5 weeks and counting till I come home, so exciting! I am really excited... a holiday at home.. a strange concept but one I'm really looking forward too... I've been counting down for about 10 weeks now and at week 7 I realised I was counting wrong and then had to add another week... but I'm back on track now... I think... and 5 weeks it is! I hope! see you on May 3!
To pass the time is not very difficult in this city, especially when you have visitors in town... the past week i had natalie and jason staying with me and what fun we had! I think I exhausted them to the point of illness, but i still think they had a good time! With two lists, one for attractions and one for foods to be consumed we managed to nearly see the whole city!! A few things i did with them for the first time, which come highly recommended from me now include the water taxi ride around the rivers, bridges and statue of liberty... and a comedy night at the comedy cellar is hard to beat.. i had sore stomach muscles the next day! What else did we do... we celebrated their wedding, marissa style, at sammy's roumanian, drank at my favourite, the back room, had lunch at carnegie deli, went shopping in soho and 5th avenue (my favourite pastime), oh and another cool thing, we did a movie tour to see where all the movies are filmed around new york... was really fun, who new that even my local fire station is the fire station from Ghost Busters! we ate cupcakes at magnolia, hung out in times square, walked around the park, went drinking at dive bars, played on big pianos toy stores, ate candy at candy stores visited ground zero... and did i mention eating?! haha it was great having them around, and as always, my house is open to you all, just come and visit :)
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
The recession we had to have...
How could anyone forget those great Paul Keating ads!!... This is the recession AUSTRALIA had to have... well it seems we're having another one, and noone has felt it harder then in NYC... Honestly, I don't really understand how it happens, the money must be somewhere, right? someone must be hiding it under their floorboards or in there matress... money changes hands all day everyday, how all of the sudden could it just dissappear? (besides into bernie madoff's pockets...) Then the governments around the world creat a 'stimulus package', where do they pull that money from?! does it actually even exist in physical form or does it just get allocated on paper... do they just print more money and throw it in to the mix?? whatever the situation by the looks of it it isnt getting better any time soon...
As I walk to work everyday down Broadway in Soho, a strip of overpriced, expensive yet beautiful, massive (like you've never seen massive, I'm talking shops with escalators...) stores are slowly closing their doors as they are hit by the current 'situation'. People seem to be losing money left right and center... and depression is setting in... Right now I think I have more friends out of work then in work.. people have had their salaries halved, or have been asked to do just 3 days a week work (of course they are still expected to complete 5 days worth...) one friend described her company's process similar to an Australian Idol eviction show... on the Monday the whole company received an email saying that 20% of the company's staff will be fired on the Friday... after spending the whole week sleepless worried what would happen the Friday arrived and each employee was called into an office. Her turn came up, she walks into the room with her two bosses behind the desk (talk about daunting!) 'XX, thanks for coming, please take a seat', 'XX you are NOT fired today... you are safe for another two months!' she started laughing, could you imagine, she said they were so serious, and judge like... anyway it is still terrible, now she has two months of sleepless nights!! The process of firing staff in New York is so clinical... how to they pick who they are going to fire? It's like every company now feels it their right to fire people because everyone else is doing it 'so lets shed half our workforce just cos we can' ... what a great time to get rid of those that are expensive or useless or both...
What just a few months ago would be a big night in the city, dinner, drinks at a variety of bars and maybe a concert, comedy show or cabaret, many of my friends are taking the eat-in approach, I'll meet you at the bar but I'll eat at home... all in an effort to save money... thankfully I have my job... and I'm still having a blast, but I wish everyone else could still be gainfully employed so we can have those fun nights again...
It is strange when you live in another city as an expat, weirdly all your friends are from your home country as you have a connection, they understand where you've come from, they understand how it is for you to live here, it is easier to befriend them and you just connect better then you do with the locals... on the one hand it is great, an immediate social network of friends like yours back home, on the other hand, your new found family of friends is somewhat transient... here for a limited time, working on their own agendas, its great when you hang out together, but the bond you form is so easily broken... they could leave any day... and with our visas in this job market this is more likely sooner rather then later!
wow, what a negative post.
As I walk to work everyday down Broadway in Soho, a strip of overpriced, expensive yet beautiful, massive (like you've never seen massive, I'm talking shops with escalators...) stores are slowly closing their doors as they are hit by the current 'situation'. People seem to be losing money left right and center... and depression is setting in... Right now I think I have more friends out of work then in work.. people have had their salaries halved, or have been asked to do just 3 days a week work (of course they are still expected to complete 5 days worth...) one friend described her company's process similar to an Australian Idol eviction show... on the Monday the whole company received an email saying that 20% of the company's staff will be fired on the Friday... after spending the whole week sleepless worried what would happen the Friday arrived and each employee was called into an office. Her turn came up, she walks into the room with her two bosses behind the desk (talk about daunting!) 'XX, thanks for coming, please take a seat', 'XX you are NOT fired today... you are safe for another two months!' she started laughing, could you imagine, she said they were so serious, and judge like... anyway it is still terrible, now she has two months of sleepless nights!! The process of firing staff in New York is so clinical... how to they pick who they are going to fire? It's like every company now feels it their right to fire people because everyone else is doing it 'so lets shed half our workforce just cos we can' ... what a great time to get rid of those that are expensive or useless or both...
