Queens of New York

Howdy folks!

Wow, what a few days... So much to report, so grab yourself a cup of tea and a tim tam, and settle in for the ride.  We've got stories, some fascinating facts, and a few pics!

Where to start?... how about the weather (always such an interesting way to start a conversation!)?  Last week the weather was around 25 degrees and humid for 3 consecutive days, with a record high temp hit on Thursday for March. It was extraordinary. Jodie even got burnt on Friday.  Though not as warm and due for a weekend of rain, it held out okay, with only some drizzle Sunday morning.  All in all it was manageable without the need to be wrapped up like the Michelin man (little fact #1 : my nickname was Michelin when I was a youngen).  Local New Yorkers like myself (he he he) were so grateful that the winter had passed, not just officially, but for real!...  Oh, but then old mother nature kicks in for a bit of a chuckle and throws in a doozy. The day disguised itself as a 10 degree day, not too bad, a standard winter coat should do it.  But then throw in wind gusts and -1 windchill and you quickly remember where you are!... particularly without the essential ear muffs and gloves that have been quietly gathering dust on the shelf over the past month or so.... Hooly dooly - makes you know you're alive!

So since Friday night, Jodie and I haven't stopped.... Friday night comes and Jodie joins me at work and we go over the road to an old school bar for a few bubblies and a meal with another lady from work, Yaelle, that Jodie used to work with in Switzerland.  Top night of lots of talking and laughing - nice way to start the weekend.  Jodie and I then made our way back to Port Authority (little fact #2 : Port Authority is the world's busiest bus terminal with over 7,200 bus arrivals and depatures per day!), but to get there we need to go via times square.  Firstly we stop at a big sport's store Modell's, so Jodie could look at some runners - world's worst attitude workers... too cool for school, and obviously too cool for good service as well, but at least they were fun to poke fun at particularly after a few glasses of wine.  A few pairs of runners later and the journey to Port Authority starts again -  it went something like this: "Wow, look at all the side show people that do drawings....let's get a caricature drawn"..."what a great idea!" 

What you can't see from this image is that the outfit Jodie is wearing is actually a one piece black bathing suit and she's holding a martini - no, she wasn't drinking a martini whilst we were getting the picture drawn :)

Finally we make it to Port Authority at midnight and the line for the bus was extraordinary.  Finally, at home it's 12:45am and we're finally home and catch some zzzzzzzzz's.

Come Saturday and a walk across Brooklyn Bridge was on the agenda (Little Fact #3: The area on the other side of Brooklyn Bridge is known as Dumbo - it stands for Down Under Manhattan Bridge Overpass - Manhattan Bridge is very close to Brooklyn Bridge).  Then over to Seaport which is right on the river and where we were meeting Yaelle, who had offered to show us the best view of the Brooklyn Bridge in NY.  Here's my fave pic from the walk.

After Seaport we walk over to Wall Street, my first trip there would you believe and it really is an unassuming and small street, not what you would imagine, but anyway, we travelled this way to check out Yaelle's apartment view (stunning!) and then to a great restaurant for lunch.  Walking into this restaurant in the Finance District and it felt like I was sitting at the Reefton Pub for a counter lunch - smell and all!  All the workers were Irish, and even though I come from Irish blood, I couldn't even understand the waitress (Uncle Mick C, I understand it if you want to disown me). Whilst I enjoyed a great turkey club sandwich (could I be getting any more American), Jodie ordered the Porterhouse Salad - sounded good on the menu, but when it arrived she's diving through the lashings of  lettuce, tomato and onion in search for said Porterhouse, but was very devastated to find that it was named Porterhouse after the name of the restaurant, not as a descriptor of the meat that would accompany the other not so filling ingredients - not so good after walking all over the place.   But, over lunch our legs enjoyed a well deserved rest ready for the next round.  Next round and we're headed up to Soho (Little fact #4 & 5: Soho stands for South of Houston Street; Houston St in NY is actually pronounced House-sten, as opposed to the city Houston, which is pronounced Hew-ston) in search of a great boot shop.  Jodie is on the hunt for black flat boots, that have to have a zip (they're too gumbooty without them...), can't be textured ("makes them look cheap") or have any suede or other features, except maybe a small buckle, and oh yeah, no chunkyish heels.  Surprisingly, in the store with I reckon 150 styles of boots, Jodie couldn't find what she was looking for - I really don't know why!

