Autumn & Winter

Fourth in a series of catch-up blogs...

One of the best things about joining the sailing club is it's a family membership, and the clubhouse is open to all the family. At the end of the summer and throughout Autumn we went out to the clubhouse a lot. The clubhouse ("William Wall") is a two story floating bar moored between Ellis Island and Liberty park. When it's open the launch boat leaves every 30mins from North Cove out to the boat. Sam, Max and Leo love going out there. The launch captain knows them and salutes them and they salute him back, and then we speed out across the harbour for a few drinks, snacks and maybe a bedtime story, before taking the boat back and putting the boys to sleep. The view looking back to Manhattan is fabulous and it's a great place to watch the sunset over Jersey.

Sam turned 6 at the end of August and loves his new bike. He also managed to make $100 by painting and selling stones and used the money to buy a second hand blackberry playbook from one of my colleagues. He uses his playbook to play angry birds and tetris, take photos and videos, check the weather and has read emails. At the beginning of September we had his birthday party in the local park with 20+ six year old boys running around like nutters. It was hard to control at times, but a lot of fun and he got some great presents from his friends.

In September his football league started and for his age group the team are named after Premier League teams. I had managed to persuade the league coordinator to give us Arsenal and I coached the team along with my friend Victor who is also an Arsenal season ticket holder abroad.  Seeing Sam score on his Arsenal debut was a very proud day for me! We weren't the best team in the league but Sam scored a lot of goals and it was a lot of fun. Unfortunately the Hurricane damaged the football pitches and brought an early end to the season. We have now started up an indoor six a side team at Chelsea piers, where they have indoor astroturf pitches.

Another highlight of my year was seeing Andy Murray win the US Open. When rain on Saturday meant the final would be moved to Monday I managed to buy tickets for about £50 and I went to the game with Caroline. It was an incredible match which lasted five hours. The first set tie break alone lasted 25 minutes, the same time as Serena took to win the first set of her quarter-final. It was the first men's British grand slam win for 76 years and being there to watch British tennis history was great.

In October Lyn and I got a chance to sail on the club's flagship America II, which had sailed in the Americas Cup 25 years ago. It was a lot of fun and completely different sailing - the sail is so big that you have to use a grinder and gears to pull it across the boat to tack.  We also got a babysitter a different day and were able to sail together on the normal club boats (J24s) and were lucky with the weather getting a windy day with glorious blue skies.

Hurricane Sandy hit New York pretty badly. We were in the evacuation zone but decided to stay put as we decided we were high enough we wouldn't get flooded and a storm with a 400 mile radius wasn't really worth running from. The basement of our building flooded and we lost power and running water for five days, but we couldn't really complain. The devastation for many people was terrible and probably half of the world's population live without power and running water.  We were pretty well prepared with torches, jugs, bottles and pots full of drinking water and the bath full to use to flush toilets. After a few days things got a bit grim but fortunately our area wasn't badly hit - we are on a different grid from the rest of Downtown Manhattan so most buildings had power - and once our friends came back from evacuation they invited us round for food and showers. There is already quite a strong community feeling where we live, and Sandy really strengthened it, with buildings close by having food and drink in their lobbies for neighbours without power.

My mum has come to stay with us in December for Christmas and she was also here for Max's birthday which was really nice for them both. He had a lovely day and a great party, which we had in our apartment and was a lot calmer than Sam's. Max was so tired at the end of the day that he had taken himself to bed before 7pm!  I had to work really hard in December doing the capital stress testing for the Government and this year they greatly increased the scope and number of variables, so until this weekend I didn't see my mum much, or Lyn and the boys. It is now so nice us just all relaxing at home and enjoying each other's company. We are having a lovely Christmas break and the boys are really looking forward to tomorrow. Merry Christmas everybody!

Photos from the autumn and winter are here, and here's a link to our Christmas video.

Best wishes for a wonderful Christmas from all of us to all of you!

Love from Tom, Lyn, Sam, Max and Leo. XXXXX