What just a few months ago would be a big night in the city, dinner, drinks at a variety of bars and maybe a concert, comedy show or cabaret, many of my friends are taking the eat-in approach, I'll meet you at the bar but I'll eat at home... all in an effort to save money... thankfully I have my job... and I'm still having a blast, but I wish everyone else could still be gainfully employed so we can have those fun nights again...
It is strange when you live in another city as an expat, weirdly all your friends are from your home country as you have a connection, they understand where you've come from, they understand how it is for you to live here, it is easier to befriend them and you just connect better then you do with the locals... on the one hand it is great, an immediate social network of friends like yours back home, on the other hand, your new found family of friends is somewhat transient... here for a limited time, working on their own agendas, its great when you hang out together, but the bond you form is so easily broken... they could leave any day... and with our visas in this job market this is more likely sooner rather then later!
wow, what a negative post.
Friday, March 13, 2009
im still alive...
So I am so sorry for not writing sooner but let me know if your still reading and want more... not sure if anyone actually still looks at this but I promise to get back in to the groove... I feel I have less to write about these days, I guess its a sign of actually living in this city.. it is no longer still a holiday and new, it is still always exciting, but it is slowly becoming the norm!
So what's been happening... I've seen two concerts in the last week, Tom Jones and Missy Higgins... both great concerts, both unbelievable in their own rights. Tommy may not be a sex bomb anymore... but he thinks he is and i guess that's all that matters! Nudging 70 he sweated under the strong lights and at one stage even flashed his belly... enough enough.. i agree! He still has an unbelievable voice and I enjoyed the spectacle along with the rest of the audience who were probably also nudging 70! Even though everyone in the room including Tom was slightly geriatric, it didnt stop them throwing their underwear all over the stage... I've seen flowers thrown before but never g-strings... I guess it is a remnant from their youth!
Missy was also fantastic, I don't know why I enjoy her performances so much, I guess its the way she communicates with the audience, you just want to be her bestfriend! Anyway it was made even better by our front row positioning... I've never been in the front row of a concert, but its a great interrupted view, and a fence to lean on! So did anyone watch GP in their youth? it was that great medical show, set in a doctors surgery, a GP practice to be precise... anyway there was a girl in the show called vesna?! I think she was the receptionist? anyone remember?! anyway she is now a singer living in LA, Lenka is her real name and she was Missy's supporting act... as soon as she came on I new she looked familiar... and thanks to wikipedia I worked it all out... it was a great night of Aussie singing...
Got Nat and Jason coming to visit next week, cant wait to entertain them in this fab city... and its just 7 weeks till I'm home in another great city, cant wait for that either... :) Just structuring my year of holidays, I'm thinking LA over Independance Day, London over Thanksgiving, home for kathy's wedding in Dec (yayayayayayay) and then to Thailand over christmas and new year! sounds fantastic, let me know if you want to join me anywhere :)
Sending lots of hugs and kisses,
marissa xx.
ps. if you are a new yorker reading this... i went to a new yummy restaraunt last night... Absinthe.. 1st ave at 7th st... check it out!
So what's been happening... I've seen two concerts in the last week, Tom Jones and Missy Higgins... both great concerts, both unbelievable in their own rights. Tommy may not be a sex bomb anymore... but he thinks he is and i guess that's all that matters! Nudging 70 he sweated under the strong lights and at one stage even flashed his belly... enough enough.. i agree! He still has an unbelievable voice and I enjoyed the spectacle along with the rest of the audience who were probably also nudging 70! Even though everyone in the room including Tom was slightly geriatric, it didnt stop them throwing their underwear all over the stage... I've seen flowers thrown before but never g-strings... I guess it is a remnant from their youth!
Missy was also fantastic, I don't know why I enjoy her performances so much, I guess its the way she communicates with the audience, you just want to be her bestfriend! Anyway it was made even better by our front row positioning... I've never been in the front row of a concert, but its a great interrupted view, and a fence to lean on! So did anyone watch GP in their youth? it was that great medical show, set in a doctors surgery, a GP practice to be precise... anyway there was a girl in the show called vesna?! I think she was the receptionist? anyone remember?! anyway she is now a singer living in LA, Lenka is her real name and she was Missy's supporting act... as soon as she came on I new she looked familiar... and thanks to wikipedia I worked it all out... it was a great night of Aussie singing...
