"We're not in Kansas anymore Toto!"

They call Chicago the windy city, but yesterday for 24 hours North Bergen (along with all of NJ, NY, Connecticut, Nth Carolina etc. etc.) was up there.

I'm pleased to report I am safe, well and miraculously with power and water, as opposed to 4,500,000 other households (not just people!!).  But Sandy didn't whip through with no drama in the Zieren household, that's for sure.

The office was closed yesterday, so I sat closed up in the house, waiting with anticipation and anxiety for my first hurricane.  Waking up yesterday morning, the winds were already decent, but come mid-afternoon they turned downright nasty!  The destructive side of it was that there was heavy winds as expected, but these were coupled with extraordinary gusts every 5-10 mins that didn't just howl, they ROARED!

Living in a house in the burbs I have a few big trees in the backyard....  Gusts + Trees = oh oh!

The first big branch came down at about 4:30pm with an almighty bang - bang on the fence and spearing through the roof.  Luckily the roof spear was just in the section over the eaves... I mean really lucky.

This tree was the culprit...Funnily enough, that morning I had heard this tap, tap, tapping noise in the tree and saw my very first woodpecker.  Maybe old woody woodpecker really did the damage and Sandy just finished it off :)

After this first bang, I realized "we're not in Kansas anymore Toto"... Got pretty scary and the heart rate definitely went up!  I kept to the front of the house away from the big trees with the basement door open and at the ready in case I needed to run. Luckily, I was able to stay in the comfort of my loungeroom safely for the rest of the night.  A group of us solo NY colleagues (including poor Glenice on her NY holiday) kept each other company via txts and we checked in with each other regularly to make sure everything was ok - luckily for all of us we were, though some in Manhattan were and still are without power for the next 5-10 days!  I was also kept company by many of you, for which I send out a huge THANK YOU!!!

These shots are all 'the morning after'.  These are all of my backyard...

The next three pics are of a branch out the front of my house balancing precariously on my cable line, which also miraculously managed to stay on...

The helpful councilmen who got rid of the tree for me, still without interrupting my cable service..

These are all shots of the street...

... and of the hospital at the bottom of the cliff at the end of my street.  They were evacuating at this time as the Hudson found it's way in.

So, I survived my first and hopefully last Hurricane, and in comparison I faired much better than many others who have sadly lost everything.  The feeling today is somewhat like the day after Black Saturday - the stories of tragedy and of miraculous survival are spine tingling. 

The office was obviously shut today and it is again shut tomorrow, so now the cabin fever is starting to kick in...  watch out you may end up with a daily blog.

I must end by saying, what good timing for Brett and Jack to arrive, just when the fence that was a must have when I was looking for a place has blown down... well, at least I have someone to clean up the mess (ha ha ha).

See you all!
Michele

Batten down the Hatches!!

Hello everyone,
I hope you are all fabulous.  I am super happy because my boys arrive this Thursday - yes, 355 days after I arrived, they will be here.  But, because nothing seems to be easy, they will arrive after the hurricane hits.  I sure hope there is power, and hey, a house would be good too, but regardless, it is very exciting for us all (well, maybe little Jack the dog is nervous about the flight, but I know he'll be happy here too!).

So, it's been a few weeks since I wrote, and because I was boring with such a long blog last time, I'll just give you some of my highlights from the past weeks....

I was in Istanbul the week before last.  What an amazing city.  It is so traditional, but so modern.  The weather was picture perfect and I even allowed myself a day on top of the conference to do a tour myself.  Here are some pics:

 A mosque in old town

 Turkish delight - eat your heart out at the Spice Market

 A labrynth of stores at the Grand Bazaar

 A lady hand knotting a turkish rug

 Inside the Hagia Sophia - now a museum that was once upon a time a greek orthodox church and then turned into a mosque after the turks took power of Istanbul.  This building is over 1,500 years old and has survived many an earthquake.  Little fact - to keep bugs out of the building, each corner has an ostrich egg.  Once ostrich eggs age they let off an odour for 3 years that bugs don't like - a very environmentally friendly bug control. 

This is the Basilica Cistern - an underground water filtration system when the city was under Roman rule.

A digger I spotted in the Spice Market

The bridge across the Bosphorus Sea

A couple of street entertainers

Another highlight of the past few weeks was to go with Lindsay to see Spin Doctors do a show.  They did this at a theater about 45 mins north of NYC.  I got backstage tix, which was exciting.  It was a great show.

Another weekend, I set off to the High Line, an attraction I had been wanting to see for ages.  This is an old railway line that sits above the city and goes from Meatpackers District up to Chelsea.  It's been converted into a walk with beautiful gardens, with lots of modern art displayed around it

 A market on the High Line

A guy teaching some wierd instrument

On my adventure, I also finally managed to get to the library - this is the building I walk past every single day to go to work and after one failed attempt to visit (it was shut), I finally went in.  What a magnificent building!

You may recognize this stairwell ladies as the one from the Sex and the City movie ill fated wedding.

Not such a highlight, but what I'm sure will be amusing to you all...I was in Mexico City just after I wrote last time.  Nothing too exciting about the trip, except I contracted what is known as "Montezuma's Revenge".  Think Bali Belly, Dehli Belly, that type of nasty thing.  It was nasty, nasty, nasty.  Number one traveller list - avoid water at all costs!  I think the culprit in my case was a salad from work.  I was at the factory and I can't believe they don't wash the lettuce and tomatoe with bottled water (I'm so naive...).  It is not such a fun experience delivering training in this condition.  Luckily, there was a doc on site and she fixed me up with all sorts of drugs to keep me at bay - for the training duration anyway....

Today, I had a nice day today showing Glenice from work around - we went up to the Dakota Building, where John Lennon was shot (it was called the Dakota building because when it was built it was so far uptown people joked it was up in Dakota) - Yono Oko still lives there; we went over to Central Park, popped into the Apple Store, FAO Schwartz, down 5th avenue, into Bryant Park which is now reconverted into an ice skating rink (yes, the ice skating rink where my knees were destroyed - I had almost traumatic memories seeing the rink again), enjoyed lunch at Pershing Square diner, over to Grand Central Station, and back around up to the Empire State Building.  We had to finish the day early as I had to get home before the storm hits. 

They're shutting down all mass transit tonight from 7pm, so no way of getting to work tomorrow - I know, it's devastating, and I'm supposed to be flying off to Washington D.C. on Tuesday, though I'm not confident that's going to happen.  In true media hype, the storm in honour of being Halloween Week is being dubbed "Frankenstorm" as it's a mix of three weather systems - original, I know.  The big difference on hurricane versus others is that this is going to hit land - usually, it turn right out to sea, but because of the other weather systems, this one is going to hit us.  So, I am actually being cautious - I have my torch ready with extra batteries, all my items are on the charge right now and I have 6 gallons (12 litres) of water.  The power companies are predicting that the power may be out for 7 to 10 days!!!!  Let's hope that's just media hype - fingers crossed, and toes, and arms, and legs...

Well, wish me luck through my first hurricane!

Michele xxx