Our sea shipment arrived on Monday - Martin Luther King Day so I had it off. Still, I had to go in for a bit to try to clear some of the backlog but I got home at lunchtime just as the last boxes were being emptied. It was a bomb-site and amusing to see some of the stuff the packers had brough, including the recycling. Several plastic bottles and carboard travelled from Leytonstone, East London to the West Village, New York, to be recycled.
J worked non stop until it was all unpacked and sorted out. Pippin and I just tried to stay out of the way.
It is complete now and gradually the few pieces we were missing have arrived, including an enormous television on Friday. Harriet's room is packed full of her toys and I think she was genuinely pleased to see some old friends again.
On Saturday we took the train to the Upper West Side. Keen followers of my Facebook feed will know how disgusted I was to have to buy a bag for Pippin. Those it seems are the rules: dogs must be in carry cases to travel on the subway so in she went. It was cold, very cold but still bearable and we had an enjoyable walk through more of the park. We took the train home, dropped off Pippin and went for dinner in Applebees at Time Square.
It really hit home how grown up she is when she ate her macaroni and cheese from the kids' menu with her own spoon. It wasn't a faultless performance by any means but still an amazing sight considering our first week here when she struggled to adapt to the new diet and lack of her favourite foods.
Sunday has been cold - very, very cold. The forecast put the high today at -5 and tomorrow it will be even worse at -8. We ventured no further than Washington Square park to try out the dog run for Pippin. Sadly, she was not in the mood to socialise, with other dogs at least, and she refused to join in the fun. They have two dogs runs - one for the small dogs and one for the big ones. The other Westie was in the big dog run so perhaps Pip felt ashamed to be stuck with the toy dogs but more likely she is just not a dog dog. It was one of the times I really missed Billy because the big dogs were having a whale of a time running about.
Big week again this week - Wednesday in particular. For the moment I will just enjoy the furnished apartment.
Sunday 23 January 2011
Sunday 9 January 2011
The First Week
It was a first day like many first days. I was carrying stacks of paperwork along with all my valuable documents and proof of identity.
It began with a drugs test. I would find this odd in the UK but somehow it seems normal here. It is carried out with the humourless efficiency that the US does so well. Once I had provided an adequate sample and the paperwork was completed my automaton escort suddenly became human again and was chatting away about the weather. Americans talk about the weather a lot - in the subsequent orientation session it was the default icebreaker and the correct response whenever the other person let slip from where they hailed. All you had to do was choose: "Oh you must be used to snow much worse than this (Minnesota etc)" or "How lovely it must be for you to experience seasons (San Diego etc)".
The frustrating thing was that I was not actually starting a new job of course. When the session finished and I took the elevator up to the risk management floor I logged on remotely to my London computer. All the problems I had before I still had, just with the novelty of my clock telling me it was 8pm.
The next day we were scheduled to go out with our real estate agent. She began by showing us an enormous two bed-room apartment. This was much larger than I had expected that we could afford but came with the catch that it lacked natural light and was on 23rd street - on the main cross streets in NY (i.e. extremely noisy). The next place was in a coverted hotel on Madison Square Park just opposite my work. This was beautifully presented with top spec furnings but of course much smaller.
Then we set off downtown towards Greenwich Village. This was an area we had indicated we would be interested in. It is mainly residential so there should be more life around than other parts of Manhattan and it is charming. It has no grid system so is trickier to navigate with plenty of parks, including Washington Square Park in the centre. There should be more for J and H to do during the day than the area outside my office but it is hardly far from it.
The trouble with the Village is that most of the buildings are old and we did not want to deal with steps. However, our agent found one elevator building on Christopher Street. It was lovely, really lovely and being one of the tallest buildings around had fantastic views both south and north. The problem was that it was far too small.
So off we set again. The next and final stop was a building over to the west with excellent views of the Hudson. It's in the 'Roman Utilitarian' style - the Roman bit meaning it has arches and the Utilitarian bit referring to its simple orange/red brick exterior and original purpose first as a waterfront warehouse and then as a federal archive building. The entrance hall looks like a very grand hotel but I was not much interested because it was described as one bedroom and was above our budget.