Oh oh!  we need to be back up in midtown by 3:45pm for more bubbles before a facial for Judy's birthday.  It's 3:35, we'll be fine if we catch the subway, the stop's very close at this end and at the other.... oh shoot, the subway is closed for track works for trains travelling uptown... it's okay let's catch a cab, it's only 30 blocks, we'll be fine.... "can you please get us to 45th street in 10 mins"... chuckle sound from cab driver... oh dear... oh no, road works, it's okay we don't really need to get there at quarter to, as long as we're there by 4pm in time for the facial, we'll be fine... great, we're past the road works... what the hell, why are there all these camera crews ahead?... bloody hell, stupid Occupy Wall Street Protesters that aren't even in Wall street, but in Union Square... opportunity for a couple of shots of all the misfits protesting about who knows what, but I'll make assumptions based on the little amount of news that I watch and take a stab that it's about capitalism, and what a way to make a point than to film themselves protesting with their iPads....anyway, we're on a mission...why is the cab driver taking us through Union Square for crying out loud?... okay finally through Union Square... oh dear, it's now 4:03pm.... cab driver is the most unaggressive NYC cab driver and seems to purposely be stopping at every amber light along the way.... "I don't care that we're a block away, just stop here... Jodie, just run... we can make it".... we make it into the W hotel where the spa is and the crew are still there sipping bubbles and casually stand up as we arrive ready for us to make our way up... ohhhh, I get it, say that it starts at 4pm, when really it starts at 4.20, so people like me that arrive late don't ruin it for everyone... this facial better be bloody good, my stress levels are up to here and for no reason at all!

So, said facial was very nice, maybe not worth the extraordinary NY price and maybe I would've relaxed a little more if they didn't try to upsell me throughout the entire process, but still very nice.  I emerged from my facial with a full head of oil and a plastic shower cap, but the problem was we were then onto dinner straight afterwards.  Never fear, hair up in bun and headband will have to do.  Off to dinner we trotted to a great Spanish restaurant where I enjoyed a beautiful paella - very, very good.  Poor Judy ordered a squid dish and the entire thing was black!  Very difficult to enjoy a meal that looks like that.  But the night did not end there.  Next stop a charity band event.  The charity was for a women's shelter run by a local church.  I'm not so convinced about their event management skills, but nevertheless it was a bit of fun.  So, next stop is not home, next we're on to dessert.  We find a little Italian restaurant and enjoy a bit of dessert and some coffees (well, not me as I don't like the stuff, coffee that is) and cocktails (sounds more like me doesn't it!).  Final stop was then karaoke, but as they had stopped serving food, young Edward (Judy's 16 year old son) couldn't get in and we couldn't exactly hide him because he'd be the first to jump up on stage.  Instead we went to another bar close by for a final night cap - they let Edward in this time  (seems the laws on this one are a bit loose) because he was accompanied by his mum.  After that, Jodie and I set off to Port Authority, this time timing perfect as the bus turned up.  Luckily it started sprinkling just as we were arriving there - I fear I would've been in for another caricature had the night been fine.

Exhausted yet?  Yes, so were we.  Come Saturday night poor Jodie's jetlag kicked in and didn't get much sleep, if any, during the night and darn my body clock, even though going to bed at 2am, I still woke up at 7am - grrrrr!  But, no rest for the wicked, off we set for Manhattan again, umbrella in hand in preparation for the forecasted rain.  First stop, Hell's Kitchen market - one of my faves... no vintage Chanel classics this time (I can't remember if I told you about these, but I found a fabulous pair of vintage Chanel shoes at this market when mum was here that had hardly been worn and they are just beautiful... wore them yesterday actually!)... anyway, no classic Chanel, but we did find this beautiful piece....

