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It's been a while since we updated this space so, time for a quick wrap-up of the past month:
1. Nat got a job. Which is great, because, well, shoes can be purchased. Many shoes. So many shoes apparently. This is also good for me because;
2. Records can be bought. But first a turntable must be acquired. I'm thinking something a little less 'clubby' than the 2 X 1200s I've been dragging around for the past 5 years, and something a little more, ahem, grown up.
3. Feeling a little more settled. The last 3 months, as you'd expect, have been very 'interesting' for both of us. I mean interesting in the 'holy-shit-we-moved-across-to-the-other-side-of-the-world' way. Things are more settled. We buy the papers in the morning. We go to work. We come home from work. Cook dinner. Plan the weekend. Talk about the crazy shit we saw that day. It's 'kinda neat'. Speaking of which;
4. The shit in this town is unbelievable. Picnics in Prospect Park, Midlake, The Mets :(, Balthazar, Magnolia Electric Co, Bowery Ballroom, Union Hall Pub, Deerhunter, People breakdancing in trains, on platforms, even singing Beatles songs, Autumn starting, The Woolworth Building (my fav), Bryant Park sandwiches, Delivery EVERYTHING (im serious... everything), Cheap organic food, friendly peeps, outdoor music, films, madness.
We are starting to get some velocity in this town. We think we'll like it here.
-andy
Oh, and we had our first visitor! Nat's International Uni buddy, Lisa from Sweden came and stayed with us for a couple of nights. It was so cool to FINALLY meet her. Some of Nat's bragging stories from her time in Copenhagen were confirmed (and a few new ones emerged). Thanks for staying with us, Lisa. We'll miss your safety conscious view of the world! See you in St. Petersburg! Hej!
TIP: Birthdays in New York are good fun.
Lunching in midtown with a girlfriend, afternoon shopping downtown and dinner and jazz later on.
We went to the Lincoln jazz centre at Columbus circle - 'Dizzy's' is a small cabaret venue overlooking central park - front row table, southern soul food and a jazz band that would almost impress Jono - We clapped at the right times, and had a great night - and remembered all the reasons we were so excited to come to New York.
Thanks for all the messages of love... miss you all ... kind of !!
- Nat
At 7.30am this morning, Brooklyn was hit by an EF2 Tornado. About 4 (10cm) inches of rain fell in 1 - 2 hours.
Best of all, the entire subway shut down - for the whole day, and it's 95 degrees outside.
Bring on winter.
- Nat
As some of you know, the company that I work for was purchased by Microsoft about 2 weeks after I got a letter of offer. Well, the deal has almost gone through proper, which means that I have to get another E3 Visa with Microsoft's name on it. Joy of joy. More paperwork.
I have to go to Canada next week to acquire said Visa. I'll be in (lovely) Ottowa from Sunday - Tuesday next week. Expect some Canadian photos on my Flickr around then.
-andy
Went for a stroll in Prospect Park this evening. We're really close to the park - but I hadn't really explored it. New York gets like that - so many distractions.
Prospect Park was cut just after Central Park by the same architects - Olmsted and Vaux - in 1867 and weighing in at 2.1km2. It's design is vast, confident and segregated, just like, erm, the USA!
Anyways, here's some pictures. It's not bad for your local park. Not bad at all.
- Andrew
The Brooklyn museum is a beautiful old building with an awesome modern entrance - as far as art galleries and museums go, this one is fine, just fine. They have an extensive collection of lovely oil landscapes by Durand, some interesting art deco pieces of occasional furniture, and an entire room of dinner plates depicting female reproductive organs - an entire room of fanny plates- not the kind of china you pull out for dinner with the in-laws. The exhibition is called The Dinner Party all I could think about was the many dishes that would be inappropriate to serve on such plates.
In the spirit of cultural exploration and enlightenment, we headed down to 5th Avenue to learn more about the Latin American influence in Brooklyn; Nachos, Tacos and Margaritas are just so fascinating.
We finished our afternoon in Brooklyn at Union Hall - quickly becoming a local favorite. There's even two Bocce fields in the pub. Mad.
So life in Park Slope is starting to feel normal, lazy weekend breakfasts and late boozy lunches - and you thought this blog would be interesting!
