Hi all,
The first weekend that the volcano scuppered our homecoming plans we just sat around, moping about the house being very miserable indeed. "Right now we'd be having lunch in a pub on the Thames with Bob and Sue...". "Just about now Charlie and Katya are saying Я беру ее себе в жены". "Now we'd be laughing at Ben's best man's speech". Etc. Not a very happy household... Going back into work on the Monday was pretty rubbish too.
The next weekend we decided to perk up a bit and enjoy New York. The weather was lovely and the Tribeca Film Festival had just started. They had erected a big screen in the harbour in front of our building and on the Friday we all went and watched Big. On the Saturday Sam went to a joint birthday party. Harley and Rocco go to Sam's school, but he denied all knowledge of them! We bought a fire engine book and a dinosaur book, about as gender specific presents as you could imagine, so no surprises when one turned out to be the girliest pinkest girl ever! Can you guess which one though? Afterwards Sam admitted they were both in his class and he played with them a lot!
That evening there was another free film - The Birth of Big Air - a documentary about Mat Hoffman, a BMX legend, produced and introduced by Johnny Knoxsville of Jackass fame. Max discovered a love for popcorn while we watched some amazing jumps and gruesome crashes. After the film some BMXers and skateboarders took to a newly erected half-pipe to do some amazing jumps and tricks, including Mat Hoffman himself (back from retirement) jumping over two skateboarders, themselves in mid-air. Sam enjoyed making some noise, and, to Lyn's horror, was suitably inspired that a few days later tried to ride his scooter down the slide in the playground!
We finished off the weekend with a trip to the Met (we've just found out that with my work id we can get into most of the main museums for free) followed by a Central Park playground and a Patsy's pizza. A fun weekend.
This weekend there was more free stuff, starting with the Tribeca Family Festival. Greenwich street was closed off and there were lots of stalls, music, story-telling, cheap massages and play areas. All the NY sports teams had attractions with Sam's favourite being the NY Jets bouncy-castle type assault course. Sam managed to score touchdown after touchdown. Instead of exiting he kept turning round, sidestepping the supervisor and running back for more. There was a different BMX show, with some crazy backflip jumps and other impressive stunts.
After that we took a tube down to Coney Island and the New York Aquarium, which had a free day for corporate members. My work also donates to the NY Wildlife Conservation Society, so every month there is a free day at one of the zoos. Although not as impressive as the London or Dubai aquariums, it was fun, and we really enjoyed the Sea Lion show. It's not very big, so we managed to see most of it and still leave time to have a play on the beach. Max and I had a good kickaround, while Sam and Lyn jumped over the waves. It had cooled down by then, but was a balmy 30 degree weekend. Coney Island had a cool feel and it was definitely party time. It's a very different demographic to where we live, and felt a bit more like home, or Brighton. There was a soundsystem on the beachside board-walk with lots of people dancing, so we stopped for the boys to finish of the picnic and Lyn and I to have a beer.
Yesterday we finished off the weekend by going to Cirque du Soleil in a big top on Randall's Island, which is a small lump of land between Harlem, the Bronx and Queens. We got the train to Harlem, which also had a very different feel to it from downtown Manhattan. Quite an edge, but not as much as Brixton at the end of a sunny bank holiday weekend! In the big top the circus was amazing. Max was a bit scared at first, but after a while both the boys were transfixed (both by the circus and the popcorn...). The show was Ovo, about insects that find an egg. The things they can do are amazing. From acrobatics, to tightrope, to diablo juggling, to trapeze. The finale was incredible with trampolines and a climbing wall, with great tumbling and people literally juggling themselves, dropping off the wall and bouncing back up again in unison, all to a backround of Brazilian music.
We've put lots of photos up on our flickr site. There's a whole new album of Christmas and the visits of Rachel, Heather and Pants and Laura. And we've also just started a spring album with views from our new apartment and some photos from the last two weekends.
Our UK trip is now re-booked. Lyn and the boys are staying for four weeks and I'm coming over this weekend for a few days, and then back on the 21st for the third and fourth weeks. If you haven't already, then let us know when would be good to see you. We're travelling around seeing family, and will be in London for most of the last week (after the Bank Holiday weekend at the end of May). On Thursday 3rd June my Dad is babysitting, so we'll be meeting people in a bar somewhere in London. Put it in your diaries and we'll arrange a place soon and let you know. It'll probably be at a pub by the river, followed by a meal. We're really looking forward to seeing you all soon.