Next step MOMA - Museum of Modern Arts - but not actually the museum (not enough time), but the gift store instead.  This is such a cool place and one worth a look.  I came here with Mum as well who also loved it and you can spend a lot of time in here.  They basically have a whole lot of really cool and really well designed (quirky or practical) homewares, jewellry, toys etc. etc.   Next stop a long walk down town to 7th street (we were at 53rd) to get tickets to see Stomp (Little fact #6: Stomp has been in NYC since 1994 and been in the same venue the whole time - a tiny little theatre 'off Broadway').  We planned on seeing the 2pm show but discovered when we were there we could get cheaper tickets (nearly 1/2 the price) for the 5:30pm show, so despite the two of us being dog tired, we booked in for that one.  Ok, now we have a few hours to spare.  Let's head back to Soho to check out the shops that we didn't get a chance to look at yesterday, but first, some food!   Both of us wanted a bagel for lunch (I did say I am turning American), but do you think we could find one.... On the hunt for bagels we stopped at every single shoe store in hunt for black boots (yes, still with no luck) and asked one of the shop employees if they knew a good bagel store and yes, just around the corner.   Off we set to the little cafe, and settle in with the menu - what?  no bagels on the menu?  For crying out loud!!!!  As we were both starving by this point and completely incapable of working any more steps in the short term, a sandwich will have to do instead.  After lunch, we set on further to Soho and I randomly picked a street to walk down (I don't know this part of town at all), and we stumble past this shoe store that I had gone to last July when I was here on a trip.  When I was here in July I had bought this beautiful pair of black Italian shoes that had been on special.  I loved these shoes, but after the Christmas party, I lost one of my shoes on the way home because although beautiful, they are not necessarily so comfortable, and in NYC you always bring two pairs of shoes - flats and heels.  So, I had been devastated since Christmas that I had lost this shoe.  That morning I said to Jodie my shoe story as I had the purchase of a black pair of shoes on my agenda for the day.  So, anyway, I went into this store and would you believe they had one pair of the same shoes left on the sale rack for $100 (they were reduced from $400 - don't worry, I didn't pay full price first time either)!  I just went in thinking how funny it would be if they had these shoes with not even one iota of hope that I would, but for some reason god was on my side.  I tell you, it brought a tear to my eye... no, seriously it did.

So, after some shopping we made our way back to the theatre to enjoy 1 hour and 45 minutes of an extreme adrenalin filled show - these performers were unbelievable.  Not only are they percussion experts (ability to play the drums and make noise with everything), but they dance, they interact with the audience without saying one word and they are really funny.  It was an awesome show and a must-see for any visitor.  As you can imagine it was so loud, but Jodie in her tire, managed to nod off a couple of times (nothing to do with the entertainment of the show, more to do with jet lag).

Well, that was the end of our day, me with my favorite shoes in hand, Jodie with no boots in hand, and off we headed for the subway (another 20 minute walk) and then the bus.  We had left at 10am and got home at 9:30pm... and my feet can validate that we walked around 8 miles, which is over 13 kms in just that day.   This is our shot on the bus home - our bags under our eyes are so big they are suitcases!

So today is now Tuesday night, and we went to Priscilla, Queen of the Desert on Broadway tonight.  So freakin awesome!  There was a scene based in Broken Hill with this mullet woman whose boobs were hanging to her belly button, which was so hilarious (a real bogan in the city!) - Jodie and I were in absolute hysterics (I think I may have even snorted a few times), but the Yanks didn't get it so the two of us were the only ones laughing through a whole song.  Then there was a barn dance scene and I guess they didn't think they were quite cutting the mustard when it came to doing barn dancing and singing "Thank God I'm a Country Boy", so they pulled Jodie and I (... okay and about 8 others) on stage to show them how it was done.  OMG... I'm still on a high!  We got to do a bow and everything.  It was such a hoot and and I can now officially say I am a Broadway Star (... in my own lunchbox anyway).

