furniture and plants and we're getting used to the rhythm of the 'hood.

I've worked out what time I need to get on the train to get to work at a decent hour (15 min trip - joy of joys) and how long it takes me to walk home (if I don't stop to gawk at something, which is very hard not to do, 30 mins) Jus has his fave spot at Jefferson Market library, his alternative office, which looks like a castle.

The Time Out magazine is now burgeoning with things to do after the city quietened down over summer. We went and saw the Victorian musician New Buffalo in Williamsburg, some $5 comedy (read = we were the oldest people there) in the Lower East Side that sat 20 people and where Demetri Martin turned up, we booked some tix to go and see some ice hockey at Madison Sq Garden, and we're off to see Spamalot, a Monty Python musical.

So missing TV is pretty much confined to Sunday nights, and that's when Youtube.com comes in handy. (Last weekend Jus and I watched a bunch of Summer Heights High epsidodes to get a fix.) Though we did notice some of the comedy revolved around TV stuff - new shows- and Jus and I sat there like lamposts not laughing, not getting it, and feeling a little odd. "Do you know who he's talking about?" Jus whispered. "I got nothing", I shrugged, and we waited for the bit to move on to something universal like...how lame Halloween is, how hammocks are nets to catch lazy people and how the guy who invented ketchup had no idea it would be so big.

We're going to Boston tomorrow morning because I have to go there for work on Monday so we thought we'd make a long weekend of it. We're catching the train and it takes about 3 hours, going through Connectictut.

Jus and I checked the weather and got a rude shock when it is forecast to be 8c and sunny. 8c for a sunny day! That happened quickly. We both kinda panicked. It actually got really cold today and I started fearing for my warmth. There is an ice skating rink in the park where I used to sweat over my lunch. The cold's a comin', the cold's a comin'...

Hallowe'ird

Well, this pumpking carving site takes the cake. The imagination runs wild. Heaven forbid you would want to eat one of these creations.

At work we are having a pumpkin carving competition, people are expected to dress up, and on Halloween night there is a street parade that runs from Greenwich Village right past our apartment.

At the base of our apartment building a store has opened up selling costumes - costumes for adults - and it has been packed every night for the last 2 weeks.

The drug stores are selling buckets of mixed candy, to dole out to trick or treaters.

Jus and I have been walking around with one eyebrow quizzically raised as the hype and hysteria mounts. In NY, Halloween is bigger than Jesus.

The latest...

Vanderbilt Mansion
Originally uploaded by Meesy

So, its Thursday night. Jus is making cool lamps, as you do when you don't have a telly. He's so handy. We're listening to Beck's Midnight Vultures. I've been doing the clothes washing and had a difficult ethical choice to make: do you toss someone else's clothes out of the machine if its done and no other machines are available? I did, and I felt guilty. What's the right thing to do? Do tell.

Yesterday I was in Detroit for work. Well, to be precise we drove down the freeway from the airport to Ford Road, and then to Mercury Drive, past Fairlane Town, and went to Ford global HQ. Rather beige. I gave a presentation then got back in a car, went back to the airport and back to NY via Chicago. (yes, that is the wrong direction. Its painful. I just close my eyes, lie back and think of the freq-y flyer points.)

Justin has been rustling up furniture from cool sources and slowly, piece by piece, the apartment is taking shape. Bedside table, tick. Lamps, tick. Kettle, tick. Ironing board, tick. You forget the things you need when you're down to a couple of suitcases. Ironing board became immediately apparent and we reluctantly trekked to Bed, Bath and Beyond and walked home with one. Owning two ironing boards in the world is just annoying. I am rather excited though by my Componobili. (I only expect Designer Dan to understand what this means.)

Stevie Abbott was in town last weekend and he suggested we get out of town, so we hired a car and headed for the hills: the Catskills, Rip van Winkle country. We were all a tad anxious about driving out of New York but with, Barbara, our GPS lady, intoning the way, we all got comfortable and managed only to take three wrong turns and drive the wrong way up a highway ramp once. We listened to Barbara very closely until we got out into the small towns and winding roads though the red, orange, yellow and green leaves. Then we turned Barbara off and found Woodstock, which has a gentle New Age current flowing through it (lots of purple velvet, spirit-related stores, Hendrix posters, tie dye, howling coyotes, dream catchers) but is mostly a cute town full of tourists. They were having a film festival , so it was quite busy.

We saw two dudes for whom the party had never stopped, a store with a 'Hippies Welcome' sign, a few music studios and lots of alternative teenagers who no doubt have very free-thinking parents. It reminded me a bit of Daylesford.

View Larger Map

Jus and Steve were nursing serious hangovers (pints, jet lag and pseudoephedrine make a sweaty, porcelain-grabbing combo) so we made our way to the Scribner Hollow Lodge, our inn for the evening, and had naps before a massive 4-courser in the dining room. A pianist sang Latin hits and soul anthems from the bar while we had hairs of the dog (hair of the dogs?): it was like our iPod was on a 'dinner party' playlist. I thought she was excellent and sang along a bit. It was that kind of place, and I'm that kind of gal.

