theLaconic

Ahhhh too much work

I'm busy. We have a tight deadline at work and we have to get all the work finished by Thursday or I have to work the Holiday weekend (that is not going to happen).

The project I am working on required a visit to Flushing Meadows home of the USOpen Tennis tournament, which was nice.

Chill time

So the weekend is over, its been pretty packed, another hangover (must stop drinking beer), a night in a red neck bar downtown, another street fair, a few more restaurants sampled. And most importantly some quality time was had on the sofa.

Over the past week I have tried to live within my weekly budget. And I think I have succeeded no daft purchases, no required purchases (still need a stand for the TV) apart for some much needed summer clothes.

This whole winter summer wardrobe thing has caught me of guard, obviously like most British people I am used to wearing the same clothes in all seasons, just by varying the amount I can cope with 99 percent of the climate. Not here. Here I need sweat proof clothing and bastard icy cold clothing, Don't worry I won't be buying any Hawaiian shirts and awful short combos. But then again socks and sandals do look kind of cool now.

I think I am going to try and see some live music this week - there is a cracking gig around the corner from here 'The Streets' and 'Dizzy Rascal' on the same bill. My only problem being: the tickets have sold out. I think I am going to go down and see if I can get some on the door or off some tickets touts.

So that's that

At times like these I like to think positively, but that seems quite hard now.

Damn that was hard to listen to, there was no way I could do any work, so I just cleaned my office up and scared any american who came into my office to find out what the screaming was about.

I went to an amazing sushi restaurant called Ginger tonight, just round the corner from me. I suppose it was quite expensive ($30) for NY but it still seems cheap to me. That has helped me to forget and the fact that I won't see anything about unless I look for it, thank god for the American media, if it's not American they don't care.

I suppose I should start looking for some American teams to support, Grid Iron is out (the most boring game in the world), Baseball is rounders (but without the girls), so Basketball and Ice Hockey it is (and their season's have just finished).

I love NY. Part 1

So why do I love NY? (I think this might be a rich vein of content...)

I thought about this as I emerged from the subway on my way home.

For a start the commute home takes me 20 minutes which is stupid, but not in a bad way, I'm not trying to rub this in and believe me everyone in London has my sympathy (but I don't think I could go back to two and half hours traveling a day).

From mid town were I work to the East village I take the N,R or W train and it is a simple 5 or 6 stop journey that takes 10-15 minutes plus the 3 block walk either side. nice.

I haven't seen a full subway car yet and only once I have been unable to find a seat on the way home. I know this is down to more luck than judgment because when I speak to my friends who live on the upper east and upper west side they say they sometimes have to wait for space on the trains. Oh well.

So thats my journey to work which is really easy beats the bus, train, tube, tube walk any day.

Lets start again

Well I now consider myself fully (well 95%) settled, the stuff is out of boxes, on shelves or hidden away. And after spending most of the weekend shifting it all around the apartment I came to realise I did bring a lot of crap with me but it is my old familiar crap so I suppose it has a purpose: it makes me feel at home.

So this it I am finished, the end of eight months worth of work (and filling in forms). I have to admit I feel I little lost, not sure what to do next, it does remind me of getting my first job at Steel and moving to London. I had achieved everything I wanted and then was at a loss at what to do next.

Okay I now have other things to think about, friends, family and my career. So this is really the start of a new chapter. And you know what? I think it might just turn out to be one of the exciting and promising times of my life.

Contact

I think they are trying to tell us something: buy more stuff!

There were these five planes flying above NY writing messages, at first I had hoped they were aliens but no such luck it was just advertising.

My friend Enzo

I made a new friend last night. His name is Enzo and he is a genius. This is one of his masterpieces or a 'slice' as he called it.

This piece, sorry slice of art is a lasagna pizza slice and it was pretty amazing. When you come over I might introduce you to Enzo too, I might have become his muse by then, lol.