Lots of love,
Tom and family x
Monday, May 3, 2010
Sunday, April 25, 2010
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
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
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Rachel's visit and it looks like we're staying
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
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
Christmas and the New Year
Hi everybody,
The last month or so has been busy, so sorry to anybody who has checked back and seen no updates. We managed to send out lots of Christmas cards with the blog address on, and then didn't do any updates for ages.
We had an absolutely lovely Christmas. The boys really loved it. It was the first time that Sam really understood Christmas, and it was also the first time in eight years that Lyn and I had Christmas just the two of us. We've always had lovely times with my family or Lyn's, but to do it just our little family was nice - to start our own traditions etc.
We all got some lovely presents, so thanks to everybody who sent us them! Somehow the presents for the boys were all huge, so we'll definitely need to do some shipping when we come home (or sell lots of things on craigslist).
In the week after Christmas Lyn and I went to see Cirque du Soleil at Madison Square Gardens, which was really good. It was their Wintuk show, which was completely different to the show we had seen in London. Very urban, with bmx and skating tricks, as well as the more traditional tumbling, trapeze and acrobatics.
I also got to go to the last ever game at the Giants Stadium, to see the New York Jets against the Cincinatti Bengals. The Jets had to win to make the playoffs and they did, so it was a great atmosphere. The Jets then did exceptionally well, and almost made it to the superbowl, against all odds. It was bloody freezing though. I had my first tailgate party (there are no pubs near the grounds over here, as they are in the middle of nowhere, so people party in the carparks). We took lots of beer and snacks and drank out of the back of a hire car, in the -18 degree cold. Fortunately the guys next to us had a barbeque, which we warmed our hands up on. Out of the wind, in the stadium, it was only -12, so not too bad.... I have to say though that we gave Highbury a far better send off than they gave their place. It was named after their local rivals though, so I guess they didn't have too much love for it. Arsenal fans would no doubt burn the ground down if we had to play at "Totte*ham Stadium".
I'll probably leave it at that for now and try to write another blog in the next day or so. January has been great with Rachel staying for two weeks, and also a visit from Heather. The boys have got colds at the moment, and it's been pretty cold here (although the temperature for the American Football game was a rarity - it's often cold, but not usually worse than -5), so we've been swimming a lot, but not going out too much over the last few weeks.
Lyn is doing well, and the boys are lovely. Sam has almost completely mastered use of the toilet. It's been a long hard slog, but his success rate is nearly 100% now, so that's a big breakthrough, and means we have to do a lot less washing. Max is now bounding about and really enjoys chasing Sam, so that's quite a lot of fun!
Speak to you again soon,
Lots of love,
Tom
The last month or so has been busy, so sorry to anybody who has checked back and seen no updates. We managed to send out lots of Christmas cards with the blog address on, and then didn't do any updates for ages.
We had an absolutely lovely Christmas. The boys really loved it. It was the first time that Sam really understood Christmas, and it was also the first time in eight years that Lyn and I had Christmas just the two of us. We've always had lovely times with my family or Lyn's, but to do it just our little family was nice - to start our own traditions etc.
We all got some lovely presents, so thanks to everybody who sent us them! Somehow the presents for the boys were all huge, so we'll definitely need to do some shipping when we come home (or sell lots of things on craigslist).
In the week after Christmas Lyn and I went to see Cirque du Soleil at Madison Square Gardens, which was really good. It was their Wintuk show, which was completely different to the show we had seen in London. Very urban, with bmx and skating tricks, as well as the more traditional tumbling, trapeze and acrobatics.
I also got to go to the last ever game at the Giants Stadium, to see the New York Jets against the Cincinatti Bengals. The Jets had to win to make the playoffs and they did, so it was a great atmosphere. The Jets then did exceptionally well, and almost made it to the superbowl, against all odds. It was bloody freezing though. I had my first tailgate party (there are no pubs near the grounds over here, as they are in the middle of nowhere, so people party in the carparks). We took lots of beer and snacks and drank out of the back of a hire car, in the -18 degree cold. Fortunately the guys next to us had a barbeque, which we warmed our hands up on. Out of the wind, in the stadium, it was only -12, so not too bad.... I have to say though that we gave Highbury a far better send off than they gave their place. It was named after their local rivals though, so I guess they didn't have too much love for it. Arsenal fans would no doubt burn the ground down if we had to play at "Totte*ham Stadium".