We saw a bear alert sign (akin to our bush fire safety signs), a nuclear power plant, a lot of red barns, where FDR was born...everywhere you turned there was a 'this happened here' plaque.

Anyway, we survived driving back into the city and now we're exhilarated because the whole countryside beckons! Within a couple of hours you can drive or train to Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Massacheussets, Rhode Island, Maryland...I have no idea what you can do in all those places but it sounds exciting.

Here are some random photos of stuff.

And someone at work has started calling me Meesy! What the! How do they know?

It's official

We really do work for Microsoft. One immediately good thing: we get to buy discounted stuff from the Microsoft online store, so I might one day get actual licensed software for our home computer!

Can u tell i have deadlines?

Halloween approaches and master craftsman , Justin Northrop, carved a classic picture perfect, apartment-sized Jack O Lantern to scare the spirits from our flat. Isn't he a marvel? His first time and he carved a masterpiece.

When I got home from work the apartment was all snug and pumpkin-y smelling. Those tea lights end up slowing roasting the pumpkin flesh and the most cosy aroma pervades the house. I think I'll sprinkle some vanilla and cinnammon in the pumpkin and get some aromatherapy going on. Yep, we caught the pumpkin fever.

We've been Skyping with the Northrops, and Mumma had her first introduction to web cams. The image above is the view we had on our PC of Mumma, Lis and Diane crowding around their web cam, chatting to us. Mumma had this expression of sheer incredulity the entire conversation: priceless! I do continue to love the internet...

Will do a big post this weekend. We finally got broadband at home (all this time we've been skunging free wifi from a benevolent neighbour, unbenownst to them of course) and I have a bunch of photos to download from the digi: we've had mum and Allan and Steve Abbott in town, we went to Woodstock, I went to Motor City Detroit, and Jus and I joined the Y. Yes, the YMCA in the Village, people! Does it get any more ridiculous?

BTW It is so hard to flip between our/or, s/z, er/re, ll/l every time I stop writing for locals and pen something for an Australian audience. It is really taxing my frontal cortex and I just know it is going to damage my Scrabble game. I have always prided myself on being a good speller (well you gotta be proud about something) but now my whole vocabulary is going to hell. Wouldn't it be handy if people came with a language preference switch too?

Supersize

A tableau of excess:

1. Upper West Side Mexican restaurant where you order guacamole and the waiter makes it for you, by your table, using at least 2 avocadoes, to serve two people.

2. A 'small' Coke at the cinema.

3. Mum laughing at the enormity of her pancake stack.

4. The 4 inch thickness of the Sunday New York Times, which includes 2 magazines and a literary supplement, plus countless catalogues.

Pumpkin Mania

Well everywhere you turn you see pumpkins. Fall is here, along with all things harvest-y, and therefore Halloween-y and it seems pumpkins have taken over Manhattan.

The markets are exploding with all sorts of squashes, gourds and pumpkins (varieties I've never seen or heard of before) and everywhere is decorated with harvest or Halloween themes. I mean everywhere: supermarkets, banks, furniture stores, clothing stores, offices. You can buy pumpkin-themed everything, from serving platters at Pottery Barn to a pumpkin spice latte at Starbucks, and every place is draped in red, orange and brown tones.

Behold the pumpkin, New York. I always thought pumpkins were under-rated, its good to see this full embrace. I even stumbled across a pumpkin scone.

I can finally get off the rollercoaster

Wow, what a long ride. From the dizzying highs of our first company-subsidised apartment with park views, to the tantrum-inducing lows of a crummy dive of a hotel with a shared bathroom in the Upper West Side, we have finally moved in to our very own apartment.





I was filled with trepidation on Friday when I went to work and left Jus on the sidewalk out the front of the hotel we slummed in between our tenancy at the last place finishing and the new place starting, with all our worldly possessions in bags on the sidewalk next to him, waiting to get the OK from the super that we could move in, or get the not ok and check in to another over-priced crap hotel. He sat there for almost 5 hours before getting the nod that the keys were ready.





I finished work and we went to a department store and bough a doona, pillows and blankets etc and spent Friday night in the new apartment sleeping on the floor on all our clothes and towels and stuff. (The homeless people outside put everything in perspective, and a glass of Chandon helped.) Our bed arrived Saturday morning, and the couch comes tomorrow (and we have invested in a fold out couch for all you visitors), and until then we've made good use of free wifi, cinemas and cafes where you can sit all day on one coffee.



The place is ace: perfect size, walk to everywhere, comfy...Jus did an amazing job securing it and schlepping all our stuff there.

Saturday morning we blitzed the stores for plates, glasses, bins and hangers and that afternoon we headed to Prospect Park for a picnic with Andrew 'Clicky' Green, Natalie and Jim. Bit of frisbee, drop of Hugel, bite of guacamole and a lovely fall day for all the stress to melt away.

I'll send out a broadcast email with our new contact details :)