I'm in Miami B#!@h!

Hi All,
Well I arrived back last night from Miami - the city of glamour, crystal blue water, partying and a whole lot of plastic (in both wallets and you know where!).  What you see on the movies/tv is what you get (minus the 'orange hue' that you see on CSI Miami).  I arrived Sunday afternoon to my room not being ready, so I plonked myself outside to enjoy the Miami heat and catch up on emails.  Going on outside was the hotel's weekly pool party - plenty of sun, pool, booze and loud 90s club music.... oh yeah, and butie..I learnt through a magazine advertsing underwear that gives you a butie that's how it's supposed to be spelt as opposed to bootie... anyway, where was I?  Oh yeah, hotel pool party... anyway, I spent the afternoon people watching (and sadly working at the same time), strategically positioning myself away from the plastic, oh I mean action, but with a good view of what was going on.  Let's just say this butie does not belong with the Miami butie!

Anyway, then I went to my room and was introduced to Kiki who I was sharing a room with - she was a little freaky at the start, but after a few days we learnt to like each other!




So, I didn't go to Miami to just sit by the pool and hang out with Kiki, I was there to work... it was great to meet the team and to get down to business (I'm going to keep the work stuff minimal on my blog, but for those of you that are interested in what I'm doing from a work perspective, just send me an email).

Just to add to the Miami glamour, Dita Von Teese was holding a launch party at our hotel for Cointreau.  Funny, they must've forgotten to slip me my invitation.  The party was full of more glamorous Miami butie - huge high heels and tiny dresses.. well, from the outside that's what it looked like.  Dita on the other hand was tiny and petite and wearing this amazing full length dress - she has a face like a porclein doll.  Sadly enough, I couldn't build up the courage to get a photo with her, but I make it my aim whilst in the world of celebrities to try and spot a celebrity each month and to get a photo with them - I've put it in words now, there's no going back.

Well, got back into NY last night and took myself off to the movies and watched Twilight - OMG... so good!  Happy to say the movie experience is very similar to Australia, so I managed this one with relatively little issue.  Today I spent a lovely morning walking around Central Park.  It is autumn now (or in my yankee accent 'fall') going into winter so the colours were amazing.  The park was so full of activity -  there was a fun run, the ice skating rink now has ice in it and lots of tourists and locals enjoying the sites.  The park is amazing, beyond the skating rink, there's also a huge lake, baseball parks, restaurants, special gardens and walks.  I've only seen a small portion of the park, so I know there's so much more to explore there.  I ended up walking for about 2 hours - I only planned to walk for 1.  I might say it was only because I was enjoying myself so much, which is 1/2 true, but I also got myself a little bit lost!  Anyway, I managed to navigate myself back home.  It was another beautiful day - 17 degrees, but back down to 11 tomorrow. 

Also went and did a proper shop today.  It's great, the supermarket deliver free to your apartment.  I'm still not used to the food though - food shopping is really hard and trying to find things is a challenge... I was looking for beef stock, couldn't find it so asked the supermarket guy for help.  He just looked at me like I was crazy - anyway, I eventually found it on my own...seems that it's called broth over here...  Also seems the yanks are struggling with accent.  Everytime I have to spell my name, I go, Zed, I, E... and I get a funny look.  So I start again, and say Zeeeeee, I, E... more funny looks.  I look down at the sheet of paper and they are putting A instead of E ;)  I'm not going to change my accent though - my uncle Mick managed to keep an aussie accent for 5 years in London, so I can do this same in 2 years in the US!

I got the fright of my life this afternoon when this excrutiatingly (not sure if that's a word, but oh well...) loud buzz went off in my apartment and I couldn't find where it was coming from.  I opened the door, noone was there, so it wasn't my door bell (I don't think I actually have one), I picked up the phone, but there was noone there, and then the buzz went off again.... I hunted the sound to my kitchen and found another phone (separate line to my telephone) which is my line to the doorman of the building.  The nice man on the other end was kindly letting me know the shopping delivery man was on his way up... anyway, I think there's going to be a lot of 'firsts' like these for a while. 

So, this week is now only a 3 day working week - it's thanksgiving on Thursday and Black Friday on Friday (obviously!).  Apparently the sales on Friday are extraordinary, they open the stores from midnight Thursday and there are lines and lines of people.  If I'm not doing anything... what am I saying, of course I'm not doing anything... I might have to see if I can bag myself a bargain!   In saying that, I've made a friend with an Australian lady from work, who lives here with her family. They've invited me to the Macy's Thanksgiving parade on Thursday - this is the one with the giant balloons;  and also to a murder mystery night on Friday.   Should be a hoot - it's a dress up, so right up my alley...  not sure who my character is yet though - let's just say the suspense is killing me... get it, suspense... killing....? ;) (I think I'm funny!)  I'll be sure to take plenty of snaps - I've been slack lately but promise to do better in this area!

Well, that's the bogan signing off for another week.

Ciao,
Michele