It’s about 7 weeks since we got to NYC already? Managed to get over most of the hurdles that come with starting life in a new country. Starting to settle in and enjoying our neighbourhood. Painfully continuing to wait for Sam’s Employment Authorization (3-4 months to process…wtf?) before she gets to stop playing homemaker and go earn some greens.

The move into the apartment was painless. The removalists (is that the correct term for unpackers?) unloaded our container, unpacked most stuff and cleared out the boxes in a few hours. The biggest drama  was getting the larger of our couches over the patio from upstairs. We had a few casualties with the glass on a framed print smashed and another had a chunk taken out of it. Otherwise not too bad.

There was renovation on the place before we moved in and everything had a good layer of dust over it. With some hind sight we should have gone in first and given the place a good scrub down or gotten someone else in as is the style we grew accustomed to (but can’t yet justify). My study/record room is in a state of disarray. There’s records strewn all over the place whilst i have to reorganize again.

The biggest pain in the ass is having to restock the kitchen pantry and gadgets from scratch. Sam has ventured out to Fairway loading up on goods and I need to get out to Chinatown for Asian grocery items. There’s going to be a shift in what and how we cook based on the ingredients we can find easily. ready access to Mediterranean and Middle-Eastern goods shaped what we ate and cooked in London. Produce here is generally good, i’m tired of seeing the word organic prefacing everything though!

We caught the tail end of summer which was hot but not ball-sweatingly humid as we encountered last year. Labor Day weekend we jumped an 8am ferry and headed to Sandy Hook in New Jersey. It was miles of long sandy beaches, wierd to see NY skyline on the horizon! Not too many food options along the beach and the ferry is the only way to visit without a car. It’s quick and painless, just a bit pricey ($45 per person round trip).

There’s been a lot of commotion about the state the worlds financial markets, Wall Street etc. Last week with Lehman going down caused a fews of days of mayhem. I’m still uncertain what the fallout from all this will be. I guess those of us still with jobs should remain thankful, keep our heads down and ride things through. I figure bonuses are going to be pants this year so no extravagant spending for a while…

How are we finding New York? It’s going to take some getting used to. I had a five minute exchange giving my address and phone numbers for some dinner to be delivered. Am i not speaking English? Maybe i should learn to speak American. I love that you can get almost anything delivered here. We bought the bbq from nearby and they had someone drop it off not too long after we got home. You can order groceries online and have them delivered within the hour. Crazy.

The tipping thing I’m starting to get the hang of, still shits me to no end though. Seriously my salary should be bumped 8.35 – 15% just to deal with taxes at the tills and tips we have to hand out.

I don’t know if it’s just me but there seem to be so many more crazies out and about. There’s always some cracker wandering the street shouting at something, even relatively sane looking folks seem to be afflicted. And homeless people, disheartening as it is are everywhere. Pushing supermarket trollies loaded with random stuff about but it’s still the smell.

New Yorkers love their dogs. Mostly teeny tiny teacup and miniature things. Everyone lives in an apartment or high-rise here. It’s so wrong, doesn’t matter that the things are barely larger than rats. I’m almost inclined to think the pong of piss around has less to do with people urinating inappropriately and blame the dogs that piss all up the pavements. While the dog shit might be collected by their “masters” the piss lingers on. If you want to meet people, get yourself a fancy breed dog and wander. The uglier and more exotic the better. People love those things.