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Monday, 15 July 2013 - Lord of the flies

 
 
Seems we have a fly problem. Kristina went downstairs for breakfast this morning before I'd even fallen out of bed, only to come running back up the stairs to tell me the whole apartment was covered in flies hahaha! And she wasn't wrong. They were everywhere; some alive and some spinning on their backs. They weren't concentrated on any one particular area, and for the first time in his life our roommate actually cleaned the apartment over the weekend. All I can figure is they've been breeding like crazy in the wet weather we've had lately, and we're now in the midst of a heat wave so I think they're just looking for shelter.
 
Be that as it may, it was time for a killing spree.

 
Hey - what do you call a fly with no wings? A walk! Ahhh, love that one ;)
 
That's a lot of flies. I did stick my head in our other roommate's door to make sure he wasn't dead on the bed, but he wasn't home hehe.

Tuesday, 16 July 2013 - All-Star Game

 
 
So I randomly found all this today while meeting Kristina for lunch - a red carpet spanning multiple blocks along 42nd Street and people standing around eager to see somthing. I knew nothing about this, but on the second or third Tuesday of every July since 1933 a baseball game takes place between players of American baseball's two major leagues (National League and American League) known as the All-Star Game. The location is different every year, and the starting players are chosen by way of a public vote. Basically everybody's favourite players against everybody's favourite players. This year's game is being played in the New York Mets' stadium (as opposed to the New York Yankees stadium Kristina and I were at a few weeks ago) and this here was a parade of all the starting players, being driven along the carpet in the back of pickups.
 
To sexy (and sweaty) for his shirt. As I mentioned yesterday, the northeast of the country is in the midst of a big heat wave at the moment with temperatures in the mid to high 30s every day (90s for the Americans). I don't mind the heat, but getting all sweaty in work attire is less than ideal. Beats the winter though!

Thursday, 18 July 2013 - Ooo it's hot!

 
 
For the benefit of every country in the world besides the US, Cayman Islands, Palau, Bahamas and Belize, 98 Fahrenheit is 37 degrees Celsius ;) But that's only part of the story. The humidity is so high and there's barely any wind so it has felt a lot warmer than just 98 this week. Everyone is obviously punishing the air conditioning and the power grid is struggling to keep up. Whole neighbourhoods have had power outages as a result. Non-essential things such as this fountain have been shut down to conserve power, and the subways aren't running at full speed for the same reason. We complain in winter; we complain in summer!
 
Kristina had the day off work today and spent it checking out apartments all over Manhattan for us to move into sometime next month. I met her during lunch to check this one out just a couple blocks from my work. By the time I met her again after work she was almost passing out hahaha! It's meant to cool down on Sunday - 86 Fahrenheit (30 Celsius) hehe.

Saturday, 20 July 2013 - Apartment hunting

 
Another stinking hot day in the Big Apple as this heat wave continues to punish the city.
 
While Kristina spent it at some work ball getting drunk, I spent it biking all over the Upper East Side and Upper West Side on the hunt for a new apartment. The UWS is our preference, but your money goes a lot further on the UES in terms of space and amenities. These are just three of the several I saw today, some more random than others.
 
 
Everyone in my apartment in Astoria, where I've been living since I got to New York over a year ago, is going their separate ways at the start of next month. Although Kristina and I have the option to stay put, we decided to take the opportunity to get out and relocate to Manhattan into a place of our own. Yup, after more than 8.5 years - I'm done with having roommates! I'll never forget one of the first weirdoes I ever had the displeasure of sharing a roof with: Brendan the bi-polar Australian loser in Brisbane who was decade and a half older than the rest of us, and skipped work for a whole week once because "he just couldn't face it today", instead sitting around on the back deck wolfing down a bottle of Jim Beam on every one of those five days. Also in the same house was Adam, a university student who essentially lapsed into a coma every night due to lack of sleep (his alarm clock did a great job of waking up everyone except Adam), and Craig, a part-time DJ who scared all the ladies at a big party we were having one night after he inappropriately touched one of them (allegedly). I woke up the following morning to find half a dozen random women crashed on my bedroom floor. Then in Edinburgh I had Dominic the grumpy Scotsman, and in London I had David the grumpy Hungarian who got most upset with me after I mistakenly discarded his stupid purple steak knife. Now in New York I've had Andrew who also lapses into a coma every night (video here and here) and used to come home from his old sales job hurling profanities at his team over the phone. There have been plenty of other specials of course, but hopefully within just a couple of weeks I'll be done with all that and it'll just be me and the wife :)

Sunday, 21 July 2013 - New digs

 
 
It's a painstaking process, but after only a week of rigorous hunting we've settled on an apartment on a quiet leafy street in the Upper East Side. It's a newly-renovated studio apartment on the ground floor there (with bars over the windows to stop people nicking the air conditioning unit hahaha!). It's not the biggest unit we saw but it's sufficient and definitely the nicest, plus it was the only one with a decent kitchen in it. So two weeks from now this will be our new digs for the next 12 months, after which we've decided we'll be moving on from New York. More details on that in due course, and more photos of this to come!
 
