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Wednesday, 14 August 2013 - Irony

 
I have about ten vacation days owed to me before the year is out and, as a travel agent, Kristina is able to get free and/or discounted accommodation in various random locations (perks of the job). Such locations include Mexico and the Caribbean islands, and such accommodation includes all-inclusive five-star resorts at those locations. So, we've been talking about a couple options with which to burn up our vacation days, including Cancún in Mexico (some of which is supposedly depicted in the image on the left there) and Turks and Caicos (home to some of the most beautiful beaches in the Caribbean). There's just one small detail we keep forgetting: I can't leave America until my permanent residency visa comes through (to which I'm now entitled after marrying a native) else that visa application becomes null and void! After trying so hard to get here and then stay here (legally), I'm now unable to leave hehe. Oh well, those places will have to wait. But worry not because in just a couple weeks we fly out to Hawaii for two weeks to meet up with my family who are flying in from New Zealand. Since Hawaii is part of the US, I have no such visa hassles. It's a hard life being me ;)

Thursday, 15 August 2013 - Cardboard

 
Wow so it's really happened. After being destroyed during the spate of major earthquakes in 2010 and 2011, the Christchurch Cathedral has been replaced with this - a cardboard cathedral hahaha! I kid you not, it's constructed out of cardboard, but apparently waterproof and built to last around 50 years while the powers that be come up with something more permanent to put in its place.
 
Also making news today: Facebook "makes people fell worse about themselves". A study by the University of Michigan has concluded that Facebook can reduce young adults' sense of well-being and satisfaction with life, and the more they browsed, the worse they felt. Must be why I'm so damn happy all the time - I barely use Facebook ;) News article here.

Friday, 16 August 2013 - Shaky Isles

 
 
These have been familiar sights around my home city of Christchurch over the last few years, but now they've moved north. Just yesterday I mentioned the temporary cardboard cathedral that's been erected in place of the iconic original which was damaged beyond repair and had to be demolished. The "Shaky Isles" was once a popular nickname for New Zealand due to its seismic activity. We record more than 14,000 earthquakes per year but only about 150 of them are felt and are usually harmless. Since the Christchurch quakes though they've been a lot more destructive than usual, and now Wellington (our capital) is being punished. This afternoon (local time) they copped their second big one in less than a month, and more are expected to follow. Not good.
 
In other news today, yet more gold from NBC New York and further proof that the New York subway attracts the weirdest people and the most inexplicable things. The headline: "Man Masturbates on Queens Subway During Morning Rush". Yup. According to that article (which had me in fits of laughter), authorities say this 'gentleman' exposed his genitals and did the deed in full public view as the train approached a station. And what's more, a person on the train who witnessed it all snapped the cell phone photo of him above hahaha! This city never fails to both bemuse and amuse me. I wonder what he was listening to in those headphones ;)

Saturday, 17 August 2013 - Summer Streets, again

 
 
I did all of this last year, but since we just bought Kristina her own cool set of (two) wheels I figured I'd do it again. This is the annual Summer Streets, taking place over the first three of Saturdays every August. Part of Park Avenue and all of Lafayette Street down to Brooklyn Bridge (about 6 miles in all) is closed to vehicular traffic and opened up "for everyone to play, run, walk and bike." Good stuff!

 
 
This was the sixth running of the event, and much like last year there was no shortage of funny stuff to be seen. People were towing huge sound systems, one guy was towing his dog, another was riding a tandem bike with a full human skeleton, the little kid on the left there was pedalling as fast as his little legs could and he was zooming past everyone (reminded me of me), the chick in the middle appears to have stolen some kid's bike for the event, and there was the usual random entertainment going on.

 
 
After all that we followed the Manhattan Greenway up the western edge of Manhattan, and 25 miles later (when Kristina's body had all it could take for one day on a bike) we called it a day. Lovely.

Sunday, 18 August 2013 - A step closer

 
On the way out today I stuck my head in the mailbox to find this from the immigration department. This magic piece of plastic (with the typically awful photo) entitles me to work anywhere in the US while my application for permanent residency is pending approval, which I'm not expecting to happen before the end of the year based on their current processing times. Last week I mentioned I'm not even able to leave the country at the moment while that application is still pending, and until now I've been stuck on a temporary work visa which tied me to my current (London-based) employer. Although I have no intention of leaving them just yet, it's nice to know that option is at least there now if needed.
 

Monday, 19 August 2013 - Bryant Park Summer Film Festival

 
 
The Bryant Park Summer Film Festival is another annual summer event (like Summer Streets last Saturday) that takes place every Monday evening from mid-June to mid-August in Bryant Park, right in the heart of Midtown Manhattan (and just down the road from my office). The film festival began in the early nineties, and features a different classic movie each week; Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory for example was played last month. Tonight was the final sitting of the season, and it was E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial to close it out for another year. Good call!

