Happy New Year!

I have been very remiss in posting to my blog as of late. So this post will be a catch-up of everything that has gone on up until now.

In September/October I took a trip to Paris and Israel. I spent 3 days in Paris and stayed with my Aussie cousin Toby and his wife Leesa. Leesa is working there with the Australian consulate and they have a gorgeous 4 bedroom apartment in the consulate complex overlooking the Eiffel Tower. It was really nice to catch up and spend some quality time with them. Our other cousin, Steven is also living there and we actually all got together with a bunch of other Aussies for a "pre" Rosh Hashannah dinner, which was really nice, because even though Toby, Steven and I all grew up in Melbourne, this was the first time we were able to celebrate a Jewish holiday together. Coincidentally, Steven's father, Marcel was also visiting, and it was nice to catch up with another person from home.

I have been to Paris before, so I wasn't really up for doing the usual touristy stuff, just to exeprience the city like a local. Having arrived in Paris from New York, it was really apparent to me just how much more refined and beautiful Paris is by comparison. Paris really does hold its own as the style capital of the world.
Another thing I was impressed with was the bicycle system. Paris has a system where there are bicycle stations every few blocks and you can pick up and then drop off your bicycle at any of these stations - very cool! I must admit it was quite scary driving down these small streets with a car driving right next to you but I managed to survive!

My next stop was Israel. I had arranged to do an apartment swap with an Israeli couple. They were staying in my apartment in NY while I stayed in their apartment in Tel Aviv. It worked out really well! I felt a little like I was living the movie "The Holiday" as I ended up spending a lot of time with the guy that let me into the apartment! I had a really nice time in Israel, visiting with family and friends and enjoying the Tel Aviv nightlife. And I fell in love with Israeli breakfasts!

A funny thing happened whil I was in Israel. I was speaking to my mother on the phone and she mentioned that her cousin John and his family would be visiting Israel. But she had no details on when, where and how long, but said "I'm sure you will run into them" and I said, "Israel is not that small!" So one day I am sitting on the beach in Tel Aviv (each day I went to sit at a different beach) and I hear this Australian accent (living away from Australia my ears are finely tunes to the Aussie accent) and I look a few metres away, and there is my cousin John and his two kids!! It was nice to catch up with them.

So that was my Paris/Israel trip. At the end of November I returned to Australia to visit with my family and to meet my 2 new identical nephews. Very cute! Not much has changed in Australia and while I had a nice time, I found myself looking forward to going "home" to New York. I returned to New York to "enjoy" the onset of winter. It is now snowing and we just survived a number of days with highs around -9 degrees celsius! I think it is actually the coldest weather I have ever been in! This winter is definitely more severe than last winter.

Until next time....

Call Me Lazy

Last weekend I went to Hartford for a netball tournament. My travelling partner, Marissa wrote all about it on her blog, so I thought I would point you in the direction of her blog!

http://anysecond.blogspot.com/2008/09/its-not-how-you-play-game-its-if-you.html

Summer in NYC

Before I moved here, I was advised that Summer was the worst time to be in New York City due to the intense heat and humidity. Well, I have to disagree - I think Summer is the best time to be in NYC. It is true that at times the heat can be oppressive, especially when you are in the subways that have next to no ventilation. But Summer in the city has its definite advantages. There are loads of events in the city, like free concerts in the park and street festivals and parades. Also, a lot of locals leave on the weekends to head out to places like the Hamptons and the Jersey Shore. That leaves the city relatively quieter and it is actually fantastic to walk through the city on a Sunday morning - it is so quiet that it has a totally different vibe than the rest of the week. Actually on the fourth of July (Independence Day), the city took on a new level of stillness. It reminded me of an overcast Christmas Day in Surfers Paradise.

Speaking of the fourth of July, do you recall the phrase "It was like fourth of July". It's often referred to on American shows when a woman is describing a magical kiss, as if there were amazingly huge fireworks. In the lead up to Independence Day, in true American form, I was told of how big the fireworks were on the fourth of July. As with many things, it appears that many things in this country are overstated!

That's not to say I didn't have a great Independence Day! I managed to hear about a party held by someone I don't know on his personal penthouse roofdeck in Midtown East, with a perfect view of the (just like any other) fireworks. They had limitless alcohol, a bbq, and a band. Afterward we went to a new bar at the builing formerly known as the Plaza hotel. Very plush.

So, other things I have been doing this Summer; I went white water rafting. It was sooo much fun! I went on a day trip to the LeHigh River in Pennsylvania, a 2 hour trip from the city. I play in a Summer softball league in various places around the city from Central Park all the way up to Harlem (is a little scary up there).

The city also opens up a slew of rooftop bars in the Summer and I have been making the most of the al fresco socializing. And next weekend some girls and I are renting a room at the Empire Hotel just so we can use the pool!

Until next time....

Fire Island

A few weeks ago it was Memorial Day weekend which is the official beginning to the Summer Season (although ironically Summer doesn't officially start until June 21st or something, somewhere close to the solstice). Anyway, a friend of mine organised a share house in Fire Island, which is a long narrow island off Long Island on the way to the Hamptons. You have to catch a ferry to cross the water and once there there are no cars and roads, just footpaths and red wagons (seriously!). It's very quaint and there are lots of families that come here and the kids ride around on their bikes without fear of being run over by cars. There is also a rather large partying contingent consisting mainly of 20-somethings. However, I would describe Fire Island as the antithesis of the Hamptons - very low key, relaxed and stress-free. But being a full fledged New Yorker by now, I could only last 2 days there before I was itching for my New York life again - so I headed back home a day early.

Work Turnaround!