Well, I hope you're still there... I did warn you!  I hope you enjoyed your coffee, tim tam and what I hope was a good read.  There's still a lot more on the agenda this week, so watch out for my next installment!

Michele

Hittin' The Books

Hi Everyone,
long time... no write!  Sorry I've been absent.  All I can say is that I have spent waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too much time in front of my computer studying.... and if I spent anymore time in front of my laptop (even to write a fun blog) it may have tipped me over the edge and brought me to stab myself in the eye with a pen - youch!

So, for the past year, finishing on Friday, I participated in the HR Development Program through work and run by Cornell University.  I am now an (un)official Ivy League graduate!  The work for the program was extremely intense for the 12 months, but moreso in the past couple of months, so much so my weekends have been spent writing a white paper on building "PMI as a learning organization" - I know it sounds fun and you're all jealous, and you too want to live in NY just so you can lock yourself away to study... The truth of the matter is is that I could have been living anywhere in the world the past few weeks and it wouldn't matter because my weekends and nights were all consumed with writing this paper.  Happily, the program finished last week and we all got our beautiful certificates.  The problem was for the final week of the program, not only was I a participant, but also the organiser, so needless to say it was extremely stressful, but it was successful. 

So, you'd think come Friday afternoon I would be ecstatic that I no longer had homework - noooooooooooooo, in fact my uni semester kicked off again a few weeks ago, and I had an assignment due in on Monday and as my time had been consumed with my Cornell White Paper, my poor Monash assignment was neglected - well, you can't be neglected if you haven't even been created... anyway, so this past weekend was 48 hours ful of reading countless articles and typing a 3000 word paper.  It was horrific!... Now, I hope you can understand why I was at risk of stabbing myself in the eye with a pen.  No greater relief could be felt than when I pressed submit on that paper - suddenly the world turned from grey to bright, fuzzy to sharp, painful to delightful... and on and on and on....

Spring just started here this week (random fact - US seasons don't follow the same months as ours - i.e. Winter finished on March 21, instead of Feb 29)...and it was 25 degrees today, so fabulous.  The trees are starting to bloom, the NY uniform of black and grey has been replaced with spectacular colours, and the days are now much longer... ahhhh :)

Another random fact for you, two weeks ago was the 100 year anniversary of the Oreo, the number one biscuit in the USA.  The Oreo was first made in the site that is now the Chelsea Market - for those not familiar with the Chelsea Market, it is a beautiful old warehouse style building that now houses a really fabulous, trendy, gourmet market.

A friend, Jodie, has just arrived in town tonight, so watch out NY!!!!  It's my first NJ house guest.  A little more roomier (lucky for her) than my old apartment, where only a mother would put up with someone in that space.  More importantly (just kidding Jodie), on delivery was a big jar of Vegemite and a couple of packs of tim tams (trust me, these hips don't need them....), but yum, yum, yum!   Jodie and I have a jam packed couple of weeks, so I look forward to reporting in with more antics.

I hope you are all going fantastically! 

Signing off!
Michele

"Let There Be Light!"

Hello again everyone!

I still unfortunately need to complain about the trials and tribulations of moving house in the US.... So, last week I mentioned that I was struggling to get my electricity connected - that's an understatement... let's go back to Monday....