Tuesday, 20 August 2013 - Musical Neighbourhood
This is our third week in our new apartment, and we've noticed we seem to be surrounded by musical 'talent'. Late last night we had some idiot sitting on the front stoop beside our windows singing The House of the Rising Sun to himself for over an hour, last week there was singing coming from elsewhere nearby, and tonight our neighbour down the hall is getting into it. Video here. Interesting.

Thursday, 22 August 2013 - The wrong glass

 
 
This time next week we'll be packing our bags for Hawaii! Kristina and I are meeting up with my family over there for a couple weeks; it's the perfect half-way point between New York and New Zealand :) In preparation for the trip, specifically the stunning Hawaiian vistas, I invested in a new zoom lens - a $2,000 investment to be precise. My intention is add a bunch of Hawaiian images to the collection of photos I already have for sale online here. Without going into the boring details, this is a professional-grade lens and the image quality it produces is far greater than my current zoom lens is capable of (among other superior features). For those in the know, this is the lens here. I purchased it second-hand through Amazon Marketplace last week and picked it up from the post office this morning, but was gutted to find it was the wrong lens! This one is in fact the much-older predecessor to the one advertised, and is worth a lot less than what I'd just paid out. I contacted the seller, explained the situation (she learned something new today) and a refund is pending. However, I don't have enough time now to buy another one and have it arrive in time for us flying out next week, and I can't justify the cost of buying new from the store. I may do in the near future for something else Kristina and I have planned (more on that later), but in the meantime I'll just have to make do without.

Before I packed the lens away for returning to the seller, I put it through its paces to see what all the fuss was about. Even though this is the older, now-inferior lens to the one I want, it's still a profound improvement over my current zoom lens (not obvious from these reduced images, but very obvious in the full-size originals)! You get what you pay for. My current zoom lens only cost $500 hehe. I need a cheaper hobby.

Sunday, 25 August 2013 - BK

 
 
Dirty BK. It's not talking about Burger King, but the New York borough of Brooklyn. Dirty BK is actually someone's blog about fashion in Brooklyn, which is where I was heading today.
 
Looking back at Lower Manhattan with the Brooklyn Bridge on the right. I've wandered across the ditch into Brooklyn plenty of times, but never really explored it. Kristina and I checked out Williamsburg and Coney Island recently, but that's about it. So today I'm going to start chipping away at it.
 
Brooklyn has a great little downtown of its own. Brooklyn was in fact an independent city until 1898 when it was consolidated with the other boroughs to form the modern New York City. Regardless, it continues to maintain its own distinct culture.

 
Brooklyn is New York's most populated borough and its second-largest behind Queens. Today, if it were still an independent city, Brooklyn would rank as the fourth most populous city in the US. Brooklyn has the same boundaries as Kings County, which is the second-most densely populated county in the United States. Coming in at first place is none other than Manhattan (New York County). Yup, Kristina and I live in the most densely-populated county in the US.

 
 
The areas I checked out today are all in the northwest of the borough, and are all pretty damn nice. This here is Brooklyn Heights and Cobble Hill. Quiet tree-lined streets, nice apartment buildings, families out and about - it's great! I'm not sure what the rents are like around here, but they'd be up there.

 
 
Cool little shopping areas...
 
The Brooklyn Heights Promenade overlooking Lower Manhattan...
 
It's a great place to just hang out.

 
 
Nearby are the neighbourhoods of Boerum Hill and Carroll Gardens. More of the same but with more cafes and whatnot on street corners.

 
 
Cobble Hill Park in the middle of Cobble Hill, and surrounded by a popular nightlife spot apparently.
 
The Hero Shop, where heroes go to get the essentials every hero needs like coffee, and cigarettes. Yeah.
 
Man I wouldn't leave that parked on the street. Touch-parking is a religion in New York, although "touch" is a loose term. It's more like smash-parking.

 
Outside of the quiet neighbourhoods are plenty of busy commercial areas, and purportedly some of the best shopping in the city (unbeknown to the tourists).
 
As I write this the MTV Video Music Awards are taking place here in the funny-looking Barclays Centre, a multi-purpose indoor arena. Yup, northwest Brooklyn seems to be a pretty sweet spot.

 
 
Again, it's a great place to just hang out ;)
 
However, cross the "track" and you're back in the hood. This is Red Hook, literally a stone's throw away on the other side of a freeway from where I'd been all day and yet completely different. One thing it does have going for it though (other than a huge IKEA) is a full-frontal view of the Statue of Liberty - the only part of New York City that does. I didn't know that at the time else I'd have gone and taken a photo of it (I stole this one). So that was my first proper jaunt around Brooklyn. More, some other time.

Monday, 26 August 2013 - After work

 
 
I love my random rides after work. At least a couple times a week I like to leave the 9 to 5 behind and go for a good burn throughout Manhattan and beyond. Quite often I come across some sort of randomness in the midst of the rush-hour chaos. This is Washington Square Park at the southern end of Fifth Avenue. The park is one of the best-known of New York City's 1,900 public parks. Yeah - 1,900 of them. And Central Park, despite being as huge as it is taking up 50 city blocks in length and three larger blocks in width (843 acres in all), is only fifth on the list of the city's largest parks. Anyway, there is always a cool crowd hanging out round the big fountain here, which is not for bathing or swimming by the way.
 
