Category: Musings

Start Spreading the Word

Well, Frank was talking about coming to New York, so it’s a bad reference I know. Au revoir you wonderful city and the people who live in you. I’m sure we’ll meet again some sunny day.

Argh!

I’m in such a weird mood today. My advice to all and sundry is never mix your last day in a country with Valentine’s Day, a good double whammy on the emotional scale. I’ve also come down with a throaty, achey malaise of some description. I’m glad I’ve had such a good last few weeks otherwise feeling so emotionally loopy and physically unwell on my last full day in New York would definately be getting to me.

Happy Valentines Day to everyone that I love. Hope you’re all getting the hugs you need.

Empty

My apartment is now completely bare. Well, when I say “completely bare” I mean it only has a TV/VCR, Replay-TV, stereo, mattress, computer, DSL, fridge, phone, rug and piles of crap that’s coming back to Britland with me prior to jetting off towards Australia. So it’s a lot more echo-y than it was. People are often accusing me of exaggeration and romanticising situations and that was no exception. Just wish I hadn’t packed my roller blades…

My travel plans are fermenting nicely in my brain now. I’m pretty much going to start in China, then head down towards Australia by an overland (or water) route. This may include a jaunt over to India and many other places off the direct route depending on what I feel like at the time and what my friends (old and new) want to do at the time. I’m still finding it pretty hard to deal with the thought of constantly being in flux but I’m getting a lot more comfortable with it.

I’ve also started to buy some travel related toys. First off is a Rio Volt SP90. This should let me burn CDs of MP3s rather than carry entire collections of albums along. So, not the original albums and up to 14 on each CD! Thanks to Dave for the first opinion on that one. I’m also looking to buying some new lenses and filters for my camera having just read up on travel photography techniques. Good thing I got money from selling all my old crap…

Shmokin’

Had a smashingly luverley Moroccan dinner last night down at Mamlouk. Wow! This little gem serves a prix fixe menu of six courses, much like the mezze in Cyprus. Totally delicious and I was too bloaty to move afterwards. Also succumbed to trying out a hoopah with strawberry flavored ‘rocks’ on the top. Another first and something I’ve always wanted to try out after my sister described them after a trip to Egypt. Suspect the $15 we paid for that was a bit more than it costs in Egypt – and that was the only downpoint on the evening as we’d had the impression that it was complementary. All good fun though and heartily recommend a trip.

A Maze of Twisty Turny Stairs, All Alike

Just spent the afternoon helping Lisa move her new sofa (aka my old sofa, aka Stephen’s old sofa) into her small West Village duplex. Everything went pretty smoothly, even after we found the sofa wouldn’t fit into the elevator, mostly thanks to Kevin, a porter who came to help. There was a point when we flowed rapidly up three flights of stairs having got into the right sequence of movements. This exuberance was briefly crushed as we reached the last fire exit before Lisa’s apartment, but after some twisting and turning (and dropping and tilting) the curvey purple bulk got through, accompanied by the yapping of a neighbourly dog. Both sofa and armchair are doing well and their mother is very proud.

On returning to my apartment huge wastes of empty space awaited me. Very emotionally wrenching. It’s not been anywhere near this empty since I first moved in two years ago. On Monday the shippers come to take the remainder of the boxes and furniture, leaving me with a TV (until Sara picks it up), a mattress (to be thrown out due to accumulated stainage – I will miss it though, I’ve had nary a back twinge in the years I’ve had it) and two bags of crap that will come on the plane back next Friday.

This period of my life here is coming gracefully to an end. Some days I want to cry when I think about how much I’ll miss everyone and the life here. Other days I’m so excited about the random wonders that await me around the world. Things are all falling into place though. Synchronicity is flowing, and maybe when it doesn’t flow then that’s for a good reason, I’ve just yet to work out what that is. In retrospect many things become clear. Fuck me, I’m starting to sound like Buddha. Ommm……

Thoughtless for the Day

Y’know you’re damned if you do, and you’re damned if you don’t. So mine’s a shot of tequila, please. Preferably Patron.

Carpe Diem

While Stephen’s off shopping (aka, going to Bloomingdales for a few hours) I’ve started to pack my New York life into 1.5 cu. ft. boxes. This has given me the chance to throw out a lot of the crap I’ve accumulated over the years I’ve been here, and it’s also thrown up a few gems. I’ve never been good at letting go of anything, my whole family is hoarders, and when you’re moving all this crap seems like a curse. Then I came across my old World Trade Center pass from when I worked for Marsh back in 1999.

The Marsh offices were situated on the entire 96th floor of the Northern World Trade Tower, they also had a few other floors around there having moved from 120 Broad Street in mid-1999. From our cubicals we used to have amazing views down onto the Hudson river as cruise ships and light planes passed by. The building would sway very slightly to allow for the wind and one of the most terrifying and wonderful sights I saw was being in the middle of a thunderstorm one day. The sky lobby around the 60th floor used to catch the most amazing light as the sun set.

On September 11th the 96th floor was the first office to get hit, and I’ve since found out that four people I used to work with were caught in the attack, all of whom had families. Luckily it wasn’t many more, so many people who I knew were late into work that day. Timing is everything in life, and finding that pass just reminded me that we only have an alloted span to enjoy on this planet and we never truely know when it will end. The only truth is that it does end and you will have lived your life and no-one else’s. Seize the day.

Mmm.. Hurty Head

Stephen’s just come in from Brit-land for the weekend so to celebrate his arrival (and lack of jet-laggedness) we went out on a bit of a Billyburg bar crawl. Started off at Union Pool where the usual eclectic music (think David Holmes) was playing and we sat watching everyone dancing. Then over to Abbey, a dive bar I’ve never tried before which is classic dark pool playing paradise. Next venue was supposed to be the classic Galapagos but for some reason it was already closed at 1.30am! So we ended up going to Level X instead which was playing some great dance music, not that we were supposed to be dancing to it, sigh. Finally we ended up in the Blu Lounge where Ann very kindly let us stay long after everyone had gone to regale us with tales of the Irish mafia in the area. A smashing night all round.

Too Much of a Good Thing

Sometimes things happen and they seem like the greatest thing imaginable – but you never see the downside because you’re being swept along in the rush of the moment. This held very true for this poor chap who was definately having too much of a good thing. I always thought that suffocation would be one of the worst ways to die but he has shown me that there are definately levels to it. Actually, come to think about it, someone was telling me over Christmas that drowning is actually a pretty good way to go as after the initial pain of the water flooding your lungs your body releases massive quantities of endorphins so you die in a euphoric haze. Sweet.

After all those cheery thoughts I now must return to cataloging all of the crap I’m shipping back to the UK. I seem to have aquired 85 DVDs, 500 CDs and about 300 books (from art books to trite science fiction) in my time here. That’s an average of 1 CD every 4 days or something like that. Amazing how these things mount up.