It's a bright and shiny morning, I'm happy because it's my birthday, the PSE&G (electicity company) is a 1 and 1/2 mile walk, so I put on my walking shoes, my puffa vest, back pack in tow with my two forms of id, a copy of my lease, a DNA sample etc. etc.  I make it to the office before opening time and join the already long queue ready to rush in as the doors open at 8am on the dot.  So, I get to the counter second ...everyone else was in the other queue - not sure for what, but not the same one as me... anyway, and in my bright, chirpy mood I announce I'm there to set up my account as I pull out all my documents... "I'm sorry maam, you can't open this account until the owner settles his bill"... "But I spoke to someone on the phone and they said that shouldn't matter"... "But they told you wrong maam" (de ja vu from my Cablevision discussions....), "but what does that have to do with me?"... "Nothing, but we want our money".... "But I'm going to be the one that loses power"... "Well, then your landlord should pay his bill".... "But he's not going to lose power, I will"... "We just want our money.  He would've got a deposit from you, he should've paid with that"... "Well, yes, but that's got nothing to do with me... anyway, what's the chance of the power being disconnected?"...."I can't say maam, the account's closed so it could be any time".... "So, if his accounts closed, why can't I open a new one?".... "Because we want our money"....."Is there any way around this, this is not fair and I'm very concerned I am going to lose my power"... "No, this is our procedure maam".... "Well, it's stupid procedure" (maybe I didn't really say that)...  I leave PSEG deflated and immediately call my landlord who says,"this is ridiculous, it's not in line with what I've been told, let me sort it out..."...."you know I can lose my power if you don't get it sorted out, so please get onto it immediately".  Through the week, I get a text message, it's all sorted don't worry....

Well, I get back from Miami yesterday afternoon and what do you know, there's a PSEG card in my door and I unlock the door and there's no beeping from my alarm and the house is freezing, no light when I flick on the light switch..... the bastards, they've turned my flippn, freakn power off!!!!!!!  Off went a very colourful text message and email to my landlord expressing my deepest frustration, pain, inconvenience etc. etc. etc.  (I was just too mad to speak with him).    Luckily, I moved my flight from Friday night to Saturday afternoon - I would've gotten back to the house at 1am with no power!  So, given it's so cold, there's no way you can stay in the house with no power and although on the whole I'm okay, I'm not 100% comfortable sleeping there with no alarm.  So, I book myself into a hotel in Manhattan (telling the landlord that he is paying for the bill and all associated charges), empty the suitcase of summer gear and fill it with winter gear - who knows what I grabbed, I couldn't see a thing in the wardrobe - and get myself a cab and high tail myself across the river.

The owner rings me after sorting out the situation with PSEG and directs me to Kasima in their call center who assures me that the power will be restored tomorrow morning and that they will set my account up on the spot and break standard procedure and waive my fees because of this bad situation. I get a call this morning and the technician says "I can't connect your power as they cut it at the pole and you need a bucket truck to connect it"... "Well, will they be coming today?"... "I guess so maam, but I don't know when"... "Do I need to be there when they come".... "Yes".... "But I have no lights or heating, how can I sit in a freezing house all day in case they come?"...."I suggest you call the call center maam".  With the call center lady now "when will they be coming?", "I don't know maam", "but can't you call me when they're thirty minutes away and I can make sure I'm there"... "No, maam"... "but you can't even assure me that they'll be coming today"... "No maam, this is procedure, the tech"..."This is ridiculous!"...."Stop interrupting me maam, I let you speak, you should let me finish speaking"... "but you are just telling me that you are following procedure, I don't want to hear that, I want you to solve this for me"... "Well, maam I can't, it's procedure" etc. etc. etc. "Well, I want to speak with a supervisor"... " A supervisor is not available, they'll have to call you back"...."Fine!".  One hour later, no call from supervisor, so I call them back and luckily get onto Kasima's supervisor (the lady who I spoke with yesterday), who is completely across my situation.  "Maam, you need to be there for safety reasons as they need to access your meter inside, but I can assure you that he will be there before 4pm"..."You're sure now?  I need to check out of this hotel and I'm not going to be happy if they don't come"... "Yes, they'll be there, but you need to be there".  So, I check myself out of the hotel, which to be honest I couldn't stand to sleep in the same room again as they put me on a smoking floor even after requesting a non-smoking room and my clothes smelt like I'd spent a night at the Hallam Hotel back in the 90s when you could smoke in bars.  Seriously, the smell was horrible and I woke up this morning with a terrible headache and sore throat!

