pets in new York

things that I have learnt about owning a pet in new York: 1) you can buy a 'wee-wee' pad for your dog (as long as it's a small dog). does what it says on the tin. 2) you can get super small dogs. like I've never seen before. I had to ask a woman the other day whether her dog was a baby. 'no, it's three years old.' she replied. 3) it's OK to walk your cat.

this is for Kate

had Kate not been stricken down and she had decided to join in with our activities for the evening, she would have gone to a proper frat bar, where Ole Miss university were holding an alumni party (not to be mistaken for miss olé beauty pageant as I had envisaged the party). then come onto a very pleasant dinner for seven at Turkish kitchen, where one of our friends had very masculine florescent blue and pink Martinis. she would have been taken aback by the back to schoolers  sspilling onto the streets all ready for the start of the new semester at NYU. we will have a drink to you this weekend.

role reversal

had the craziest meeting this afternoon. the person I was meeting was 30 minutes late and we were meeting as our organisations have a similar focus. oh my, she was all over the place. I felt sorry for her, but she properly wanted to purge. it felt weird for me to be giving someone fundraising advice, as I've been asking people for help ever since I got to the US. that being said, I was mainly listening!

day-to-day living

not much to report. sweat class. punk rope. my first muay Thai class at Anderson's martial arts tonight. oh, and delicious clam, garlic, breadcrumb, ricotta super thin crust pizza for lunch. never used to be that fussed about pizza but definitely coming round to NY pizza! nom nom.

the full Hamptons experience

we were super lucky to have been invited by one of the boy's colleagues to their place in Sag Harbour in the Hamptons. for those of you who don't know, the Hamptons is where the rich go and holiday in the summer. apparently, the streets of East Hampton is lined with designer shops despite being a tiny village.

our hosts live in the beautiful big house on the edge of a reserve, meaning that the cicadas chirped and we were surrounded by trees. the living room had the most beautiful floor to ceiling window. it was so incredibly relaxing and peaceful.

 our visit started with yummy lobster rolls and then lazing beside the pool in the beautiful weather. then we had a truly Hamptons experience when we tagged along to a neighbours house party.

 it was like the guests could smell we were poor - OK, not poor, but just not as rich as them. the house had recently been done up and it was a house out of living etc. magazine. the walk- in closet of the master bedroom had an island, for Pete's sake. and the Manolos were on display in custom built shelving. the house was just gorgeous.

the crunch came when the Boy and I tried to join in a conversation. the participants were talking about their kids and the school they go to whilst the Boy and i just looked on feeling lost and every inch the outsiders we were. fortunately, our host came to save the day. 'what are we talking about? oh, Avenue? the private school where the fees are $50,000 a term?' the group fell into an awkward silence and I just wanted to hug him.

we were joined by another couple later that afternoon, the son of a big hitter back in the day. his girlfriend was super glamorous and made me feel like I had to get out of my beach wear, for sure. still not very glamorous in my $60 dress but respectable at least.

dinner was delicious with yet more lobster in a pasta, saffron and cream sauce, oyster bloody Mary shooters and chocolate brownies. entirely too much in the way of food, beverages and pastries were consumed yesterday. fitbit is having a heart attack.

today was entirely more laid back with a jaunt to the local beach. a five-minute walk away is the bay beach, where we lay with three other groups of people on the serenely quiet beach. the boats, kayaks and paddle boards just floated on by. bliss. and of course, we were able to use the clubhouse as our hosts were members. I could get used to this.

our hosts were amazing, 'mi casa es such casa' was the phrase of the weekend. we helped ourselves to whatever was in the fridge and vegged out as if it were our own home. we were going to go kayaking but ran out of time as we were gassing too much.

 what have we learnt this weekend? we are in a supremely privileged position to be guests in a foreign land.  Americans want to show you the best of their country and their generous hospitality. it doesn't matter what country you are in, when you are a foreigner, there is always a new experience and something new to learn. I so blessed. secondly, always travel on the ambassador coach to the Hamptons rather than the normal Jitney. it may be $17 more but so worth it.

a surreal, truly American experience

so yesterday was odd and took me out of my comfort zone. big time. it all started at 12.15pm. on the way up to a seminar, I had a missed call from a senior advisor to a former president. that doesn't happen every day. t

hen I got to this seminar, where charity workers are paired up with marketing and pr people to help get their brand out. it was so right-on, fist bumpingly awesome.

one woman told her story and said at the end of it, 'oh, that was so nerve wracking I just peed a little. don't worry, I have a pantyliner on.' to which the organiser responded, 'we're all now besties! there's no such thing as TMI!'

 the aadvice I was given was good and if the introductions people said they had are delivered, I'll be golden. it was all a bit much and the vodka was brought out at 4pm. the two Brits congregated together, which is also another story.

