Dash Date and the Latest Storm

On the weekend Tracy gave Dasha a little bit of a bath. This was in preparation of his first day at dog kinda. Yes this is starting to sound sad. Anyway You can see a bit of a change of how much he has grown in 2 months......

Dasha November 2010

Dasha Jan 2011

They were both a bit tired after the wash

Overnight we had another pretty large dump of snow. There was about 8 inches in the West Village. It's a bad sign when you think in inches and not the good ole logical metric system. The storm was a little different from the blizzard we had on Boxing Day. It was a lot calmer so the snow really stuck to trees and buildings. It looked really cool. Jane St was amazing with all the snow covered trees. I made a pre work bolt for the high line hoping to get a few snaps down there but they had not opened it. I might head there tomorrow for a bit of a look. This time round the City was much better prepared after the schlacking they got on Boxing day for not clearing snow. And the forecast for the coming days...... More snow. Even the 'natives' are spinning out at the amount of snow we've had so far this winter. La Nina or whatever it is called is out of control.

Southern end of the High Line, Meatpacking District

West 4th St, West Village

Jane St, West Village

The Deck. Not so inviting for a bevvie this time of year.

A-meat-i-ca Part I

This is a first entry in a series of blogs I'm going to dedicate to meat in America. On the surface a country famous for a juicy steak but under the hood it's a little different. Part I is dedicated to my all time fav meat. The humble loin lamb chop. I used to love getting these back in Oz and covering in dried lamb herbs. I remember my granny cooking them (Hi Gran - your on the web forever now) and I could have easily eaten them by the dozen. So this week I took my new favorite American past time of ordering online and getting it delivered and got some chops. 


I used Fresh Direct which I am a total convert to. The beauty of this town is EVERYTHING gets delivered. Lamb in itself is quite difficult to find in Manhattan. I don't know if this is common across the rest of the country but these fine folk don't know what a delicious dish they are missing out on. Anyway I ordered some chops online but in my haste I failed to look at the price of them. I got the shock of my life today when I went to cook them and saw how much they were. Aussies please sit down. Four lamb chops were a last 33 clams. OMG. I freaked out. I could have got a filet mignon for cheaper. 


Admittedly the chops were delicious but 33 bucks. C'mon. Upon reading the label I noticed they were antibiotic free. I love a country which has a knackered healthcare system yet can feed their cows antibiotics. Hmmm maybe that was why they were so expensive because the sheep were raised a bit more naturally.


Anyway here are a couple of pics of what 33 dollar lamb chops look like when they are cooking and the end result. Dasha could not have done a better job. Stay tuned for Part II, yellow chicken.

Dash-Date

Thought I'd post a quick update on the little Rat a.k.a Dasha. He is now four months old and weighing in at a healthy 7 pounds. He is basically into chewing everything that he is not meant to chew. His day consists of this:


1: Sleeping
2: Eating
3: Pooing
4: Weeing
5: Demanding attention
6: Barking to start the cycle at point one again.


We still love him to death though. He has had his last shots so we can now take him outside for walks. It's interesting as NYC is such a hard city but when you have a dog it's amazing the number of people that come up and talk to you. He is very spoilt and even has an electric blanket in his bed. Anyway here are some of the latest and greatest snaps.

Let it Snow, 2010

Boxing Day 2010 was defiantly one to remember. It was the start of the 6th biggest snow storm to ever hit NYC. We knew the snow was coming but decided to brave it and headed up to Central Park to go ice skating. Sadly they were closing as we got there due to to much snow so we ended up hitting the Plaza and having some over priced coffees. Tracy and Di then split and went to a Broadway show and Nick, Beata and myself went and grabbed some grub and headed home. It was really at night when the show started. There was a constant heavy down pouring of snow and the wind was really kicking in. It was quite entertaining watching some of the people try and walk in it. Over the period of 24 hours we had nearly 30 inches of snow. 


Monday morning had a very post apocalyptic feeling to it. People were walking on the roads as the footpaths were covered in snow. There wee hardly any cars around. I was only one of four people who made it into the office. On my way to work I stopped in at Central Park and in an attempt to get photos ended up to my thighs in snow. In jeans this is not the most pleasant experience. Walking around that afternoon you could see dozens of cars stuck in the snow. I even saw someone skiing to work. That's not an everyday occurrence in Manhattan. 


Since the storm we've had spring like weather and the majority of the snow has melted. What's left is a mix of disgusting slush and rubbish. The garbo's have not been able to collect rubbish in nearly a week so the sidewalks are pretty gross. There is also a lot of controversy about the city's inability to clear snow in certain parts of the city, especially outside of Manhattan. All in all quite an interesting experience.