My lunch 2 days ago

Not the most catchy title I realise. But 2 days ago I walked 3 blocks from my office in the spring sunshine to Carnegie deli and ordered lunch.

And the photo doesn't actually do it justice. How can anyone possibly eat that much meat in a day let alone one meal!!! I took 85% of the meat out, ate what still ended up being a huge sandwich and 2 days later haven't even finished the leftovers.

The other Dave

The other Dave in our lives came to visit this week. As Equifax's employee of the month, Dave was flown out from London to collect his prize from their U.S. office and honoured us with a fleeting one-night-stopover chez nous to say hi to the M&M man. And here he is Mr Equifax

We went out to an excellent steak restaurant where Al gorged himself on his favourite (Onglet) and of course Ruby as usual enjoyed a hearty meal herself.

Lovely to see you Dave. Next time bring Emma, Danny and Sigal pls.

David & Yannah's wedding party

A few weeks ago David got married in Jerusalem and because it coincided exactly with our move here we couldn't make it. Very sadly. However, turns out that David's new bride is a Long Islander! So luckily we were here for the Long Island celebration which took place last Sunday.

We got ourselves ready and made our way to Penn Station to get the LIRR out into strip mall America and find the Merrick Ohav Shalom temple. Turns out only one of many synagogues in what seemed like quite a small radius...


Ruby got her most froom outfit together.





The party was really nice - we had actually met the lovely Yannah a few days before as they'd stayed at ours on the Thursday night and it was brilliant to meet her family and friends. Lots of dancing...

And David made a lovely speech -



She's obviously an incredibly warm, kind and fun person and we couldn't be happier they've found each other. And I think they were quite happy with the band they found ..(who to be fair were brilliant - seamless transitions from very jewish to Bob Marley without a moments hesitation)



We were very very happy to be there. Congratulations David & Yannah and we wish you lots of love and luck for your adventures together.

Goodbye Long Island (Ruby's favourite bit always the choo choo)

Weekend 1: Trains, swings, Fort Greene & massages

So that was basically our weekend. I got the first $30 manipedi and when Ruby was having her lunchtime sleep on Saturday we each got a 30 minute massage. We're in New York heaven.

The highlight of Ruby's weekend was undoubtedly her first trip on the subway. It's now become a genuine activity for her and Janet the nanny and the requests for choo choo rarely cease

We also had an amazing morning and brunch in a place called Fort Greene which is a really beautiful part of Brooklyn. The commute might just be too long for us to think about living there right now but it's definitely tempting. We had the best brunch in a greek place called Olea and I loved it so much I almost cried. Pretty much everyone reading this blog should know me well enough to realise I'm not over-exaggerating.

We also went to the Rockefeller University on the upper east side to what was our first kids rock concert with Bari Koral who together with some flower power and a movement teacher taught us just how many ways we could bring high fives into songs.

And there was still time for a bit of shopping at Bloomingdales. Great first weekend.

1600 Broadway. Apartment 8G

We're very happy with the apartment which actually feels quite big because it's more open plan than the house in Chetwynd. It's a corporate apartment which we have for 3 months and so everything we needed was here: kitchen stuff, high chair, cot, all furniture etc. The location is admittedly not ideal as we sleep facing a huge flashing M&M light display but people are coming Monday to put up some blackout blinds. Won't help with the sirens of time square but the earplugs can sort that out to a certain extent.

Before Al walks you through the place, just want to point out a couple of things. Firstly, about the closet. It's a long story and Al actually was the one who chose the other closet. But maybe we'll just let that one lie. Secondly - Suz and Matt, kindly note Ruby's choice of attire and Miranda and Bobby and Benjy if you look hard you can see the London reminder displayed next to our TV in the living room.

File too big to upload on to the blog so link below...

http://www.youtube.com/user/sphereality#p/a/u/0/lgDV444Idmo

Day 1

We arrived quite late on Saturday night but considering how much luggage we had it was a relatively stress free journey. We were installed in our new pad in no time.


After a weird nights sleep with all three of us in one bed and waking up at 4am we headed out for an early walk and breakfast. Ruby already perfecting New York cool...


We had ourselves a tiny bit of egg with potatoes and toast and once truly carbed out we started to feel at home again in NY..


The rest of the day was spent unpacking and watching the urban view from our window whilst Ruby screamed 'helloooow woman' and 'helloooow taxi' from the top of her voice.


Ruby couldn't get enough of the views so we took her to the roof of the building.


After a long hard day Ruby took time out to chillax and watch some micky mouse hot dog song


Video tour of the apartment hosted by Al coming soon. xxx

Goodbye

So it's back to the biggeR APple for us.

To put you in the picture, it all started with an off the cuff passing comment from my boss asking me 'you don't want to do it do you?' about a job opening in our New York office. After dismissing it, pursuing it, Al having an opportunity, then it all falling apart, then it coming together again many months later....Al, Ruby and I are moving to New York tomorrow to start a new adventure. With no definitive answer to the questions of how long we're going for or where we're going to live, we're diving into a life of manipedi's (well I certainly am), facials (well Al certainly will), takeout, excellent value clothes and probably a very small apartment.

These past few days have been really busy and inevitably a little bit sad.

There have been good times - Sophy and Adam brought a new game into our lives. Al and I obviously delighted to discover a way to coax our competitive spirits out of their little shells.



But it really has been very hard to leave family and friends. I know it's Ruby that the grandparents actually care about but still...

Ruby got a final wheels on the bus rendition from Grandma Linda


And watched a final Iggle piggle with Grandma Gillian and Papi


Lizzie, Tali, Yoni and Lia came to give Ruby a hug and we had a goodbye/Adam birthday dinner tonight where Lily and Ruby in keeping with tradition almost killed eachother.


The guys who did our shipping were amazing, really efficient. They took 6 hours to pack up all our stuff and put it into this huge shipping container. This is Matt and his crack.


Although this part was quite easy - we'd had quite a tiring day beforehand packing up all our stuff for the next 3 months. We had to pack clothes, important Ruby can't live without objects, the New York zagat 2010 and other crucial items and have ended up with 8 huge suitcases for which we need two addison lee's tomorrow to get to the airport. We put a load of stuff in my mum's loft, in our own loft and here's Al ironically sporting the same outfit as the guys who did our shipping. Only Al has added the all-important single tennis sweatband (a lucky find whilst packing up) which gives it something special


So goodbye house, goodbye white bedroom...


Ruby has had her last night watching TV in our bed. Although doubtless she'll be very excited to get to her new room where she can watch the lights of time square all night long.


So here we go. We'll miss you. xxxxx