I'll probably leave it at that for now and try to write another blog in the next day or so. January has been great with Rachel staying for two weeks, and also a visit from Heather. The boys have got colds at the moment, and it's been pretty cold here (although the temperature for the American Football game was a rarity - it's often cold, but not usually worse than -5), so we've been swimming a lot, but not going out too much over the last few weeks.
Lyn is doing well, and the boys are lovely. Sam has almost completely mastered use of the toilet. It's been a long hard slog, but his success rate is nearly 100% now, so that's a big breakthrough, and means we have to do a lot less washing. Max is now bounding about and really enjoys chasing Sam, so that's quite a lot of fun!
Speak to you again soon,
Lots of love,
Tom
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Max walking!
Hi all,
As promised, here is a video of Max walking. Very cute.
Today we are putting the boys into the emergency childcare at work and Lyn and I are going Ice Skating in Central Park, then lunch somewhere nice followed by Avatar in 3D at the Imax cinema. In the UK you can only use the work childcare if you're at work, but here it's different. It should be a lovely day and we're very excited!
Hope you're all having a great Christmas week!
Lots of love,
Tom
As promised, here is a video of Max walking. Very cute.
Today we are putting the boys into the emergency childcare at work and Lyn and I are going Ice Skating in Central Park, then lunch somewhere nice followed by Avatar in 3D at the Imax cinema. In the UK you can only use the work childcare if you're at work, but here it's different. It should be a lovely day and we're very excited!
Hope you're all having a great Christmas week!
Lots of love,
Tom
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Max's 1st Birthday!
Hello everyone,
It's all snowy, cold and beautiful here at the moment. New York suits snow, especially with all the twinkling christmas trees and lights. We went to Central Park today and it was magical. We saw people trying to sledge down snow covered rocks in a canoe. Then they tried unsuccessfully to drag it back up to the top again. I love snow. It seems to bring out joy and nutters! I have to say though, the snowmen in Tooting Common last year completely thrash the Central Park ones.
Last Wednesday was Max's 1st birthday. To mark the occasion, Max started walking on the monday before. He looks very proud of himself and gives himself a round of applause each time he walks. On the morning of the big day, we played with Max's new toys and balloons, went swimming and then went into town to meet Tom and Paul for pizza. After lunch, Paul took us to a brilliant toy shop where children are allowed to play with the toys. There is a huge piano there from the Tom Hanks film 'Big' that children are encouraged to play on. Sam bought Max some building bricks and then we went home and played a bit more. I think Max had a fun day. I was pretty exhausted by the end of it.
Calv and Isa came to visit the weekend before and we had loads of fun. We went out and played Beer Pong again. Then we went to a restaurant where a guacamole expert come to our table and prepared it in front of us. It was almost like performance art, but we had a huge incredible bowl of guacamole to show for it. Calv, Isa and Tom went to a huge local derby NFL game between Philadelphia Giants and Eagles. Isa got loads of great photos of topless fat blokes when it was -4 degrees. Big thanks to Isa who kindly imported, stamped and posted all our christmas cards, meaning for the first time in years our friends and family got Chrismas cards.
We're really looking forward to Christmas in New York, but I'm going to miss everyone back there in Blighty and those of you in Oz. I feel a long way away from you all.
New York doesn't hold back on celebrating holidays and Christmas is no exception. So, I'm sure it's going to be an experience. Sam and I went to our local fire house's christmas party a couple of weeks ago. It was for the firemen's and Sam's families. We felt very honoured indeed.
Sam and Max are decidedly unconvinced by Santa which is a shame beacause he's everywhere here. He came to the lobby in our building. When Sam saw Santa, he needed to keep a good distance. One of the much less scary elves, threw Santa's sack of toys to Sam, so Sam would not need to get too close. Max was braver until Santa laughed. Then Max screamed and Sam was rooted to the spot with fear. The next evening, we were in Little Italy and there was some kind of drunk Santa convention which didn't really help Sam and Max's opinion of the celebrated man in red.