The sign says nothing about dancing in the fountain though hahaha! There is usually a busker or two churning out some live beats in the park, and this dude was feeling the vibe.

 
Different day, different ride, different area. The yellow taxi parked on the roadside there ran a red light and wiped the front off this cop car that was cruising through on a green hahaha bugger! I'm yet to have any real issues with New York cabs, which is surprising because I've heard plenty of horror stories. Just last week in fact a cab went crashing through an intersection for some unknown reason just two blocks down from my office on Sixth Avenue, and slammed into a fountain that I often sit on (but not dance in) to eat my lunch. On his way through he ploughed into a cyclist and struck a British tourist on her first day of dream New York vacation, severing the lower part of her leg! News article about that here - crazy stuff!

Friday, 30 August 2013 - Aloha!

 
I gotta say they don't make cartoons like they used to. Among plenty of others, I grew up watching Garfield (based on the comic strip). In one episode entitled Garfield in Paradise, Garfield and co take a trip to the fictional Paradise World, a cheapskate's version of Hawaii. The episode opened with Garfield singing in a dream (after which he awakens amid bad turbulence on the plane). That song is here if anyone cares, and for me it's a fitting theme for the next couple weeks hehe. Kristina and I fly out today for two weeks travelling throughout Hawaii with my family who are flying in from New Zealand. Good times! Aloha :)
 

Saturday, 14 September 2013 - Beaches, lava, turtles, and chickens

 
Well after two very long and very eventful weeks, Kristina and I are back in the big smoke, and my fam are back in New Zealand. All the stories, photos, and my five cents on Hawaii to follow.
 

Monday, 16 September 2013 - Same old (shit) news, different day

 
This here was all over the news yesterday and today. Not an uncommon story in New York I've come to learn. Some deranged idiot was menacing traffic and pedestrians in or near Times Square, cops arrived en masse, the idiot started menacing them instead, they opened fire, completely missed their target, and ended up hitting innocent bystanders instead. The lady above with the walking frame was hit in the knee, and someone else took one in the ass. Last year a similar event took place right under the Empire State Building in which no less than nine bystanders were hit by stray police bullets. It seems the NYPD are rather trigger-happy, and not too accurate with their firearms. Maybe tasers would be a better fit.

Friday, 20 September 2013 - Ousted

 
 
This is my sweet corner office on the 37th floor in Midtown Manhattan that I share with up to three others (depending on who's working in town on any given day - I often have the place to myself). But, after 15 months in here, they're kicking us out! Yup, it's getting converted into two enclosed offices for people more important than us, so we've been ousted into the main floor area with everyone else hehe. I still have a window desk though ;)

Saturday, 21 September 2013 - Shopping!

 
This was my day (and Kristina's) in a nutshell. In the normal course of events, you get engaged, and prior to the wedding create a registry of gifts that invitees can select from for the occasion. Well we're doing it in reverse. Because our marriage was a comparatively low-key affair and followed our engagement quite closely, the whole wedding registry thing didn't happen. We're heading to Kristina's home of San Antonio to spend Thanksgiving with her family this year, during which time her chums want to throw her a bridal shower - usually done before the wedding hehe. So we've spent all day compiling a registry for the shower. As nice as it is to be shopping for things without buying anything, guys don't like to shop, and I'm no exception ;)
 

Sunday, 22 September 2013 - The final push?

 
 
It's the September equinox today, the weather is still warm in New York, and we're all still out enjoying it. However, the leaves are starting to fall and the city is bracing itself for another bitterly-cold northern winter hehe. For Kristina and I, assuming all goes to plan, this will be our final cold one. Next July or thereabouts we're planning on leaving New York and relocating to Austin, Texas. As far as winters go, it's not as warm as Hawaii but it's a damn sight warmer than up here! More than that though, it has a thriving IT industry (good for me), it's only an hour's drive north of Kristina's family in San Antonio (good for her), the cost of living is low (good for everyone), and it's a bloody awesome city all round. After almost nine years on the road now, the move to Austin will probably be my last, but more on all that in due course :)

Monday, 23 September 2013 - What's in your drawers?

 
 
I mentioned on Friday that my workmates and I have been kicked out of our sweet corner office and moved onto the main floor area. Well I took over my new desk today, replacing a lady who has relocated from New York. Evidently she couldn't be bothered clearing her desk drawers out before she left. I opened this one to find a small tea plantation jammed in there...
 
This drawer has a lint roller and a stuffed bear in it...
 
And this drawer has an emergency kit, a toothbrush, toothpaste, and floss, I guess for those long nights when you end up sleeping under your desk. Interesting. I sure drunk a lot of tea today.

Wednesday, 25 September 2013 - Hawaii!

All the photos and stories and whatnot from our busy little family reunion in Hawaii earlier this month are here!

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