I thoroughly enjoyed my 4 weeks of unemployment and was somewhat disappointed to learn that I had managed to land another job. I would have been perfectly happy to have been a bum for the duration of the Summer but alas it was not to be. That's not to say that I didn't think the job I had accepted wasn't a good opportunity, because on the surface it seemed like the chance for me to make a lot of impact and bring the company and it's website into this millenium.
So when I started and was subjected to an orientation session with others (who were to work in the call centre) I was considerably stunned by all the rules and regulations. Now, I have worked with government departments in Australia, but this government agency was like no other workplace I had encountered. I was not allowed to eat at my desk, nor wear headphones and I had to use a timeclock to check in and out everyday (haven't done that since I was a sales assistant at Myer) ! And that was just the start of the restrictions - imagine all their restrictions on web and phone access! There were other issues as well but I don't feel I can discuss them on a public website. So, after my first week there, I was not looking forward to my second Monday.
That morning as I was sitting at my desk, surrounded by people from non-English speaking countries (you can probably guess their origin - I am in IT) I felt the need to put my headphones on to drown out the foreign languages being spoken around me (actually that was another rule that was broken that I actually agree with), only to be chastised for wearing the headphones! That was the beginning of what I thought was the end of my time there. I informed my agency that I could not see out the contract and they asked me to hold out for a few days until they notified their client. When they finally were informed (that was a long 4 days!) the HR lady asked to speak with me to understand my reasons. I was to learn that I was not the first person to leave for the restrictiveness of the organisation.
A few hours later the CIO summoned me to his office. He asked me not to leave and promised to make changes to address all of my concerns including lifting all those restrictions and changing my reporting structure (I now report directly to the CIO) and even promised to make things more financially rewarding.
So, it's a week later and a lot has changed at the place where I work and I'm actually starting to enjoy it! Wonders will never cease!

It's been a long time...

I have been somewhat unattentive to my blog as of late, so I guess this post will be very jampacked! Since my last post I have seen Purim, Pesach and Yom Ha'atzmaut and have experienced all the celebrations therein. In Australia, these Jewish festivals would usually go by with little fanfare, but it is a different story entirely here in the Jewish capital of the Diaspora. Purim, the festival that encourages drunkenness was a week long instead of a day and I managed to get through the work week despite having attended 4 Purim parties that week!

For Pesach (Passover) I went with my friend Tracey to Chicago to visit her friends and family and also to visit some of my own family. On the Friday night before Pesach, we stayed in downtown Chicago with some friends of Tracey's and had a great night in a place called Viagra Circle (where men of Viagra age are on the prowl). Having come from New York where the men have a lot more of the power in the battle of the sexes, Men in Viagra circle are so much more aggressive. I think we were only at the bar for 10 seconds befure we had a number of guys wanting to buy us drinks!

The following night we had our first night seder with Tracey's family and the second night I spent with my cousins and Great Aunt (my grandmother's sister) and Great Uncle. It was great to see them all again and have my Aunty Sala fuss over me the way my Grandmother did when she was alive. It reminded me of my grandmother and was very touching. After the seder. Tracey and I went out with one of my cousin's Daniel and we went to Second City which is an improv theatre where a lot of famous comedians start their career.

I had informed my work that I was taking the Monday off due to my trip to Chicago. However, on Monday morning I got a phone call telling me that the funding for my project had been cut and I was not to come back to Pfizer until funding was again approved. Kinda killed my day off! But it looked like I was going to have a lot more than a day off!

So I'm back on the market for another job - not a great time to be looking given the current market conditions and the fact that the Summer is looming. On a lighter note, my parents arrive to visit me in two weeks, so maybe I'll be able to hang out with them more than I had planned!

Crazy Night in NYC!

The other night I had such a fun night that I feel that it deserves an enitre post all of it's own. It started off with Tracey and I attending a book launch party in the West Village. The book had something to do with the South Beach lifestyle in the 90s but in reality we didn't have much interest in the book, we were just up for an interesting party. There were a number of minor celebrities at this party, namely Cabdace Bushnell, writer of Sex & the City and Lipstick Jungle tp name a few, Tommy Hilfiger's daughters put in an appearance and the party was also attended by an apparent big time celebrity photographer, Patrick McMullan. I managed to meet Candace, but she wasn't too interested in talking, there was talk that she was a little sloshed! Tracey and I did meet a great woman, I would describe her as the quintessential New York Jewish woman. Her name is Fran and she is a Fashion Broker, in her 40s or 50s and is hilarious and totally says it how it is! Tracey and I had a lot of fun with her. Tracey got groped by some gay guys (not sure what the purpose of that was) and I was talking to an apparently
straight guy in a woman's fur-collared coat! Very strange already.
Then Tracey and I and some others headed off for dinner with some of our crew to a place called the Waverley Inn in the West Village. There were paparazzi out the the front, but they were rather tight lipped about who was inside. When we were seated, we could see two other parties from the party we attended - Candace Bushnell's crew and Fran's crew - what a coincidence!
Out the back there was a private room with a bunch of people and we noticed Chace Crawford from Gossip Girl and Mary Kate Olsen from every twin show on earth and the Heath Ledger drama. A bit later in the night, the celebrity crew started to leave, and I headed out to find out what had happened to the ever so cute Chace Crawford. Well, he was standing in an alcove with a bunch of people, so I walked up to him and introduced myself. We chatted for a bit and then I dragged him up the restaurant to meet my friends! They were somewhat in awe by my gall!
Later on, we went into the bar area of the Waverly Inn and met some British guys. We went with them to some Members Only club (no-not one you're thinking!) where the drinks are free for Members and their friends. It was a 4 storey townhouse on 14th street. Very cool - but empty so we left.
I'm really not sure I've done the night justice by my description. But trust me when I say it was a blast!