We've put some new photos on our flickr site. We'll put a video of Max walking very soon. Have a lovely lovely christmas. We miss you all very much and will be thinking of you.
Lots and lots of love
Lyn, Tom, Sam and Max (now 1!)
It's all snowy, cold and beautiful here at the moment. New York suits snow, especially with all the twinkling christmas trees and lights. We went to Central Park today and it was magical. We saw people trying to sledge down snow covered rocks in a canoe. Then they tried unsuccessfully to drag it back up to the top again. I love snow. It seems to bring out joy and nutters! I have to say though, the snowmen in Tooting Common last year completely thrash the Central Park ones.
Last Wednesday was Max's 1st birthday. To mark the occasion, Max started walking on the monday before. He looks very proud of himself and gives himself a round of applause each time he walks. On the morning of the big day, we played with Max's new toys and balloons, went swimming and then went into town to meet Tom and Paul for pizza. After lunch, Paul took us to a brilliant toy shop where children are allowed to play with the toys. There is a huge piano there from the Tom Hanks film 'Big' that children are encouraged to play on. Sam bought Max some building bricks and then we went home and played a bit more. I think Max had a fun day. I was pretty exhausted by the end of it.
Calv and Isa came to visit the weekend before and we had loads of fun. We went out and played Beer Pong again. Then we went to a restaurant where a guacamole expert come to our table and prepared it in front of us. It was almost like performance art, but we had a huge incredible bowl of guacamole to show for it. Calv, Isa and Tom went to a huge local derby NFL game between Philadelphia Giants and Eagles. Isa got loads of great photos of topless fat blokes when it was -4 degrees. Big thanks to Isa who kindly imported, stamped and posted all our christmas cards, meaning for the first time in years our friends and family got Chrismas cards.
We're really looking forward to Christmas in New York, but I'm going to miss everyone back there in Blighty and those of you in Oz. I feel a long way away from you all.
New York doesn't hold back on celebrating holidays and Christmas is no exception. So, I'm sure it's going to be an experience. Sam and I went to our local fire house's christmas party a couple of weeks ago. It was for the firemen's and Sam's families. We felt very honoured indeed.
Sam and Max are decidedly unconvinced by Santa which is a shame beacause he's everywhere here. He came to the lobby in our building. When Sam saw Santa, he needed to keep a good distance. One of the much less scary elves, threw Santa's sack of toys to Sam, so Sam would not need to get too close. Max was braver until Santa laughed. Then Max screamed and Sam was rooted to the spot with fear. The next evening, we were in Little Italy and there was some kind of drunk Santa convention which didn't really help Sam and Max's opinion of the celebrated man in red.
We've put some new photos on our flickr site. We'll put a video of Max walking very soon. Have a lovely lovely christmas. We miss you all very much and will be thinking of you.
Lots and lots of love
Lyn, Tom, Sam and Max (now 1!)
Thursday, December 10, 2009
A Third of a Century
First of all - happy sort of birthday to me. Today I am 33⅓ - a third of a century!
The week after we got back from Arizona was Thanksgiving, which meant a day off work and a national celebration. On Thanksgiving eve I got off work early and we all went to the "Macy's Inflation Celebration". On Thanksgiving there is a huge parade, paid for by the department store Macy's, which has lots of huge balloons of cartoon characters, which are controlled like puppets from below. The day before they fence off a few roads to blow the balloons up. It was extremely overcrowded, but there was a real buzz in the air, and people had traveled for miles to see the inflation and then the parade the next day.
On Thanksgiving itself we got up and watched the parade on television. Paul came round and I made some pumpkin pie and we ate that with hot apple cider (non-alcoholic), which I had heated up with cinnamon, cloves, orange peel and rum for the adults. Yum. After the parade we watched the (American) football, another thanksgiving tradition, and played with the kids. Paul headed off, and in the evening we went round to the parents of one of Sam's friends from pre-school. We had been hoping for a Thanksgiving invite and were really pleased when it arrived two days before the day. We ate lots of food and drunk lots of wine and had a really nice evening.