Once we got done finalising all of that we had a good wander around what will be our new hood. After locating the essentials (grocery store, laundry etc.) I said to Kristina all we need now is a pet store (she's obsessed). Five minutes later we found this - a doggy day-care centre hehe. Next thing she's in there asking about volunteer work. I won't let her have a puppy until we're settled somewhere and actually have a yard for the little guy. This can be the next best thing :)

Monday, 22 July 2013 - And it's a... who cares!

Live video of the royal baby about to pop out - gross! Anyway, the United Kingdom is an absolute buzz. The day has finally come, and it's a boy. Despite being more of a ceremonial presence these days, the Brits really are nuts about their royal family as I came to learn during my five years living there. Now that the wait is over regarding the date and the sex, the bets are on regarding a name! I'm rooting for Aaron. Perfect.

Wednesday, 24 July 2013 - That'll show 'em

 
 
So I walk out of my office for lunch today to find this huge inflated rat sitting outside the front door hehe. Apparently UBS (my client) is using a moving company that is not part of some union that ensures employees of that company are adequately paid. The rat was part of a protest against UBS for using this company, and I was given a piece of paper suggesting I don't do business with UBS until they use a moving company that pays its workers standard wages and benefits. Geez, get a hobby!

Saturday, 27 July 2013 - Williamsburg, a hipster's paradise

 
This is the main drag (or one of them) through the north-Brooklyn neighbourhood of Williamsburg. Once upon a time this was largely an industrial area, but two decades of on-going gentrification has resulted in a dramatic shift. The area is now full of eclectic little shops, a countless number of bars and cafes, and a young hipster crowd.

 
 
Add to that some nice leafy suburbia...
 
Lots of parkland...
 
And new apartment buildings sprouting up all over the show. It's an awesome little area!

 
 
We happened across the usual weekend markets selling interesting items such as "scissors, tweezers, magnifiers, tools, and more". How interesting.
 
And of course Kristina found the local pet shop. Again.

 
 
We spent a good couple hours just following our nose through the area. I occasionally cycle home from work via Williamsburg and it's a constant hive of activity.
 
Every corner seems to have a bar on it.

 
 
These hipsters also love their truck food...
 
Their bicycles...
 
And their street art.

 
 
This time next weekend Kristina and I will be moving into our new apartment on the Upper East Side in Manhattan. I almost considered apartment hunting around here but the distance to our respective jobs kind of ruled it out. That and the fact Brooklyn just ain't Manhattan!
 
I love animals, they're delicious! Fette Sau is a great BBQ joint in Williamsburg with dismal efficiency. I heard about this place through a friend who suggested we go late afternoon to avoid the lunch and dinner crowds. Well we rocked up at 4pm and sure enough the line was short, but an hour later I was still bloody standing in it. They have just one dude taking orders and serving up the food. We worked out they can deal with only about 15 people an hour. When we left the line had stretched out to the street - easily a two-hour wait. There's something wrong with that business model but regardless it's yummy as hell!

Sunday, 28 July 2013 - The Apple of the 80s

 
New York City today...
 
And the New York City of 30 years ago. In a bygone era this was a very different place to say the least. It was grungy, crime-ridden, and dangerous. The shift from this image to the one on the left is thanks to a couple of city mayors who turned the city on its head; Rudy Giuliani in particular.
 
 
While we were wandering around Williamsburg yesterday and checking out the random roadside stalls, we found a book of postcards dating back to the 70s and 80s focusing on the city's graffiti epidemic, for which the subways were a prime target. These were two of the postcards in there.
 
 
By contrast, graffiti on public transport today is virtually non-existent. Before Kristina moved up here with me, her father was somewhat concerned about his only daughter relocating to 'bad old' New York City hehe. I was actually confused about that until yesterday. I mean I knew the city had a dark past, but not this dark. However, it's a very different place today. It still has its darker side like any city, but for the most part it's clean, safe, and awesome!

Monday, 29 July 2013 - More fun with scammers

 
 
A fully restored 1964 Chevrolet Impala just plonked on the roadside, showing off its hydraulic suspension by my office outside Radio City. Note the film trailer in the background. America's Got Talent (another spin-off of American Idol) is being filmed in Radio City at the moment, and this thing was to be used in a music video for one of the contestants. Not a bad set of wheels!
 
