Snow Snow Snow

I can remember the last winter I spent in New York was an absolute blinder for snow. There were a record number of snow days at the high school which was great for us kids. Well it seems that New York is having an absolute bonzer year again for snow. I got my first big dump last week. It was snowing pretty heavily when I went to bed and I was up for a shock the next morning.

It was quite exciting as it took about half a day for the weather to make up its mind if it was going to snow or sleet or rain. Once it did start it did not stop for about 24 hours. The city did look nice with a layer of fresh white snow but then the novelty of it wore off in pretty quickly when the cons of snow came. Obviously it's freakin cold for it to be snowing. I did not exactly pack any waterproof shoes so walking through layers of slush and dodging puddles of it was not an easy task. Also I found walking with leather soled work shoes is a bit of an occupational hazard on icy footpaths. Oh and dodging chunks of snow falling from buildings was also fun.

Apparently it is meant to snow once or twice more during March and the weather should start to warm up again. It was quite a relief getting off the plane in Houston today and being able to walk around in a t-shirt in the sun.

Week One (17 Feb 10 - Now)

So I've managed to survive my first week without getting lost, slipping on the ice or getting mugged. First thoughts of New York? I love it. I've been soaking up so many things it is hard to try and remember what I did at the start of the week.

It was a pretty active weekend. The night after I got here (Thursday) I caught up with a mate from work who was over. Ended up going to some over priced mexican place in Times Square. Admitiedly it was probably the fanciest Mexican I had ever had and the Sangria was well nice. She was going to a Broadway show so I bailed and met another mate down in Nolita. This is an area pretty close to where I am staying and it is pretty cool. I ended up at a bar called Public. It was exactly how I imagined a bar would be in New York. Very cool. The jet lagged kicked in a bit later on so pulled the pin at about midnight.

  

Friday I decided to walk through the West Village and head to the Lomo shop. I wanted to check this area out as it was on my radar as a spot to live. I walked from my pad west to the Hudson then down through Greenwich and SoHo and some other areas back again. Must have walked for four hours just in awe that I was in this place. Had my first glipse of the Statue of Liberty. The West Village was pretty nice. It was a little bit sharper than the East Village. For Sydneysiders it is kind of like comparing Newtown to Surry Hills. For people back in G Bangers maybe like the top to bottom end of Pako. The Lomo shop was sensational. It have every camera and gadget you could imagine. I was in heaven. Friday night I met a guy I was going to be working with at a 'Dive' bar. This is basically a pub that sells cheap beer. They are pretty crap but when you are paying 4 bucks for a pint then it's not bad value and hence the crowd. From there we headed to some fancy smancy bar which I have no idea what it was called.

Saturday was more walking but this time south through Chinatown and over the Brooklyn bridge. I was pretty knackered by the end of it so got a subway back. Ahhh the subway. What an experience. I could create a whole seperate blog just on that. I'll save all the gory details for another entry but it's always an entertaining experience. Saturday night I went to Madison Square Garden to watch the Knicks play Oklahoma. It was an awesome game that went into OT. The Knicks should have won but were pipped at the end. It's been a long time between games but I'll definately be back. Planning to go to a Knicks / New Jersey game next weekend. There is some ice hockey on this week as well which could be quite cool. 

 

 

 

Sunday I headed north up 5th Avenue and ended up at Central park. I think I must have walked 30-40kms over the long weekend.

Work was well work. Managed to survive the week. Everyone in the office is cool. The highlight is the kitchen which is so stocked with food and drink for staff it is not funny. The are 5 different types of coffee so I am a happy camper.

The Trip

Ahhhh the flight. Not something I was looking forward to to be honest. I thought it was going to start pretty badly when I queued up for half an hour to check in and then was told I needed a print out of my ticket and not just the reference number. It's been awhile since I have flown international and I had no idea you needed the actual ticket. The problem was the line had doubled and I had no idea where I was going to get a ticket from (Tracy make sure you print yours). As it ends up it was ok seeing I had a visa in my passport for the US. Go figure. That sorted the next one was the luggage. I had prebooked two extra bags and the system was only showing one. Then to top it all off when I asked for an exit row they said it was going to cost an extra 160 dollars. That was a new one. Ah well I ended up doing it but an exit row is always well worth it.

What can I say about the flight? Food crap, movies were average and I got a pounding headache for some reason. The one good thing was it was without a doubt the smoothest flight I have ever had. Immigration in LA was no problems. It was then back onto the same plane and onto New York.

First impressions of New York? Cold. It was lovely and sunny as we jetted across the US. There were some great view as there were no clouds. About 1/2 an hour out we hit some clouds and this was the end of that. As we descended into New York my first glimpses of New York were of low clouds and snow. It was everywhere from a massive snow storm earlier in the week. It is the first snow I had seen in years. Leaving the terminal to get a cab I was hit with the cold for the first time. It was about minus 2 and it took about 1 second to bust out my gloves and beanie which I had stored for quick access. 

At this point I got a cab to the East Village where I was staying. For some reason I thought I was on the 5th floor but it ended up only being the 1st. This was a life saver because with the amount of luggage I had it would have been a nightmare. I'd found this pad via a website called airbnb.com. It's a pretty cool site where people rent out their spare rooms by the night. This place ended up being in a sensaitonal location. It was way cheaper than a hotel. It was also cool as there was another guy called Nicola staying here who was from Sicily. He was over here to try and find an importer for his wine and olive oil which he made back in Italy. The best part was he was very keen for me to try his wines. It did not take much arm twisting and they were really good. 