Some photos

I have even got around to taking some photos of the place - I've uploaded them to 'the pad' gallery (further down this page), so take a look, its not tidy because there are boxes everywhere and I was also trying to figure out where to hang the paintings and photographs.

So I might get a weekend off - well I'd better or else... not sure what I will do but it might not be nice. I have shit loads of stuff to do, like finish unpacking (those shelves won't put themselves up!) but even in this semi finished state I feel settled, so it's open house for anyone who wanted to come over, obviously I would like an email to confirm dates before anyone books tickets.

Rant - sidewalk

So what is a sidewalk? I'll tell you what it is.

In the great scope of city life the nearest word that us Brits have is a 'pavement'. But that is only its actual physical form and function.

To truly understand what a sidewalk is I have consulted a dictionary:

Sidewalk \Side"walk`\, n.
A walk for foot passengers at the side of a street or road; a
foot pavement. [U.S.]

so I look up pavement to complete my understanding

Pavement \Pave"ment\, n. [F., fr. LL. pavamentum, L. pavimentum.
See Pave.]
That with which anythingis paved; a floor or covering of
solid material, laid so as to make a hard and convenient
surface for travel; a paved road or sidewalk; a decorative
interior floor of tiles or colored bricks.

In New York that definition does not hold true.

It is defiantly not a convenient surface for traveling on, its is incredibly uneven, with constant sharp object protruding that constantly catch my jeans; imagine your legs working normally then one foot suddenly becomes pinned to floor as you hear a mild ripping sound.

Or you are walking casually and cooly down the street and all of the sudden your toe refuse to budge as it come in contact with a slab that is inexplicably raised 2 inches higher than the rest of surrounding pavement and you catapult forward and you either pretend to start jogging or swear loudly as you trip forward and lose all cool as your arms flail about wildly.

Potholes - everywhere, gapping chasms ready to entrap unweary travelers.

Or the metal trap doors that open to basements which are usually left open, I have yet to fall down one or see anyone else succumb to this sidewalk blight.

As you can probably tell I have suffered.

Don't get me wrong I have finally figured out what sidewalk is, it is not the surface you walk on, but the way you travel along it.

No one, and I mean no one is this huge city understands how to walk in a fucking straight line, all motion along these so called sidewalks must be diagonal or following some kind of mathematical calculation that includes lots of sine waves.

So be warned a sidewalk is not the pavement but a mode of travel.

Some things

Things I am enjoying:

1. Netflix - I joined last week - its like blockbusters crossed with Amazon but much much better.
2. Air conditioning - it's getting stinky and sweaty here, but not in my apartment.
3. My bed - the most expensive thing I have bought and worth every penny, its sooo comfortable.
4. Cooking - I have started to cook my own food again

Things I have not enjoyed:

5.Taking my digital camera out of my bag and wondering why and how I had taken a picture of broken glass? Then realising in a comedy manner than I had broken the lcd screen. RIP my trusty exilim...
6. Injury time goals, damn you Zidane

Gutted

I listerned to the match via fivelive internet broadcast, I am gutted, up to the Zidane free kick I was really missing watching in in England, but now I am quite glad that I am over here.

mmmm piss poor end to a forgettable weekend. Luckily I am safe from the French here - I think they were all banished 14 months ago...

It's a Sunday

And I am at work. is it sunny outside? what city am I in? is it day or night? I don't know I have no windows, I live only by fluroresent light surviving on starbucks and any morsel that I can pry from the evil vending machines.

But we knows my precious, my precious... *que thunder and lightning

This is a croc of...

Its the weekend and guess what? I am not hungover, I am at work.

It also is amazing weather outside, tit arse bum bugger flaps.

My stuff

So here I am sitting at my desk in my apartment, drinking a beer using someone else's wifi connection (notice the 'my'). I am not saying I am unpacked - far from it but I am starting to settle.