Meanwhile, Kristina and I are selling a few things in preparation for moving out of our apartment this weekend. And, as was the case when I left London and sold a bunch of my stuff, I've been having some fun with scammers who are trying to rip me off online (check out the London story here). Over here their strategy is similar but different. We were selling our bedroom furniture set for $800 through an online classifieds site (Craigslist). Within a couple of days, I was emailed 24 hours apart by what appeared to be two different people. Both claimed to be out of town on business but really wanted our furniture, so much so that they offered to pay over and above our asking price just to have us hold it for them. The deal was they would pay via a money order and then have their assistant come pick up the goods. On the surface it seems kinda legit, apart from some obvious flaws. For starters, anyone offering payment via any means other than cash during a face-to-face meeting is highly suspicious. Furthermore, these two different people from two different email addresses were sending me exactly the same emails, word for word hehe. A couple days later they both claimed their assistants had stuffed up and paid me too much, and asked that I wire them back the difference. And therein lays the scam. The money orders turned up today (from the two different people, with exactly the same handwriting and return address) and although it's not obvious at first glance, they're as fake as Dolly Parton's chest. There is no watermark, no fine print, no holograms, no security features whatsoever. Plus, check out the date on the top-right - July 11th; I only just started communicating with them/him a week ago! So the idea is they send me a fake money order, and I send them real money back for their 'overpayment'. I'm still toying with them at the moment to see how far this goes ;)

Wednesday, 31 July 2013 - Down goes another

 
 
This is apparently a common sight around the city - bloody big tree branches randomly snapping and crashing to the floor. Just yesterday there was an article in the news about a women being killed in a Manhattan park by a falling tree branch, and it's not the first I've heard of that happening. While heading to our new apartment after work tonight to collect the keys (we move in this weekend) I found this just two blocks away hehe. There didn't seem to be much damage to the Audi or to anyone else, but let's say I was passing through here just ten minutes earlier or whatever - it could've been me under there!

Friday, 2 August 2013 - And we're outta here!

 
 
The day before moving day! I came home from work tonight to find my roommate's shit all over the place.
 
Fortunately we have a lot less stuff than he does (we're not materialistic folk :) Be that as it may I was still surprised at how much we do have, although we've inherited a lot of stuff that no one else in the house wants (kitchen stuff mostly).
 
From Astoria in Queens to that place over there - Manhattan! I will miss this view from our rooftop (check out the time lapse here I put together a year ago, featuring a sunset from up here), but we'd much rather be living over there than just looking at it from a distance :)

Saturday, 3 August 2013 - Island living

 
 
Hooray for U-Haul!
 
Hey nice shorts dude.
 
I opted for a cargo van rather than a truck because I thought surely this will be sufficient. Well, I judged it perfectly - we couldn't have fit another piece of crap in there if we'd tried ;)

 
 
60 minutes to load the van, and about 20 to unload it again into our new home-sweet-home. More photos to follow once we've got it all looking pretty.
 
One thing I definitely won't miss about living in Queens is cycling over this damn bridge (Queensboro) every day to and from work! Heading into Manhattan it's a 1.1km climb, and heading back again it's a steeper 650m climb. I got used to it over time to the point where it doesn't really bother me anymore, but I can do without it on my daily commute.

Sunday, 4 August 2013 - Making a studio a home

 
 
After moving all of our rubbish in yesterday, today it was all about the essentials. We raided the local home and hardware store round the corner for all the little things we all take for granted, and then got stuck into constructing some furniture.
 
Sometime later we had a (mostly stable) chest of drawers for Kristina.
 
Then it was straight into a (mostly unstable) wardrobe for me. Hooray for cheap stuff ;) It's only gotta last 12 months.

Thursday, 8 August 2013 - Only on the subway

 
I don't know how this stuff becomes international news, but I'm glad it does ;) Latest headlines from the Big Apple: "Shark found on New York subway", and what's more it was on my subway line. No one knows where this poor little guy came from, but it soon got peoples' attention when the train car started reeking of fish hehe.
 
But New Yorkers will be New Yorkers, and someone gave it a cigarette, a subway fare card, and a can of Red Bull hahaha!

Friday, 9 August 2013 - Rough enough

 
 
This time last week we were packing up our old apartment, and after a busy week of getting our new one how we want it, this is it! This is a studio apartment (i.e. no separate bedroom) which we always knew was all our (deliberately modest) budget would afford us in Manhattan in the areas we were looking. Studios range in shape and size from the terribly tiny in the heart of Manhattan to something a little more decent like this. What's more, this one was fully renovated only a year ago so it's a bloody nice wee place, and perfectly sufficient for the two of us for the next 12 months (at which point our plan is to move on from New York).
 
I've got my desk and laptop set up by the window, so I can sit here and look out on the Upper East Side. That parked car there has its sound system booming out the hip hop as I write this hehe.

 
 
The other big plus about this place is the kitchen. Due to their general lack of space, all of the studios we looked at had equally pathetic kitchens (not good enough for a chef like me ;) No such problem here though!
 
And there's even a little a nook to park my bike :) Oh and we're on the ground floor, so I don't have to haul it up and down stairs. Bonus!
 
And sometimes the Upper East Side looks back at me (and in his case probably wondered why I took a photo of him). Incidentally those bars over the windows are partly to keep would-be burglars out, and to secure an air conditioning unit (like the one across the street) so no one can pinch that either. These people like to pinch stuff.

Sunday, 11 August 2013 - Like husband, like wife

 
Last Sunday I spent the day putting together furniture for our new apartment, and yesterday I spent it putting together a new bike for Kristina. Yes, she's decided if I can do it in New York's rush hour traffic then so can she hehe. We broke it today in along some of Manhattan's scenic (in every sense) off-road pathways, and tomorrow we'll see how she takes to the road to and from work!

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