Got Nat and Jason coming to visit next week, cant wait to entertain them in this fab city... and its just 7 weeks till I'm home in another great city, cant wait for that either... :) Just structuring my year of holidays, I'm thinking LA over Independance Day, London over Thanksgiving, home for kathy's wedding in Dec (yayayayayayay) and then to Thailand over christmas and new year! sounds fantastic, let me know if you want to join me anywhere :)
Sending lots of hugs and kisses,
marissa xx.
ps. if you are a new yorker reading this... i went to a new yummy restaraunt last night... Absinthe.. 1st ave at 7th st... check it out!
Friday, February 6, 2009
Skiing NY!
The American, The Norwegian, The Englishman, The Italian and the Australian went up a mountain.... and came back relatively unscathed... last weekend I ventured up north with some friends from work to go skiing at Windham Mountain. Situated in the Catskills Mountain ranges we hired a car, did a grocery shop and drove 3 or so hours to a chalet owned by one of the guys. We spent two days on the slopes (read: two days with my heart in my throat as I hurtled down icy runs), but I think by the end I had made some improvement!... my bruised knee might argue that fact but really it was a lot of fun.
What suprised me though was the 'boringness' of the atmosphere on the mountain... in Australia when you go skiing, the runs are interesting (ie. they go through trees, there's hills and so on), there's music all over the mountain, there's restaraunt huts at the bottom of runs, there's comraderie between the skiers, and there are heaps of little kids in crazy head-dress helmets... but here it was no mucking around, there's a mountain, there's snow on it, there's one restaraunt at the bottom, the runs go straight up and down, the kids there are serious... no mucking around with dress ups... its more of a regular activity. My conclusion was that for the average american up on the mountain, its just what they do as weekend sport, just like they would play tennis or basketball in the summer.. there is nothing exciting about it for them... with so much snow around throughout winter year after year I guess the novelty has just worn off!
Nonetheless, our bunch of multicultural nearly non-Americans, had a great time, jumping off ramps into airbags (not me) sliding down mountains on bottoms (me) and general skiing for 6 hours each day... It was great getting to spend time with my colleagues, people I hardly new... put me out of my comfort zone which i like every now and then... we all got on great, cooked some wonderful meals, mixed it up with the locals and enjoyed the freezing weather!
Looking forward to heading up there again, hopefully before the winter is out... then I might become a real pro!
What suprised me though was the 'boringness' of the atmosphere on the mountain... in Australia when you go skiing, the runs are interesting (ie. they go through trees, there's hills and so on), there's music all over the mountain, there's restaraunt huts at the bottom of runs, there's comraderie between the skiers, and there are heaps of little kids in crazy head-dress helmets... but here it was no mucking around, there's a mountain, there's snow on it, there's one restaraunt at the bottom, the runs go straight up and down, the kids there are serious... no mucking around with dress ups... its more of a regular activity. My conclusion was that for the average american up on the mountain, its just what they do as weekend sport, just like they would play tennis or basketball in the summer.. there is nothing exciting about it for them... with so much snow around throughout winter year after year I guess the novelty has just worn off!
Nonetheless, our bunch of multicultural nearly non-Americans, had a great time, jumping off ramps into airbags (not me) sliding down mountains on bottoms (me) and general skiing for 6 hours each day... It was great getting to spend time with my colleagues, people I hardly new... put me out of my comfort zone which i like every now and then... we all got on great, cooked some wonderful meals, mixed it up with the locals and enjoyed the freezing weather!
Looking forward to heading up there again, hopefully before the winter is out... then I might become a real pro!
FuerzaBruta
If you ever get the chance go see it! I recently saw this show, Fuerza Bruta, http://www.fuerzabrutanyc.com, arguably one of the best shows I've ever seen!... I know, I know, that's a big call... maybe its just the first time I've been to a show with that much audience participation, immersiveness and randomness... squashed into a not so large theatre with about 400 others into the dark, the ushers herded you around to different parts of the room like sheep whilst around us performers harnessed to the hilt sprawled around above our heads, swinging from every corner possible, crashing through walls, splashing through a massive glass bottom swimming pool as it lowered to about an inch from our noses, acrobatics, a house sized treadmill, bright lights, sprays from a giant water hose, thousands of pieces of paper blown all over you like snow from the sky, loud music, theatre like I've never seen, who could ask for anything more!
.... very new york.
disclaimer: don't see it if you don't like strobe, getting wet, standing, and the ocassional feeling of claustraphobia. this post does it no justice. go see it!
