Category: Musings

Mmm, achy

I thought yoga was supposed to make you more limber and flexible not too achy to walk?!!?!?!?

Decided to get a month yoga membership to help pass the time while I’m still in New York. Theory being of course that because it’s a month unlimited membership I’ll go more… Nice theory, not sure it’s ever worked before, and especially not when I’m hella-hungover! Still, had a good session yesterday and it helped me get over some of the current stresses and frustrations of my New York life.

Not having a regular job gets kinda boring after a while. I’ve never been the best at setting my own goals and working at them and although this is all good practice it’s not coming easily to me. There are some really big things I need to organize but I find myself just doing the smaller ones and thinking about stuff that isn’t helpful. Plus there’s a whole heap o’ distracting stuff on the Internet!

I’m dreaming, of a white Jan 7th..

Yep – it’s finally decided to snow in New York! Taken it’s own sweet time about it too. Big flakes drifting gently down from the sky and completely failing to settle on ground soaked from a night of rain. Oh well, might have to wait a few days for those white New York scenes I like so much, or for making snowmen.

Meanwhile I’m kicking off on my big list of “things to do before leaving New York”. Worst of these is arranging shipping/selling of everything I own here. After three and a half years I have a whole heap o’ crap (TM) to deal with. Some sentimentally important, some financially valuable and some that are just there, in decreasing order of how difficult it is to decide of course. Shortly I should be posting a list of things that are going up here so watch this space….

All good things

Back in the US again – sunny New York City is outside my window with the usual chorus of sirens trilling away on the streets below. Flew back yesterday with the delightful Virgin who, having saved me an hour of queuing through the use of my silver card then decided to upgrade me to Premium Economy for the first time ever. Yee-haw! I’m now thoroughly hooked and will be contemplating how to get a non-economy flight back to the UK and then a non-economy round the world ticket. The thought of spending 20 hours in a plane to some far off country in cattle class does not appeal…

Other thoughts now fill my mind – which parts of my life do I pack up and ship back to store in England while I travel and which to leave behind? Don’t have a huge budget for shipping so that will help keep me to the bone on what stays and what goes, plus most of the electronic equipment won’t work so that’s easy. What of the less physical aspects though? The friendships and behaviors I’ve developed over the years? At least this time I’m emotionally more prepared for such upheavel, something that I totally underestimated three and a half years ago when I came here from London. Still scares me a bit though – the through of just leaving stuff and stepping away for a while, if not ever. Never was very good with change, so this is a great opportunity to get better at it. Chocks away…

Fromage

Just got back from a tiring but fun day trip to Calais with G’ette and Simon. Had to get up at the unearthly hour of 5.10am (GMT while I’m still in EST – yep, that means 12.10am) to drive down for an 8.30am ferry from Dover. Brought back many fond memories of my last trips over to France which were oh so long ago – yes dear ones, probably before the Ecu was even spawned from whatever twisted mind it came.

Much delights were to be found in the French hypermarche – wine, chocolate, wine, cheese, wine and of course cheap stationary. Did I mention the wine? Also got the chance to experience how British mobile phones actually work in other countries, and the difference in service levels between French and New York restaurants. Very.

Now I’m just completely exhausted having only really had about 10 hours sleep since Monday morning… Somehow managed to fit a trip in to see Blue Jam at Riverside Studios in Hammersmith. Chris Morris of Brasseye fame wrote this sketch play and it shows. Very bizarre but often extremely funny. Enjoyed it immensely until halfway through when I realized that part of me was not enjoying the contexts – for example a woman getting a plumber in to ‘fix’ her baby that has been dead for 4 days. This has since lead to many discussions about whether it’s right to laugh at this stuff or not, or whether it’s fundamentally wrong/unhealthy/whatever. I was reminded of a sketch show I went to see just under a year ago in New York (Kiddies/Pumpkin Corner or something like that – the name escapes me). The last sketch was highly disturbing and left a very bad taste in the mouth, discussing child abuse between disabled siblings. Living in New York has definately changed my sense of humour, is that a good thing or a bad thing though? Answers on a postcard please.

Oh, and on which note, Grand Theft Auto 3 (PS2) is a really enjoyable game – very clever, highly addictive and well done. The main character runs round town carrying out gangland tasks and stealing whatever car he fancies all to earn more money/success. You have to question though whether sleeping with a prostitute to raise your health levels, and subsequently pummeling her to death to steal the money back is healthy for your mind. And you know the kids play this…. God I’m getting old!

I.L.Y.L.D.

There are some weekends you just want to rewind and start over again. Just because they went so hideously wrong that you can’t even take it in in retrospect. This was one of those weekends. Ah well, nothing I can do except try and learn from it and see what happens I guess. Never been very good at that – but there’s always time to learn.

