Hello again.
Like London buses - no posts for ages and then two straight after each other.
It was really lovely having Rachel to stay in January. It was the longest time we had spent together since I was back at Mum's during university holidays. She stayed for just over two weeks, so was here for three weekends, and we did lots of things that Lyn and I hadn't yet done in New York.
Probably my favourite were the trips to the Natural History museum, the Guggenheim and the Design museum. We managed to take the boys to both, and on the whole they were good and enjoyed it. We had to do shifts of looking after them, but Max running around the sloped spiral floors in the Guggenheim was really funny. He managed to at first entertain the stewards and then make them earn their money, as he showed his like for Picasso. Mmmm Picasso... Yum yum!
We also did some fun stuff in the evenings, going to see some stand-up by Paul and his fellow comedians and having some nice meals out. One night we found a really good vegetarian restaurant, that had some really stunning and original dishes. The only other veggie restaurants I'd been to here were weird, with fake meat (and not nice stuff like quorn) in everything. Rachel also went out on her own some nights and saw some theatre and ballet, and Lyn and her went to see As You Like It, directed by Sam Mendes of American Beauty and Road to Perdition fame.
For the middle weekend that Rachel was here we also had Heather to stay. Heather got here late Thursday and hardly stopped until she left on the Monday. On the Friday the boys went to the childcare at my work, and I picked them up, so that Heather, Rachel and Lyn could have a sex in the city, girls about town day. They went window shopping, had a pub lunch, went to some fancy bars and then went to see Hair - one of the few Broadway musicals that hasn't yet made it to London. On the Saturday we all walked across Brooklyn Bridge, went for a pizza at Lombardi's and then went up the Empire State Building. Rachel's back was bad in the evening, so she stayed at home while Heather, Lyn and I went to our favourite West Village bar to play Beer Pong. Sunday was a sport filled day. Heather and I went to the big football pub to see Arrrsenal (as they pronounce it here) beat Bolton, then in the evening we watched the Jets win in the playoffs (on tv) and then went to Madison Square Gardens to watch some Ice Hockey. "Let's go Rangers!" was the chant of the day, as the NY Rangers came back from 2-0 to beat the Montreal Canadiens 6-2. A late night beer pong win over some cocky Americans meant we finished the day with four wins and no losses! Heather flew back to London the next day having well and truly partied hard.
Lyn and the boys really enjoyed having Rachel here in the day as well. Max completely adores Rachel and whenever she was doing her back exercises he would throw himself at her! They did lots of swimming, went to lots of parks and went and looked at prospective areas for us to live in.
It now looks very likely that we'll be staying in New York after the six month rotation is up. My job is going well, and they want me to stay full time. It's quite high profile and from a career point of view, almost impossible to turn down. We are now looking at apartments and trying to work out what we can afford and where we want to live. We love it where we are, but can't afford to live here, so it's a case of what we can sacrifice - space, location or money really. It's not much fun looking around apartments. On Saturday it was really cold and we dragged the boys around about six or seven places, the estate agent taking us to places in the Financial District that either we couldn't afford, or we couldn't fit in. They've got this crazy idea in Manhattan of converting one bedroom apartments into two beds by putting a wall up in the living room. The problem is that there are then no windows in the new half-sized living room. The best thing about living in Manhattan is the massive windows and the views, so this seems to have completely missed the point and they just feel really claustrophobic. Quite a depressing day. On Sunday I went to see some in the Upper West Side and a new building in Brooklyn, but again, none really fit the bill. The one in Brooklyn was nice, but it is next to a really bad school. Schools are another big consideration of where we live. In September Sam would be going to Pre-K (pre-kindergarten, the equivalent of reception in the UK), but this isn't something that is seen as a necessity in NYC. This means that not all public schools have it, and Sam wouldn't be guaranteed a place. Lots of people seem to send there kids private for this year, but the preschool where Sam goes now for two afternoons a week would cost $18,000 a year full time. Crazy money.
It looks like we might have been lucky and found somewhere in Battery Park City, by the river, but it might only be until June, which is no good, and would mean spending some of our savings on rent every month, which isn't ideal. It's quite close to where we are though, which would be great as Lyn and Sam have both made some friends round here. It would also be nice for Sam to know some of the other kids when (if?) he starts school in September, so being close to his preschool makes that quite likely.
Anyway, lots of tricky decisions to come. We'll keep you posted on how it all goes.
Today New York was hit by massive snow storms. 6-12 inches apparently, although a lot of that didn't really settle, or turned straight into sludge. It's funny - it's the first year in my life that it has snowed more in London than in New York. Today's snow meant that I got to leave work early and saw the second half of Arsenal - Liverpool in the pub (I missed the first half as the first two pubs I went to had their satelite signals blocked by the snow). A good result for Arsenal, and with Chelsea losing and ManUre drawing maybe we are back in the title race. We shall see over the next few weeks.
Next week will be good as Pants and Laura are coming to stay. I'm sure we'll have lots of fun with them here. Now that we are probably staying for longer means that you all have a much bigger window to come and stay with us! We love having visitors and our doors (and floors/sofas etc.) are always open.
Hope you're all having a great 2010 so far.
Love Tom x
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