 the guy I met also had an intriguing life. clearly very wealthy, he'd not had to work for ten years after he'd sold his business. he's in new York on an entrepreneur's visa, meaning he can come and go but isn't any kind of resident. his family life also sounds kind of complicated.

you only get these experiences when you're away from home, I think. I have more time, am starting something new at work and need to meet people. I feel that I've been lucky to have seen and met so many different people and things already.

there really were too many type A (read loud) people in a room. it's giving me a headache just thinking about it.

being tourists

we cashed in another of our wedding gifts last night, this time from my sister in law and her partner. thanks, guys! at 9.30pm with a full moon behind us, we boarded a boat for a jaunt along the river inn full view of the statue of liberty. apart from the pumping party boat that whizzed past, it was the most serene place we've ever been in new York. we also talked about how it was cool that we felt like tourists. just on an ordinary weeknight, we were on holiday for an hour and a half. we'd have never had that feeling on a boost trip down the Thames. that's a definite perk to living abroad.

Filling the Breaking-Bad-on-demand void

We are fully up to speed with Breaking Bad so after a jaunt around the Lower East Side last night, I went into cooking overload. I made around 50 wontons, soup and noodles (I obviously had to freeze a load and have more to eat tonight. I hope they'll be ok...). I didn't make the noodles though. Obviously, I had to simultaneously do that whilst making lunch for the next day. Now what would be a good lunch to make for the following day? I know! Pork, aubergine and sweet potato Vietnamese curry with rice!

The Boy came out of the shower to a decidedly harried little lady. 'I think I've been a bit too ambitious tonight', I say remorsefully. 'Classic Chan' is his response.

Both tasted bloody marvellous, mind.

this party's full of nerds

yesterday tested my British queuing prowess to the Nth degree. we got to battery park to take the ferry over to governors island and queued for/half an hour with most of Manhattan. we then queued to get into the lawn jazz party and then again to buy food and drinks tokens and then again to actually buy the food and drink. the only thing I didn't queue for was the toilets, which I've realised is because people wanted to make sure they weren't wasting time in all the other queues just because they'd stupidly gone for a wee.

the jazz lawn party was simultaneously great and geeky. everyone was dressed up (apart from the boy and me). my favourite was the guy in a 1920s woollen bathing costume. as my friend said, 'all these people are nerds. none of them were popular at school.' the band were incredible, having taken original records from the 20s and written out all the individual parts into a full score. amazing.

today has been weird. too overcast to go to the beach as planned, we are now up to date with breaking bad and will have to endure episodes on telly with ad breaks at 10 minute intervals. I feel sad and am bracing myself for the same sense of irreversible loss that I felt when the Olympics finished. just seven more episodes.

today has been a strange day. last night at dinner, our fellow Brit expat friends and we were banging on about how good it is to have so much time on our hands. but it still feels strange that we have no social plans this week. just us and whatever exercise we have in mind. I love it here and the quirky things we find - the bike polo game we stumbled across in the lower East side today, for instance - but do miss our family and friends.

Christmas Cracker jokes

We were in a dive bar last night and our friend who the Boy has renamed Statto (he has created a spreadsheet with a bespoke ranking system for his fantasy football league) was regaling the girls on Team Momentum with Christmas cracker jokes.

You know the ones of the ilk:

What do you call a man with a seagull on his head?
Cliff

and

What do you call a donkey with three legs?
A wonkey
(My baby sister/sitter's favourite joke when she was seven)

Now the hilarious bit was that the girls found these absolutely hilarious. Whilst us Brits would groan, they were lapping it up. Statto is the new Ricky Gervais. Unfortunately, it always seemed to take a while for them to get each one, and it was always accompanied by a mini explanation, the most extensive of which was:

What do you call a Russian with three testicles?
Whodyanickabollockof (OK, not that suitable for a Christmas cracker)

The girls really struggled with this one because of the verb 'to nick' and of course, 'bollock'. Ah, it's at times like this that you learn and love about differences in culture. And you've gotta love British culture.

In other news, we're off to Governor's Island, which is only open at the weekends for a Lawn Jazz Party. Posh!

The best curry in New York

It's been NY Restaurant Week (fortnight really, but they don't know that word here) and on Thursday night we went to what is supposed to be the best curry in town. It was definitely good, but not blow your mind extraordinary.

Our neighbours, who spent a semester in London, mentioned this; curry just isn't as good here as it is in London. In fact, there's even a restaurant call Brick Lane, which is an old-time institution here.

Now all of you have ever eaten with me will know my penchant for 'formica top' places. Service isn't that important, but the quality of the food is. Give me Tayyabs any day, even if they try and boot you out as soon as you've put down your fork.

Babur back home is also a winner, though that is a posher curry house. But their food is so imaginative and different. I lust after their lamb shank curry, which we had during our first week in our house.