Meanwhile I have to pack and get ready for my Chrimblemas trip back to the UK. I’m going to try and take an initial load of crap back to ease my later exodus from New York, but I’ve got to get it all the way over to Newark – which is a pain in the proverbials from Billyburg! No cheap Virgin flights from JFK though. Oh well. Maybe I’ll go do some last minute shopping to pass the time.

Spare a dime for an ex-coder?

Found out today that if you have over 3000 GBP in savings you’re not eligible for UK unemployment (sorry “Jobseeker’s Allowance”). That’s so crap. Not that 53.05 GBP a week goes very far anyway. I think I get more than that a week in interest from my bank!! In NYC you get $400 a week for up to six months – no wonder noone’s been rushing to get a new job. Ah, the fun and games of being unemployed in a country where you have no legal status. Sigh.

On a more exciting note though – yesterday I went for my first trip to Saint’s Alp Teahouse. Here, in neon tinged sterile surroundings, amidst many local Asian students, you can enjoy such delicacies as Coconut Milk Tea, Kumquat Lime Juice and the wonderfully blue Taro Milk Tea. Most of these are very similar to milkshakes, but what makes them all the more fun is the little balls of gelatine they stick in the bottom. Each of these is about the size of the tip of your little finger, perfectly fitting into the over-large straw they give you with the drink. An amazing experience as you suck up sweet milkshake and then chew on the little ball that sticks to your teeth.

Mincing

Well the mince pies turned out just luverley. Made two batches – one with a sweet pastry and one savoury. The savoury pastry also turned itself into a rather nice quiche! All very exciting – I’m turning into a right house-husband… now all I need is a rich wife to support and I’m sorted.

And big shout out to Laureano who was inspirational in decorating my tree – he came up with the cool tree headpiece (safely non-religious in a weird flowery way) and also the concept of ribbons shooting out from the tree to the ceiling. If I had a digital camera then I’d show you. Not only that but he also risked life and limb by climbing up my step-ladder to attach the ribbons. What a guy! And yes ladies – he is single…

Madam, I’m Adam

Had a luverley lunch in Florent with Tricia today, in some of the spare moments she had between the rigours of an extreme programming project. Extreme programming, for those of you who don’t know, is where you write code with two people – one person doing the actual typing, and the other just watching and thinking about whether it’s the right way to do it. One of the side effects of this, apart from being extremely tiring, is that you have to all work at the same time – so Tricia ends up with a very short, pre-defined lunch hour.

During this lunch I had a realization – next year is palindromic. Yes, 2002 is the same backwards as well as forwards. For some reason this got me very excited but for why I’m not sure. Perhaps it’s because this is the second palindromic year I will have seen, the last being 1991, and the next isn’t until 2112 with the one before that being 1881. Strange how your mind can fixate on these things.

Today was also the first day of the Internet World show in New York. This was highly unimpressive, with absolutely nothing managing to catch my eye. Even the quality of the free crap they were giving out was mediocre at best. Ah, for those halcyon days of mundo VC cash making for piles of cool branded toys. My old friends AccuWeather were there so I had a quick chat with some of them, as well as hanging out around egg solution – Jon’s company that makes a panoramic lens for digital cameras. Their stall was regularly the busiest which was very impressive given how quiet the show was.

The subject of bank balance addiction also arose. A friend of mine now absolutely must check her bank balance online every morning without fail. I used to be much the same with ATMs, constantly checking my balance before I took any money out. Luckily I’m not more blase about it all, but checking your transactions online is a great way to feel more in control of your finances. When another friend told me of a scam happening on the west coast with HSBC members I was able to immediately check that my account was OK, which it was. Very comforting. Also extremely useful when you have a bank account in a foreign country…

ps, I now have some new pastry recipes to try out. This will be aided by the purchase of some proper butter rather than the usual, plastic American crap that most delis sell. Add ‘butter’ (and other unhealthy snacks) to the list of things I like about Britain!

Mmm, chewy

Well my first batch of mince pies taught me to roll the pastry a lot thinner! I also need to go shopping for a proper baking tray for them rather than trying to get a cheapo aluminium (pronounced ‘alum-in-um’ over here of course) muffin trays to work. Nowhere near as nice as the ones from Myers of Keswick but they contain a lot more love, and of course grubby fingerprints.

I’ve also discovered that I now have enough airmiles from Virgin to fly to Hong Kong and back, or South America. Wow. I found that out while I was trying to book a flight back for Christmas. As I watched Orbitz and Expedia the flights got progressively more expensive. ‘Tis the season to be flying to the UK apparently. I was also faced with the quandry that if I follow through with my current plans of travelling come February I only have a few short months left in New York. This means I wanted to try and spend the minimum amount of time back in the UK and consequently I’m not staying there for New Years. Unless I change my mind of course… I normally do. Or do I?

I have the power!

After a ridiculous length of time I have now got DSL! Huzah! So expect some more blogging from me (although I’m sure the reality will be the same as it ever is) over my new high speed connection. Smashing.