It turned out that it was a duplex apartment and while only technically one bedroom it had a loft area with its own bathroom and acres of storage. The agent had almost not shown it to us because many people with children will not consider apartments with stairs but we are used to it of course. We would need to retain our stair-gates but apart from that it was perfect. Harriet could have the downstairs bedroom and we would take the upstairs. It lacks the city-scape views of the previous place but it has stunning views of the Hudson. There are only two windows but there is no lack of light with such enormous double height windows.
We looked at some other places on-line that the agent sent but it was clear we had made our decision and so we put our names forward for it. There was a lot more scanning of documents and paperwork but we got the approval on Thursday so we are set for next week. Our air shipment has arrived - fingers crossed that our sea shipment comes quickly otherwise we shall be sleeping on the floor!
It began with a drugs test. I would find this odd in the UK but somehow it seems normal here. It is carried out with the humourless efficiency that the US does so well. Once I had provided an adequate sample and the paperwork was completed my automaton escort suddenly became human again and was chatting away about the weather. Americans talk about the weather a lot - in the subsequent orientation session it was the default icebreaker and the correct response whenever the other person let slip from where they hailed. All you had to do was choose: "Oh you must be used to snow much worse than this (Minnesota etc)" or "How lovely it must be for you to experience seasons (San Diego etc)".
The frustrating thing was that I was not actually starting a new job of course. When the session finished and I took the elevator up to the risk management floor I logged on remotely to my London computer. All the problems I had before I still had, just with the novelty of my clock telling me it was 8pm.
The next day we were scheduled to go out with our real estate agent. She began by showing us an enormous two bed-room apartment. This was much larger than I had expected that we could afford but came with the catch that it lacked natural light and was on 23rd street - on the main cross streets in NY (i.e. extremely noisy). The next place was in a coverted hotel on Madison Square Park just opposite my work. This was beautifully presented with top spec furnings but of course much smaller.
Then we set off downtown towards Greenwich Village. This was an area we had indicated we would be interested in. It is mainly residential so there should be more life around than other parts of Manhattan and it is charming. It has no grid system so is trickier to navigate with plenty of parks, including Washington Square Park in the centre. There should be more for J and H to do during the day than the area outside my office but it is hardly far from it.
The trouble with the Village is that most of the buildings are old and we did not want to deal with steps. However, our agent found one elevator building on Christopher Street. It was lovely, really lovely and being one of the tallest buildings around had fantastic views both south and north. The problem was that it was far too small.
So off we set again. The next and final stop was a building over to the west with excellent views of the Hudson. It's in the 'Roman Utilitarian' style - the Roman bit meaning it has arches and the Utilitarian bit referring to its simple orange/red brick exterior and original purpose first as a waterfront warehouse and then as a federal archive building. The entrance hall looks like a very grand hotel but I was not much interested because it was described as one bedroom and was above our budget.
It turned out that it was a duplex apartment and while only technically one bedroom it had a loft area with its own bathroom and acres of storage. The agent had almost not shown it to us because many people with children will not consider apartments with stairs but we are used to it of course. We would need to retain our stair-gates but apart from that it was perfect. Harriet could have the downstairs bedroom and we would take the upstairs. It lacks the city-scape views of the previous place but it has stunning views of the Hudson. There are only two windows but there is no lack of light with such enormous double height windows.
We looked at some other places on-line that the agent sent but it was clear we had made our decision and so we put our names forward for it. There was a lot more scanning of documents and paperwork but we got the approval on Thursday so we are set for next week. Our air shipment has arrived - fingers crossed that our sea shipment comes quickly otherwise we shall be sleeping on the floor!
Sunday 2 January 2011
Resolutions
Sometimes it is better to have an experience second hand. I follow Graham Linehan on Twitter and a particular favourite is when he retweets something by Jedward. Yesterday he prefaced the tweet with 'Gaze on their works, ye Mighty and despair'. It's perfect because it combines X-Factor with Shelley; just the sort of culture clash I like.