.... very new york.
disclaimer: don't see it if you don't like strobe, getting wet, standing, and the ocassional feeling of claustraphobia. this post does it no justice. go see it!
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Patriotism
.... I think it always happens when you are away from home on a national holiday... in this case it was Australia Day... which for me ended up being Australia 3 Days. Nonetheless I pranced around the streets of NY in my newly ebay purchased Australia vintage tee and ugg boots, and basked in the fact that everyone in this city loves a good Aussie.
The weekend started with a lovely dinner at an Italian restaurant in the village with about 16 aussies and a few wannabe american-aussies... ok it was Italian food but I was in the right company... the evening ended with a few Coopers down the road and was much like any other night out... Sunday my friend Rachel had a Australia Day Barbeque...as best she could she turned her cosy studio apartment into a day at the beach... yes the -4 degrees outside kind of hampered this, but decked out in aussie shorts, bikini and covered in aussie tattoos she had snags, vegemite, tim tams, pavlova, and chocolate crackles!! amazing... i dont think I've had crackles since my 6th birthday party... and they tasted exactly the same... such memories! a taste I don't think any aussie kid can ever forget...
Sunday night, still on the Australia Day Weekend bandwagon I headed out to Williamsburg where Orly had organised a night of Australian singers... sponsored by Coopers we donned Coopers hats, t-shirts and other paraphanalia and hung out listening to a bunch of aussies strut there stuff on the stage...
Monday morning (actual Australia Day) I headed to work having passed by the Tuckshop (an aussie meat pies hole in the wall) only to find they had run out of lamingtons (I know how could this be!) and then arrived at work, slightly under the weather still sporting my aussie tattoos, albeit slightly rubbed off... by this time actually a bit over australia day. Not wanting to do much by this stage, monday night a few friends and i headed to the Sunburnt Cow, an aussie bar near my place... heading in and faced with the horrible smell of stale beer our visited lasted all of 30 seconds before we decided to head to a burger joint down the street, transforming their burgers on the menu into traditional aussie style... what a fitting way to end the celebrations.
Until next year my australians!
The weekend started with a lovely dinner at an Italian restaurant in the village with about 16 aussies and a few wannabe american-aussies... ok it was Italian food but I was in the right company... the evening ended with a few Coopers down the road and was much like any other night out... Sunday my friend Rachel had a Australia Day Barbeque...as best she could she turned her cosy studio apartment into a day at the beach... yes the -4 degrees outside kind of hampered this, but decked out in aussie shorts, bikini and covered in aussie tattoos she had snags, vegemite, tim tams, pavlova, and chocolate crackles!! amazing... i dont think I've had crackles since my 6th birthday party... and they tasted exactly the same... such memories! a taste I don't think any aussie kid can ever forget...
Sunday night, still on the Australia Day Weekend bandwagon I headed out to Williamsburg where Orly had organised a night of Australian singers... sponsored by Coopers we donned Coopers hats, t-shirts and other paraphanalia and hung out listening to a bunch of aussies strut there stuff on the stage...
Monday morning (actual Australia Day) I headed to work having passed by the Tuckshop (an aussie meat pies hole in the wall) only to find they had run out of lamingtons (I know how could this be!) and then arrived at work, slightly under the weather still sporting my aussie tattoos, albeit slightly rubbed off... by this time actually a bit over australia day. Not wanting to do much by this stage, monday night a few friends and i headed to the Sunburnt Cow, an aussie bar near my place... heading in and faced with the horrible smell of stale beer our visited lasted all of 30 seconds before we decided to head to a burger joint down the street, transforming their burgers on the menu into traditional aussie style... what a fitting way to end the celebrations.
Until next year my australians!
Thursday, January 22, 2009
happy new year!
So its 2009. I've only just realised. A few weeks to late but yes, its here and its time to get into gear. I've never had a new years resolution and this year I've got 6. I'm not going to write them here because: a. fear of not completing them all and b. some of them are private, but nonetheless if you want to know, just get in touch... now there's incentive! I've written them down, next I'll plan their roll out... so organised of me!
I'm excited for the next 12 months! Im having an amazing time over here, and there's a world of opportunity at my feet... let's see how far I get!
For all of you, my friends, I wish only the best for you all in the next 12 months, with new jobs, new babies, new wives, new husbands, new friends, new homes, it looks like a great year ahead for all of us.
keep in touch and keep safe,
m xx.
I'm excited for the next 12 months! Im having an amazing time over here, and there's a world of opportunity at my feet... let's see how far I get!
For all of you, my friends, I wish only the best for you all in the next 12 months, with new jobs, new babies, new wives, new husbands, new friends, new homes, it looks like a great year ahead for all of us.
keep in touch and keep safe,
m xx.
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