theLaconic

Nigel part2

I should really point out Nigel's excellent comment about our fourth of July weekend - you know I had completely forgotten about (too pissed) lending him that money - you will notice that he doesn't offer to repay the money... maybe becuase he left a shirt here, prehaps we should exchange the said shirt and 100 dollars on a bridge somewhere in mid-America.

My first time

Now I live in quite an old apartment building and I know that cockroaches are a fact of life in New York but that doesn't make in any easier when you find your first one.

One does make it easier is being prepared with a huge can of bug repellent, I know have one dead roach, or did have. I also have had a huge clean up (not that it was untidy in the first place!).

All of this doesn't make me feel any better about the roach. I'm sure it will be one of many and as Jarvis sang 'you always remember your first time'.

Salted Nut Roll

Bobbin I see your Malted Milk Balls and raise you one (turd like) Salted Nut Roll.

Before you ask I have no idea what this tastes like, I don't dare open it, I have mental images of Mike salting his nut roll... (only funny if you worked at Ogilvy - sorry)

A great end to the day

It has a been a beautiful day here weather wise, hot and warm without a trace of humidity. So nice that I decided to walk home after work, something that I have not tried in either direction.

Walking down Broadway I realised that I had forgotten how nice a walk it is. Broadway takes in shit loads of manhattan when you walk south from Mid-Town. It only took about 50 minutes to walk the two and half miles. And after the day I had at work it was great way to calm down mentally and just being able to enjoy the sunlight after being in the 'Bat Cave' all day. At this point I suppose I better point out that the Bat Cave is the new name for our office, you can tell I now work with a copywriter again.

In fact I have just realised that I haven't even said anything about Simon, poor bloke stuck in a room with me for hours on end. He has caused me much mirth since his arrival a couple of weeks ago, even though he is Australian. I do feel sorry for him; all my work colleagues knowing that I am a Brit just assume that his accent is British too, I think we should try a new tactic and assume that everyone we work is Canadian...

A little case of hives

Its not the weekend I am hung-over, I went to see the Hives last night and inadvertently got drunk, I didn't mean it to happen but it did. So I've had to live with it all day and work has been hectic.

The Hives were excellent, as good as I had imagined. They played Irving plaza which is only on 15th Street (11 blocks away), the venue is excellent and I am now really pissed that didn't get to see Franz Fedinand and The Streets when they played (the former I forgot about and the latter due to work pressures)

I'm not totally sold on the new stuff yet - might take a few more listens. I'm glad they played all their hits and during 'Hate to say i told you so' I realized that I'm no longer able to mix it in the middle of the mosh pit - although I lasted a few minutes and managed to scare a few weedy teenagers.

Partly due to the shocking state of my fitness highlighted last night I joined the local gym today, something I've had on my to do list for the last 4 weeks. Now all I need to do is go...

10 weeks... Hang on.

10 weeks. No, more like 12, the ten week mark went past without me noticing, in fact until I sat down and figured out how long it actually is with the calendar I didn't realize that I have been here for almost 12 weeks.

Damn the time is going past quickly, in fact maybe a little too quick... I had a cup of coffee with an old friend from the London office today and we were talking about when I would be visiting the UK again, and you know I'm not sure.

I just feels like I have arrived here, me thinking I have only been here for 10 weeks instead of 12. But as soon as I think about there are so many thinks that I now take for granted. The choice, everything has a choice, its not just about getting a coffee but is it:

filter, french press, latte, cap-chino, mocha or espresso,
double, single or triple
tall, grande or super or whatever that super gallon size is,
chilled, iced, blended or hot as fuck(regular),
2 percent, whole fat, non fat or half and half,

and all of that is without selecting the strength or bean.

you can see why I stick to tea. But don't fear there are still choices to be made but not as many. Reading that back I am sure there are some coffee choices missing, perhaps I should pay more attention tomorrow morning in Starbucks and report back.

In short I am already fitting in a rhythm that the city is dictating, and I like it.

I am reading a book called 'How to lose friends and alienate people' by Toby Young. Have a look at the link to Amazon, this book is defiantly resonating at the moment.

Numbers

Here are some of the better photos from my trip to the west river.

Just click on the photo above or click the link further down the right hand side of this page.

Meat Packin'

I have been here ten weeks and I am still finding my feet and more importantly still discovering the city. In the blazing heat of the warm summer sun I took a walk over to the hudson river (west side of manhattan).

The area around 12th street is the meat packing district which is strange blend of high fashion (McQueen, Stella Mcartney et al) and meat warehouses, the whole are stinks of cash and rotting meat, very bizarre.

I have some other photos and will post them once I have sorted and cropped them.

Bush?

So its getting a little more political now, I've been stopped by pro democrat (non bush) three times in the last 2 days, waving clipboards and asking for support against bush. Now if only I could help and vote the little weasel out of office but obviously I can't.

It's funny I wasn't really expecting to see this level of resentment to old George W. In fact if think about it I haven't seen any pro bush statements here at all, just another reason to love NY.