This weekend we had Anna & Phillip to stay, which was really nice. On Friday we put the boys into the childcare at my work and Lyn, Anna & Phillip spent the day going round art galleries in the Village, getting their hair cut and eating and drinking. It sounds like they had a lovely day. On Saturday we lazed around in the morning and then went to the Christmas market in Union Square, but the weather was horrible, so we found ourselves a nice pub and had a great dinner, washed down with Pumpkin beer. After lunch we went to Grand Central station, where there is another Xmas market, and then walked to the Rockefeller Centre. By now the rain and turned to snow, and it was beautiful seeing the huge Christmas tree in the snow, while people ice skated below. We then headed back to the subway via Times Square, which is always crazy but the snow gave it something extra.
By Sunday the clouds had gone and it was a beautiful cold crisp sunny day. We walked along the river down to the bottom of Manhattan and had a lovely Italian lunch, before getting the ferry across to Liberty Island to look up at the statue. The ride on the boat was nice, but the most special thing was looking back at New York from the island. We can see the statue from our apartment, and to look back and see our tower as part of the Manhattan skyline was great. Have a look at the photo here. It's the smaller one right in the middle that has a square on top. That is one that we need to crop, enlarge and frame. It's amazing to think that the Statue of Liberty was taller than any of the buildings in New York when it arrived here. Now there's not many shorter....
Anna and Phillip left yesterday and Calv and Isa arrive tomorrow, so we have another fun packed weekend coming up. Christmas is fast approaching and we need to buy a tree and some lights soon. Hope you are all well and looking forward to the festivities.
Best wishes,
Tom x
The week after we got back from Arizona was Thanksgiving, which meant a day off work and a national celebration. On Thanksgiving eve I got off work early and we all went to the "Macy's Inflation Celebration". On Thanksgiving there is a huge parade, paid for by the department store Macy's, which has lots of huge balloons of cartoon characters, which are controlled like puppets from below. The day before they fence off a few roads to blow the balloons up. It was extremely overcrowded, but there was a real buzz in the air, and people had traveled for miles to see the inflation and then the parade the next day.
On Thanksgiving itself we got up and watched the parade on television. Paul came round and I made some pumpkin pie and we ate that with hot apple cider (non-alcoholic), which I had heated up with cinnamon, cloves, orange peel and rum for the adults. Yum. After the parade we watched the (American) football, another thanksgiving tradition, and played with the kids. Paul headed off, and in the evening we went round to the parents of one of Sam's friends from pre-school. We had been hoping for a Thanksgiving invite and were really pleased when it arrived two days before the day. We ate lots of food and drunk lots of wine and had a really nice evening.
This weekend we had Anna & Phillip to stay, which was really nice. On Friday we put the boys into the childcare at my work and Lyn, Anna & Phillip spent the day going round art galleries in the Village, getting their hair cut and eating and drinking. It sounds like they had a lovely day. On Saturday we lazed around in the morning and then went to the Christmas market in Union Square, but the weather was horrible, so we found ourselves a nice pub and had a great dinner, washed down with Pumpkin beer. After lunch we went to Grand Central station, where there is another Xmas market, and then walked to the Rockefeller Centre. By now the rain and turned to snow, and it was beautiful seeing the huge Christmas tree in the snow, while people ice skated below. We then headed back to the subway via Times Square, which is always crazy but the snow gave it something extra.
By Sunday the clouds had gone and it was a beautiful cold crisp sunny day. We walked along the river down to the bottom of Manhattan and had a lovely Italian lunch, before getting the ferry across to Liberty Island to look up at the statue. The ride on the boat was nice, but the most special thing was looking back at New York from the island. We can see the statue from our apartment, and to look back and see our tower as part of the Manhattan skyline was great. Have a look at the photo here. It's the smaller one right in the middle that has a square on top. That is one that we need to crop, enlarge and frame. It's amazing to think that the Statue of Liberty was taller than any of the buildings in New York when it arrived here. Now there's not many shorter....
Anna and Phillip left yesterday and Calv and Isa arrive tomorrow, so we have another fun packed weekend coming up. Christmas is fast approaching and we need to buy a tree and some lights soon. Hope you are all well and looking forward to the festivities.
Best wishes,
Tom x
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