It never seems wise to say what one will do over the coming year because we are all at the mercy of events. If I restrict myself to things that are directly within my control then I plan to read more this year. Commuting from Essex on the Central line was hellish but at least it gave me a chance to read. Once we had moved to London and my commute dropped to half an hour door to door I didn't look at a book again. I didn't even read the Metro because we were so often behind on TV series thanks to Virgin+ that I couldn't run the risk of reading something that gave the game away. So I played games on the iPhone or otherwise looked idylly out of the window as the DLR toy train trundled its way through East London.
I need of course to restart the gym. It was becoming fairly successful towards the end of last year. I decided there was nothing for it but to start doing a lot of cardio. It is absolute tedium. Perhaps I can get some audio books and combine the two goals? Or is an audio book little better than seeing the film - shall I miss too much? Anyway, I need to redouble my efforts in the gym because after all I am now living in a country not known for its restraint in portion sizes. To date I have been enjoying the Buffalo wings but that will have to stop, at least in the quantity.
I resolve to maintain old friendships. I wasn't able to see everyone before I left but of course I will be back and I am expecting some people to make the trip over pretty quickly (note to Sarah - as soon as the X-Factor US dates are announced I expect you to organise your sabatical sharpish and by the way I have already found a shop dedicated to selling macaroons). We have already been able to have a few Skype conversations and Harriet seems to be getting a bit more used to it.
Some people will need to be replaced. Not real people I know but famous people whose work I consume. There were two excellent articles in this Sunday's Observer by Victoria Coren (on Elton and David's baby) and David Mitchell. Alas, there will only be so long we can follow a lot of the British twitterati because they inevitably talk about TV that we can't get. Somehow we need to find their US equivalents and soon.
To our global network of family and friends: a Happy and Healthy 2011. If I'm not up to date with the Booker long-list, US reality TV and finally wearing my Abercrombie & Fitch shirt you can sue me. Hopefully our family will have grown again and we will have nothing you can claim in court except our best wishes for 2012.
It never seems wise to say what one will do over the coming year because we are all at the mercy of events. If I restrict myself to things that are directly within my control then I plan to read more this year. Commuting from Essex on the Central line was hellish but at least it gave me a chance to read. Once we had moved to London and my commute dropped to half an hour door to door I didn't look at a book again. I didn't even read the Metro because we were so often behind on TV series thanks to Virgin+ that I couldn't run the risk of reading something that gave the game away. So I played games on the iPhone or otherwise looked idylly out of the window as the DLR toy train trundled its way through East London.
I need of course to restart the gym. It was becoming fairly successful towards the end of last year. I decided there was nothing for it but to start doing a lot of cardio. It is absolute tedium. Perhaps I can get some audio books and combine the two goals? Or is an audio book little better than seeing the film - shall I miss too much? Anyway, I need to redouble my efforts in the gym because after all I am now living in a country not known for its restraint in portion sizes. To date I have been enjoying the Buffalo wings but that will have to stop, at least in the quantity.
I resolve to maintain old friendships. I wasn't able to see everyone before I left but of course I will be back and I am expecting some people to make the trip over pretty quickly (note to Sarah - as soon as the X-Factor US dates are announced I expect you to organise your sabatical sharpish and by the way I have already found a shop dedicated to selling macaroons). We have already been able to have a few Skype conversations and Harriet seems to be getting a bit more used to it.
Some people will need to be replaced. Not real people I know but famous people whose work I consume. There were two excellent articles in this Sunday's Observer by Victoria Coren (on Elton and David's baby) and David Mitchell. Alas, there will only be so long we can follow a lot of the British twitterati because they inevitably talk about TV that we can't get. Somehow we need to find their US equivalents and soon.
To our global network of family and friends: a Happy and Healthy 2011. If I'm not up to date with the Booker long-list, US reality TV and finally wearing my Abercrombie & Fitch shirt you can sue me. Hopefully our family will have grown again and we will have nothing you can claim in court except our best wishes for 2012.
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