We're staying in New York! (and thanks to the volcano our trip home is postponed)

Hi everybody,

Sorry for no updates for a couple of months. It's been a very busy time for us. The big news is that we're staying in New York! I was offered a job that is really interesting and will give me great experience, doing capital and balance sheet planning. After deciding to accept, life has been very hectic. We had to find an apartment, move house, clean the old place, buy lots of things (as our old apartment was completely furnished, including bedding, towels etc.), apply for schools for Sam and arrange to come back to England to see everybody and get more of our things.

Finding an apartment wasn't much fun. It's so expensive here and they have this concept of spliting rooms into two to give an extra bedroom, but meaning the living room has no windows/views. The estate agents are just like in the UK, not very honest, or just time wasters, taking you to places you can't afford. In the end though we found somewhere lovely, right by the river and playgrounds and with views of the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. We wouldn't be able to afford it, but the previous tennant wanted to get out of his lease, so he has subsidised ours for a year. Sam and Max can now walk to a playground without having to cross a road, which is really nice. When it's cold, it's very cold, but when it's warm it feels like being on holiday.

The whole move was really difficult though. First when we tried to move in the previous tenant had gone to Miami for the weekend without moving his things out. We had to move most of our stuff, and then live out of a suitcase at the old place for two days. Then we went to Ikea and bought bedding, linen, towels and kitchen stuff, and took it to the new flat. When we weren't at the new place they came to get their things and took our Ikea shopping. They said they'd realised it was a mistake and asked the porter to bring it back but the porter said they'd told him to throw it away. £300 of shopping gone. So we had to go back and get it again. They hadn't cleaned the place either, so we had to get a cleaner in. It was a horrible first two weeks, but we're now through it and just waiting to see if our insurance will pay out.

We've also applied for Sam's schools. This September he'd be going into Pre-Kindergarten. It's not guaranteed though, and there aren't enough places for all kids, so it's a lottery whether he'll get in somewhere. Fingers crossed he gets into one of the two schools that are close to us. We're not sure what we'd do if he doesn't - we'd have to get him in somewhere, but it would be expensive.

Last weekend we were meant to be flying back to England for two weeks, to see family and friends, collect some of our things from Streatham and go to Charlie's wedding. On the morning of our flights I woke up and had emails from people about the volcano. Our flight was cancelled, but we were flying the following day instead, and would still make it for the wedding. Then conditions worsened and that was cancelled too. We missed Charlie's wedding, which was really sad. By the time the flights had started again the backlog was so big that we wouldn't be able to fly until this Tuesday - 12 days late - which would have given us four days in the UK. I can't move the holiday back at work as my boss had a holiday booked and a colleague is on maternity leave, so there would have been nobody there. It now looks like we'll be coming at the end of May, although Lyn and the boys will probably come for two weeks extra before then. We should have the details sorted in the next couple of days, so will let you know.

We've got some new photos to put up on our flickr site, and will get that done this week as well. We'll put up another post to say they're there.

Hope you are all well!

Lots of love,

Tom, Lyn, Sam and Max