But Junoon was great. The service great.  The cocktail great. The rice pudding great. The curry great. But I guess it just lacked the excitement that Indian food can offer. Or maybe I just don't like clean surroundings and generous, attentive staff, who offer you free desserts. This was because they gave the Boy rice pudding when he asked for mousse. So they let him keep the rice pudding, brought him a mousse AND brought us extra ice cream!

Anyway, curry for me when I come back to the UK next.

The Moth

On Tuesday, we went this mesmerising show called 'the Moth'. My friend queued from 5.20pm so we were near the front of the queue when the doors opened at 7pm. Trust me, the queue wrapped all the way round the block.

Random punters from the crowd put their names in a hat to come up on stage to tell a story on the night's theme 'interference'. The winning story was all about how this guy had waited 20 years to get into another fight, since as a grown-up, the opportunity rarely comes up. When the time came to hit the other guy, for the first time, the thought that ran through his head was, 'wow, that pavement looks really hard'. So he turned round and punched the other guy... he punched him in the dick. A little bit inside of him died.

It's not so much the story itself, but the way it's told. And also the beauty of not knowing what you'll get next. The most emotional part of the evening was a former heroin addict who lost contact with his daughter when she was five. He battled for over a decade, going in and out of rehab. He was dealing it, snorting it, injecting it, selling it. As he emotionally forced out his words, there was a stunned silence in the room. He finished with, 'I am clean and if I hadn't gotten clean, my little girl would still be in Portugal now instead sitting here next to me'. It was incredible.

Kate, this is an outing for you.

In other news, I bought two pairs of shorts, which I have been blithely wearing for the last month or so. The other morning, for the first time, I paused and wondered whether I was too old to be wearing them, as they're pretty short. Hmmmm.

To corroborate this, there was a really old guy at the supermarket at lunch. He was muttering to himself, 'Oh, there's no frozen potatoes... Why aren't there frozen potatoes..? Oh, there are the frozen potatoes...' That's exactly what I do.

that fat laden calorie

I've never been a calorie counter. too hard. I just relied on exercise and more exercise to keep the weight at semi bay. but working from home and my new uber sedentary lifestyle has meant drastic measures. yesterday, I did a double exercise class again and still I only burnt 1900 calories. how is that possible? my bum is burning from all the squats today. I only burnt 150 calories more than I ate and trust me, I ate so little for me: rice krispies plus blueberries. some sushi and an average portion of taco rice (OK, not so good for me, I admit). no fun drinks in sight. given that you need to have a net loss of 3500 calories to burn 1 one pound and I'm pretty knackered from all the exercising, this just sucks, at the moment.

Monday uck

typical Monday. nowt to report. double exercise class plus a trip to Kmart to use my membership points of $29. the new York lifestyle is rock n roll.

a reignited love affair

the boy and I have both been struggling with being back in new York after our trip back home. as the boy says, new York seems to have lost some of its lustre.

fortunately, for me At least, this weekend has restored some of the new York love. our ramen extravaganza was followed by a skipping master class. I now double under, though not in a row, and know that my rope swing needs to come from the wrist and not elbow. w

e then kitted ourselves out with boxing gear as we're going to be joining a martial arts school. I will try and post a picture of me in my flashy muay Thai kicking boxing shorts (they're mandatory for classes).

we then went to one of the free concerts in central park to celebrate 40 years of hip hop. I find it incredible that I've learnt so much about hip hop in 4 months. I guess it makes a difference that we're in the birthplace of hip hop and all the founding fathers are kicking about in the local area

. i find that I'm cooking and eating different stuff. less bacon - because they don't have proper bacon! - more clams, more quinoa, more buffalo. today we did as instructed by the Ramones and headed over to Rockaway beach. for a bit over £1.50 we travelled for an hour and fifteen minutes to 7-miles of sandy beach and clear blue skies. we also randomly bumped into some friends - what a small world! so my love affair has been reignited.

Ippudo - warning! It's a noodle love-in

The Boy and I are working our way around the ramen shops in NYC. Last night we went to the most famous of them all: Ippudo. We had tried to go three times already, each time with zero success. Each time, the wait was two hours, which is pretty long when you get there at 9.30pm!

I turned up at 6pm last night thinking we'd eat around 8pm. But it's summer in the city and was a drizzly night, so the wait was just 45 minutes to an hour. They took my number and told me to download an app, which told me how long my wait would be. How cool is that?

We only live a couple of  blocks away so I came home and waited here. I still can't get over that. Being able to just step out and go to these amazing restaurants that people rave about in about five minutes. Back home, I'd be halfway to the train station, which would whisk me to Bone Daddies or Tonkotsu or Shoryu.