But my first priority was pizza. I'd developed a major craving for it since I was last in the states 12 years ago. The first time I came to the states was on a student exchange. Every Friday night during this period I would go with my host family up to a local pizza place called Cousins Pizza. This place made the best pizza ever and I truely became addicted. So as you can imagine I was pretty keen to get some pizza, even if it would not be Cousins this time. So I made a beeline down to first street and hit the first pizza place I could find. That did not take long and neither did the time to demolish the beasts. Verdict? Ok but no Cousins. Looking forward to three weekends time when I will be heading North to visit my host family and get my Cousins fix.

The Joys of Moving

You know what I hate about moving? The packing. I guess I was fortunate enought to only have to move a room full of crap but it was still a hell bent two weeks getting things in boxes and moved down to Storage a la Parents. One of the joys of moving with work was they put you in contact with an end to end movement service. This company will organise pretty much everything. In away they were a bit like a car. In this case they were more in alignment with a Rolls Royce. Me well I was after the 88 XF Falcon ute with rust and a window that did not work. I got some quotes to get about 7 cubic metres of stuff moved from Sydney to Geelong. The cheapest one I got was $1400.00. So I got onto Gumtree and made a few calls and managed to get on board a backload going to Melbourne. The best part was it was only going to cost $500.00. The worst part was the guy hardly spoke English and said yes to everything. I was hedging my bets that my stuff was more liekly to end up in Darwin than Geelong. That's assuming it arrived somewhere at all. The other downer was he was going while I was away so that left me two whole joyous nights to pack. With the help of Tracy we somehow managed to get it all done. I think she was quite amused at my inability to throw out cloths, expecally old t-shirts. I blame my mum for that. So for several days I waited in anticipation and sure enough within the hour he said he would drop the stuff off my old mate actually did. Who knows if there are bricks in the boxes or if everything is smashed it got down there. Apart from the stress of stressing it was the easiest move I have done.

I did end up with about four tea chests worth of crap that I was supposedly going to take with me. I mean snow gear which I have not used since 2004 really is essential right? Taking a lead from my last little foray into the world of discount removals and owing to my sick state I got another couple of lads to move my remaining stuff from North Sydney to Bondi. Again no drama Polly Farmer. Lucky for me Tracy's flatmate was away for a couple of weeks and that enabled me to spread out everywhere. It was chaos for awhile there. Somehow I managed to squeeze most of my stuff into several suitcases and all was sorted.

Going, Going

Gone

Prelude to the Trip

Any new adventure needs a farewell to the old one and over the last month I had several little shindigs with close friends to do just that.

Firefly - The VIPs
On Jan 17th I had the Sydney crew get together for a VIP farewell. This was a bunch of people who all contributed to me having such an enjoyable three years in Sydney. We started off at The Deck in Luna Park for some sneaky pre dinner drinks. I always loved this place. The view was great and they had plentiful amounts of over priced Hoegaarden. I arranged a water taxi to come and pick up up at 7.30 and we then headed over to Firefly in Walsh Bay. It was a very opulent way to travel. Especially seeing as I could have got a one way ticket to New Zealand for the same price it cost to take the three minute trip over to the southside. It was belting down rain when we left but that did not dampen anyone's enthusiasm. I was quietly carrying the beginning of one of the worst colds I have ever had but was hell bent on having a cracking night. We had the run of the place with the size of our group. If you have never been to Firefly then go. The 13 course banquet is amazing. The duck pancakes are one of the most delicious tapa's dishes I have ever had. After wrapping up at Firefly we headed to the dirty Stab for a bit of a laugh on their infamous dry cleaning night. The next day I was awoken by several calls from PJ who was calling Tim in as MIA. He eventually turned up minus his shoes, wallet, phone and half his neck.

Rengaya - The Interstaters
The next little shindig that I had was with the interstate imports. Poodle, Thorpie, Rich and Tina all came from around the traps. An interesting weekend to say the least. I'm trying to think if anything else could have gone wrong. By now my cold was in full effect and after flying back from the tennis was deaf in my left ear. We started off at the RSL under Bondi Icebergs for a few frothies. Being completely lame and drugged up on all types of joy I went with the light beer option. It took a solid four rounds before we all dried off from the soaking rain. Yes Poodle I can hear you say my life is f@#ked in Sydney. We then collected Tracy and headed to Wagayu in Darling Harbour. This is a cool Japanese place where you order your food on a computer screen. They also have this cool dish called Sushi Roulette where 6 salmon sushi rolls come out and one is loaded with Wasabi. Being consistent with the disasters so far we rocked up and the place was closed up. No idea why. Made a quick call and headed round the corner to Rengaya. This is an awesome Japanese BBQ place which is super cheap and super fun. We all then spent the next 2 hours smashing down bbq pretty much everything you can imagine. Nick demonstrated a cool little iPhone trick to get some funny mug shots of people. A few goodbyes were said and then a few of us headed up to The Local in Surry Hills. This place has some prime beers on tap and a very funky feel. A few more bevs and we called it a night. Chuck and Nick had a great time getting to know the locals down at Cafe M in Bondi the next day. Love those baked beans.

A Tavola - Bromance
My plans for a final soiree at Tatsuya was destroyed when I found out they were not open on Mondays. The scene was set for one last Bromance down in ole Darlinghurst. We started at dirty Cabana bar up in St Leonards for a few sneaky afternoon beers. We then headed down to one of my Sydney favs, The Darlo bar for a few more pre dinner frothies. This was one of the first pubs I ever had a beer in Sydney so it was quite fitting to head back there for one of my last. From there we headed to A Tavola which is this wicked little Italian place on Victoria St. They make fresh pasta everyday and it is always sensational. Make sure if you go you order off the specials board as this is always the freshest. The other highlight of this place is they serve an excellent Italian beer called Menebrea. All round a great night capped off by a group singing of Frank Sinatra's New York New York. Big thanks to PJ for treating everyone to their meal.