Nat and Andy
Avenue A | Razorfish is where I've started. I'm in the User Experience team. A large team of about 50 peeps architecting and designing some websites - like, nytimes.com, cnn.com, ford.com, xm.com amongst others.
The building we are in is superb. It's on Times Square, across 4 levels. It's also the old NYC digs for Google, before they moved to a larger space downtown in Chelsea.
There's a large atrium staircase between the floors, giving the whole office massive breathing space.
Walking to work through Times Square each day is surreal. Tourists, street vendors, lights in the the day, broadway shows, Bryant Park, traffic...
Aaaanyways, these are my digs. It's nice.
- ag
The search is over. We have a place to call our own, in New York's biggest, baddest Borough - Brooklyn.
The apartment is small and ridiculously expensive – but for now, it ours and it beats the shit out of tourist-infested Midtown Manhattan.
The stats
a) 50 meters to the second biggest park in New York;
b) down the road from a very cool Museum;
c) four stops on the Q, 2 and 3 lines to downtown Manhattan and best of all,
d) ITS NOT IN MAHANTTAN.
Sadly, that means that there will b e far less cheese burgers delivered to our door at 2am than expected, and I'm not sure what I'm going to do without a Hotdog stand on every corner – but I think we'll pull through.
Sure, Brooklyn isn't a loft apartment in SoHo or the Village. But it still packs the cred in. Check the celeb-list: The Notorious B.I.G.originated from Brooklyn. As did Jonathan Safran Foer, Jay-Z, Spike Lee, Basquiat, Al Capone, Richard Dreyfuss, Carl Sagan, Jerry Seinfeld and our favourite Patricia Mae Andrzejewski.
Here's a photo of the outside window of our very own shoebox - its the most spacious view of our Brownstone beauty.
-- Nat and Andy xox
so is traveling across ten time zones with a small child in the row behind screaming all the way and kicking the back of your seat.
But worst of all is hunting for an apartment in Manhattan.
People told me it’d be tough, they said ‘it’s a tight market; it’s the no. 1 obsession of all true New Yorker’s.’ Sure, I thought, it won’t be fun, but how hard can it be?
Almost all rentals are handled by Real Estate brokers in this town, and for the privilege of finding you your very own dirty little shoebox, all they ask is 12 -15% of the annual rent (take a minute and do the math), bond and first month’s rent is also payable.
The brokers of Manhattan are an interesting species, their genetic code reveals both human and vulture origins. Interestingly, if you were to examine the DNA of the Manhattan broker you would find that almost 89% of its content is cow manure – of a most odorous kind. They also have interesting names, such as Jesse, Candy, and Jazmyne.
When searching for rentals in other cities I quickly learnt to speak ‘Real Estate’ for example: cozy = cramped and character = not renovated in 50 years.
The language of the Manhattan broker, so- far- as -I -can- tell - isn’t so easy to decode. Here’s what I’ve learnt so far;
Huge Bedroom = you might fit a bed in here (but we don’t guarantee it).
Charming 5th floor walk up = WARNING: people with certain medical conditions should not attempt this grade hike without bringing their own oxygen.
So the search continues, long into the night – many areas of Manhattan and Brooklyn are now considered possibilities.
I know that finding a place to live is all about stretching yourself a little further than you want to go - just over the pain threshold… but in Manhattan, it’s all about stretching yourself over the agony threshold….. And baby it hurts.
Got to go, Candy is waiting for me downtown.
Finally landed in New York yesterday.
Man, we had a rough trip. Two screaming kids and two stressed parents right behind us from MEL to LAX - 14 hours of continuous mayhem.
Then slept the entire LAX to JFK flight - woke up just in time for the fly-over Manhattan. It's a truly amazing sight. And enough to get the full magnitude of New York itself - sprawling, concrete, steel, asphalt and resembling a great SimCity metropolis I once built as a 13 year old.
Our apartment here is great. Actually, it's kinda swank. I'm just waiting for someone to jump into the room any minute and yell, "Just kidding, Sukka!".
The dull tiredness of jetlag is now just dawning on me at 3pm. Must. Stay. Awake.
- Andy