Back to the power issue, I arrive home and the PSEG van (not bucket truck) pulls up just as I do.  He says "you need a buket truck".... "Yes, I know there was a technician here earlier who already said that"..."Oh, well I'm going to go then"... "Do you think you can check for me whether the bucket truck is on order"... "I'm sure it is"... "No, please confirm for me"... after a few minutes phone call "Yes, maam, there's one on order".   So I settle in with two jumpers, a scarf, a pair of gloves and a book.   Surprisingly, at 3pm up turns the bucket truck (it's a miracle).  I go out and ask him "do you need anything from me or access to the house?", "No maam, I just need to connect at the pole"....  so, the "safety requirement" that they had told me on the the phone that I needed to be here for so they could access the meter box on the inside, was just bull!  Anyway, I can get over it, I've got power now, the house is gradually warming up, I have internet, I have tv, I have cable... happy days!  Let's just hope that's the last of my drama!

So, as I mentioned I was in Miami.  What a week - as expected, completely stressful, but very successful.  I finally got some free time Friday night and joined Mary Ann and Vilma from the office for dinner.  We booked in to Prime one twelve, apparently a very good and famous Miami restaurant, so couldn't get a table until 9pm - fine, I'm sure it's worth it.  So we turn up and the paparazzi is there snapping anyone that gets out of an expensive car - unfortunately I think they were all just rich business people, no celebs...  clearly we don't get snapped getting out of our yellow cab.  So, we get in there and the place is so totally packed, it's ridiculous.  We find out that we can't get a table until 10pm, but hell, this place must be good with a buzz like this, we'll just wait.  We grab a glass of wine and wait out the front (it's less crowded and they don't care about you drinking on the street), and the cars that are rolling up are unbelievable - brand new ferraris, porsches, mazzaratis, etc. etc. Finally, at around 10 they take us to our seats - a plastic table on the corner where massive gusts of wind would be likely to blow any meal off the table.  I look through the window and there's all these spare seats.  I asked the hostess "can't we sit in there?"  "No, there's still people here from 9:30 that we'll be seating there", "but we can't sit here, it's terrible and we've been waiting since 9pm, surely there's something you can do?"... "Let me see, I don't think so though".  So I follow her back to the front desk... I don't think she expected me to follow her... she didn't ask anyone or do anything, but then she said, "oh, we've been able to get you a table inside".  To give some context, the inside of the restaurant is like sitting in business class versus sitting outside would be like economy, except you still have to pay the same price!  The meal was very nice, a bit too garlicky for my liking, but stilll very good.   The dessert however was something else - Vilma ordered some deep fried Oreos and kindly allowed me to try some.  Wow, they were bloody good!  They were in like a donut dough mmmmm....... (it's okay, I managed to fit in a Spinning class on the Tuesday morning, which well and truly compensated for the deep fried Oreos!).  If you make it to Miami, make sure you put this restaurant on the agenda, if not for the food, which is pretty good, for the vibe of the place.

It was also nice, on Saturday my flight wasn't until 12:40, so I took the opportunity to sit by the pool and enjoy the heat and read my book for an hour or so.  It was 30 odd degrees so it was beautiful!  I don'ot feel like I'm relaxing too much lately, so this was very nice and I think after the week I had well deserved... I certainly needed it for what was awaiting me in NY!

Finally, it was my birthday on Monday - thank you to everyone for your beautiful birthday wishes.  It was hard being away from everyone, but I got through it.  At work Friday week ago they had also held a surprise party for me - I was genuinely surprised and nearly jumped out of my shoes.  The poor things, they were waiting for me for like 30 minutes whilst I was on the phone with my colleague from Argentina.  They got me a selection of these lovely little cup cakes - they were delicious, particularly the peanut butter and jelly variety mmmm....  I guess I'll send you a photo soon when I have purchased my first muʻumuʻu (you know the fat suit like what Homer wore when he got super obese) - just kidding... I'm at the gym regularly!

Well, that's about it for the week.  No more planned trips until middle of April, so it will be good to keep my feet planted and to continue getting properly settled.  Everything else for the house is now sorted, but uni has started up again this week, so time to get myself into the discipline of studying again!

Take care!
Michele