Wanted to share this

This will only really mean something to people who I used to work with. I caught up with Fraser who turned 30 today...

al says: so what does it feel like to be... u know... 30.

fraser says: oi!!

al says: I've got 4 smug months left

fraser says: doesn't feel any different. a little bit of a let-down. birthdays are such a let down when you get older (especially when you live in a country where you don't know anyone)

fraser says: enjoy your 4 months whilst you can

al says: wow 30

fraser says: fuck off :-)

al says: One of things I miss the most is our old Lunches

al says: no one does it here

al says: might have to start a Lunch club

fraser says: (2:14:12 PM)    but I don't miss the Question of the Day. Things I miss about London:

1. James Fawcett's TARDIS lunch box

2. Ed Cox's dwarf sex conversations

3. the HSBC leaflet with Gary Jobe on the front

4. Kev's ill-fitting jeans

al says: that last comment looks suspicious

fraser says: 5. harsha's laugh (very foreboding)

al says: uh uh uhhuhhhu

fraser says: EXACTLY!!!

al says: I think that how it is spelled

My big mouth

SOME OF THESE SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS WILL PRODUCE TORRENTIAL RAINFALL...AND RAINFALL AMOUNTS THROUGH TUESDAY MORNING MAY AVERAGE 1 1/2 TO 2 1/2 INCHES...WITH LOCAL AMOUNTS IN EXCESS OF FOUR INCHES.

Just thought you would like to know I am eating humble pie - oh and its stinking humid too.

Summer Fridays

I forgot to mention it yesterday but work is now in a period of 'Summer Fridays'. This means that I get Friday afternoons off from now until Labor Day (September the 6th) which is nice.

Now there are rules, I can only get them off if the workload is covered but as everyone gets them off most people don't schedule meetings for Friday afternoon, which is very nice.

I spent most of my first ''Summer Friday' sleeping, don't ask me why I'm just really tired this week, in fact I feel like having a nap now... nice.

Next week I try and make better use of my free time. promise.

Chilled

After last weekend's fun this weekend had to be more relaxed and low key, and so far it has been. Friday I got a call from Josh did I fancy a beer? Of course the answer was yes, so of we went to Brooklyn and that means leaving the island of Manhattan (and yes it did feel weird) which was something I was trying to avoid.

We met up with a load of people from work who were drinking at Gowanus Yacht Club, which sounds fancy but is in fact a small bar with a beer garden, it felt like of of those bars next to Clapham common. But the beer was much, much cheaper, six beers was costing 14 dollars, which is cheap, they also served up some splendid hot dogs (in fact the menu was only dogs and burgers).

So to cut a long evening short 4 hours of cheap beer in the warm evening air with good company equals a hangover on Saturday, this is starting to get a regular occurrence, I might have to takes steps.

Storms?

Now I don't want to rub it in, but I can't help it. Its damn hot here, in fact its been like this for what seems forever, and I have been reading the BBC website and can see that some of you folks have had to put the central heating on...

Now don't get me wrong its not all sunshine here, there was this tropical storm that came through on Monday that was just stair rods, cats and dogs or what ever you want to call it.

Before I came I checked the seasonal weather for New York, not to see if I liked it but just out of curiosity (like the weather would have changed my mind!) and it says that the wettest months are July and August, so far I think we have all of our days rain in like 20 minutes and then the sun comes out. Now I could be mistaken and spoken too soon... we will see.

p.s. I seem to be picking up a tan :)

I'm sorry

so this is an apology. I am sorry. I didn't have time to write anything this weekend, I was busy - every minute of my 3.5 days off.

Nigel arrived on Friday evening as the post below says. Saturday was spent shopping and generally walking around New York. We went to see spiderman 2 which was pretty good, no scratch that: very good seeing as it was a big hollywood blockbuster. Anyway my pixel pushing geek friend Nigel seemed to like it.

Sunday was the fourth of July which means something, I have no idea what. Something about tea, anyway i got a day and half off of work so it can't be all bad.

After a morning of high culture looking at modern art in the Guggenheim (very very cool building) Nige and I meet up with a load of people from work (mainly english with the odd yank thrown in) in a bar around the corner from the apartment.

So we started drinking at 3.30pm had a meal and then moved on to our firework viewing choice; the top of 18 floor hotel in midtown manhattan. Cocktails were bought and drunk, a load of fireworks went off, and this is where I start to lose my memory... not sure what time we left but:

I remember Nigel buying champagne and firing corks of the roof...
I remember getting into a taxi...
I remember strippers...
I remember coming back downtown...
I remember a cute bar maid in red white and blue wig...
I remember Nigel having drinking games with said cute barmaid...
I remember Carrying Nigel home...
I remember Nigel waking me up to tell me he had been sick...
I remember looking at the clock when I finally got back into bed...
I remember it saying 4am

I have just looked at my bank account statement I wish I could remember all the strippers. - parents: that is a joke

I was not well yesterday, not in a chucking up sense but I almost did. For those who know me this will prove it: I was too ill to go for breakfast or lunch and when i did manage to get out/off/out of the bed/sofa/apartment I couldn't even manage to eat all of the pasta I ordered.

It was all fun. Good weekend just don't want to repeat for a few days/weeks/months .

Here are some photos from Catherine's camera - left the link at work will connect tomorrow morning.

So it begins

The boy sumner arrived last night a we went for dinner and a few drinks which took 5 hours, no hangover yet, but I know I had a few drinks.

There is this desert only restaurant on 10th Street that I had walked past a few days ago, and when Nigel said he wanting a desert and the sushi restaurant only had a few options this restaurant came to mind. I have to say it was pretty ficking good, pricey but defiantly an experience, so all you desert fanatics (Tony springs to mind here) please remember to mention it to me and we will go for dessert.