We had a big presentation at work today, which went really well, so even work seems to be getting better. I have one set of muslim curtains (ok they are soft furnishings) to put up, several paintings and prints still to hang and some shelves to erect and then this place can be considered finished.

I don't have my camera dock here so I can't get my photos of my digital camera to show what this place looks like - good job because I would have to tidy it.

You know i said it was hot...

Well today is stinking hot, there is even a severe weather warning in effect.

Damn its hot, thank god I moved on Monday and installed those Air Conditioners.

Feeling tired

Ok so I'm almost sorted in the apartment, all the drapes*/curtains are up. The air conditioners are installed. The furniture is there (well the sofa arrives today).

My to do list is getting smaller - I need to hang all the rest of the paintings and pictures and put up some shelves for the books and cds/dvds. So I'm getting there. It should be all done by Sunday - next Sunday that is.

I've just read that back - not only am I tired but I'm boring too. I promise to write something witty and dry soon - promise x

Tunes and stuff

It's all good. I got some tickets for the HIves in July but this is earlier.

MMMM beasties. click here to listern to the album.

Too tired

Moved into new apartment today, but will not be staying there until Wednesday night (need to wait for bed and sofa). I managed to get a mental hangover for today (found a great cocktail bar will post a entry on that later) which was nice.

10 hours of moving boxes in 80 degree heat

nnn ooo www I need s ll eee p.

Guess what

Its the weekend, so I am hungover again. But I have the keys to my apartment, wwwwoooooahhhhh!!!!

There is even a little man painting it. And no woodchip to be seen, funny its bigger than I had remembered. It's all good.

I have also been out shopping for electronics - well TV, Surround Amp (I even went for the cheaper models - I'm getting old) and some Air Conditioners. I bought it all together and got a fairly good discount - in fact the best price I could find even taking into the internet prices into account. Getting bargins feels good.

Next a bed and get the cable hooked up and I'm almost there. :)

Coming together

I've found it, it was under my nose. A decent cup of tea - from starbucks?? Yeah I know who would of thought?

Tasty morsels?

I saw these in the supermarket:

tee hee - I really would like to know if anyone buys these... :)

Normal service

Today has been great, a few issues have been resolved (my debit card has been ordered etc.) I need to fill in one more form for work, and the project I'm working on seems to be heading in the right direction.

My rant yesterday seems to have prompted a few requests for visits (AdamS, Fraser and Julita) - so far I have vistor's in June. July, Sept, November and December.

I was quite serious about creating a web site for reservations (sounds worse than it is), and I will look into it in the coming days.

Feeling it

Well I've been here for over a month now and today has been the first day that I can honestly say I missed home. Nothing has really stood out but:

I haven't got possession of my new apt. - I'm still in company accommodation
I'm still not exactly 100% sure what I'm doing at work (to be fair thats to be expected)
I'm still filling in forms
I'm still baffled by the amount of bureaucracy in this country
I'm not in my own space so all of my stuff is still in storage - I want to cook a mean chilli tonight but it will be twice as expensive as eating out
I haven't got my debit card yet so everything I buy is with cash or on my UK plastic, I just want to pay in dollars and not get shafted on the exchange rate.

I just have this overwhelming sense of the temporary nature of my existence.

And above all I really miss my friends and family, not that I saw everyone all the time but I knew I could if I needed.

Neil is back in town from Chicago tomorrow so a few beers with an old friend and it'll be ok. I get the keys to my apartment on Saturday, my stuff arrives on Monday, I'll buy a bed, TV and get cable next week. The rest I'll sort out.

RANT OVER.

I went out and had dinner with Miguel and some of his old friends last night which was cool as I they were nice interesting people.

I love thunder

No, not the the 80's rock band, but thunder and lightning: thunder. There are some monster thunder and lightning storms that seem to roll across this city. Just one of the many things I have learned in the last few weeks* is not to trust any weather forecasts and always have an umbrella in my man bag.

*I am compilling this list and it should make for quite an amusing read