Onto the food. Oh my. Our neighbour told us that the black miso cold was 'as good as Nobu's but way cheaper.' Well, it was very good, but not the best thing we ate all night. The cod was super tender and not overcooked (which I hate).

Then there was the delicious pork buns. Wow! I've not had the momofuku buns yet, but I'm looking forward to seeing how they match up. The bun was fluffy and the meat was super soft. Delicious. I have photos but don't know how to transfer them to my laptop. Annoying. I'll show you all in person!

Now, the ramen we went for was the Akamaru Modern, which is your standard tonkotsu broth with an additional umami paste. The soup baste is so complex. Oh, I'm salivating. Usually I like thick noodles, but I think I'd have been pushed over the edge if they had been. I was ready to pop!

I know this has been an ode to Ippudo but I know I'll crave it like I do the cumin lamb noodles from Xian Famous Foods. You know something's good when that happens. I'm starving...

All this really doesn't sit that well with my new Fitbit One. Despite hitting my 10,000 steps for the day, I only burnt 1,500 odd calories, which isn't great when you consume 2,200 calories. Oops! Damn your beauteous 900-calorie filled ramen, Ippudo. Apparently they open at 11am for lunch...

classic!

classic exchange with my dad. it's his birthday today. so I text him and suggest we Skype in the evening. he ignores that bit of my message so I ask him again to which he finally agrees. at 6pm my time, so 11pm UK time, I text him again to say I'm ready whenever he is and have logged onto Skype. finally at 8.45pm, which is 1.45am in the UK, he texts saying 'now'. unsurprisingly, I was in the middle of breaking bad but I paused it, as he said he was going to bed otherwise. after about 8 minutes of talking, during a conversation which he had started about how long we planned on staying in the US, my dad goes, 'I'm going now. I'm going to listen to music.' I think Phil was in the middle of a sentence at the time. that's why I have a short attention span!

move your fat bum!

I finally figured out that now the initial excitement of living in new York is over, what I tend to spend my free hours doing is sitting on my bum in front of the TV. so I have started going to the gym, which I'd great. BUT not enough! when your commute is rolling out of bed to the hallway, one exercise class or gym session three blocks from your apartment is not enough. so I'm upping the ante. I'm either going to the gym twice in one day or aiming to do one exercise class/go for a run/go to the gym plus go for a walk of at least 2.5 miles. phew! to assist, I've bought an activity tracker. i went for the fit one in the end. I can see I'm going to get properly addicted... in other news, I went to Myers of Keswick today, the English shop. meh.

coming clean

I've had to come clean with myself and admit that I have gotten super fat since coming to new York. I've had a lot on what with the move, creating an identity in the states, and I now work from home so it's no wonder, plus all the amazing food. so I know I'm never going to cut down on the food so I'm upping the exercise ante. went to s.w.e.a.t class at lunch and waiting for my skipping class now. bad thing is that I just want to lie on my couch and continue watching triple D - diners, drive-ins and dives for those of you out of the loop. need some motivation so going to buy one of those activity tracker things. any recommendations? in other news I had vegan sushi for lunch. meh.

full circle on laundry

long time readers of my blog will know about my battles with the laundry. how I loathed the lack of a washing machine in my apartment. why could we not pay in cash? and why were the machines permanently broken? four months on and I'm a full convert. today we did four loads of laundry. we took it all down to the laundry room on the second floor. bunged it into four machines. came up and watched another episode of breaking bad. went down and bunged it into the tumble dryer and hey presto, bob's your uncle. no hanging around waiting for your poor, domestic washing machine to go round four times. no hanging towels and sheets over banisters. none of that. OK, there's the terrible for the environment business, but that's a different post.

Grumpy Today

I've felt grumpy all day today. It might be the grey - it just reminds of the crap weather back home (not at the moment, I hear you holler!) or it might be the comedown from being back at home in Blighty.

I've really struggled to get used to working by myself again. Monday was awful, Tuesday was slightly better, Wednesday was fine and today was a struggle again. My thoughts are boring and I feel like my being is cooped up in a box, which is my brain.

I'm also really, really hungry. That's what happens when you eat your body weight in artery-clogging, scrumptious goodies for 10 days straight. Reverting to a normal diet just won't cut it. (Which is why we went out for dirty beers, even dirtier burgers - my bap was soggy with blood juice, a delightful thought - and gelato to round the evening off. Thanks very much to Jarlotte and Con. Kudos to Con for working through a mound of chilli fries, too!)

What was super strange today was when I went to try out a kickboxing class at lunch. There was no-one else in the class, but still the instructor kept calling out, 'Next we're going to do star jumps' and 'Next we're going to do spiderman push-ups'. We were both facing the wall with him calling out instructors as if it were a full class. Really, really odd.

In other news, getta loada this... [cleans drool off face]: