The lime green ones are my favourite!

whoops

So I broke down and fell prey to the evil empire that is M&M World.  How can you resist these colours?!!!  There were columns of bright pebbles of candy-coated chocolate goodness and I was powerless to resist.

What was a girl to do?

Central Park and NY skyline from the Museum of Natural History

a view with a room

OK, so this is it...my last night in North America until ???  Today was spent looking at dinosaurs and wandering through Central Park and New York City.  Things kind of hit home this afternoon when I was looking out over the city from the hotel room.  My new landscape will look nothing like what I see now and I’m excited and kind of worried all at the same time.  One last breakfast at the Edison on 47th in the morning then packing and a taxi to JFK.

Stegosaurus spine

 Hopefully tomorrow afternoon’s flight will go smoothly (Guess who is a white-knuckled flyer?) and I’ll be able to stay awake all day once we arrive.  We leave at 2:00 PM EST and arrive in Moscow at 7:45 AM local time the following day.  There is an 8 hour time difference.  I’m looking forward to a city tour and settling in to a temporary flat -the novelty of living in a hotel room is wearing thin.




Stay tuned for the next installments from Moscow in the next week or so.  I’m sure the flight over alone will provide plenty of fodder for laughter with (at?) me.

New York Нью-Йорк

"5 Napkin Burger" restaurant ceiling

Well, here we are in the Big Apple.  Day one was filled with R&R and a few forays out for sustenance.  Our timing was off a bit as lunch was at 3PM and dinner was at 11:30PM.  Is it possible to suffer from jet lag in the same time zone?  This really is “The city that never sleeps” as evidenced by the crowds still milling about at 11:15PM.  It seems that we weren’t the only ones out and about at that hour.  Times Square was still filled with tourists wandering around as wide-eyed as does.  I still have no idea what they were looking at.


From our 31st floor vantage point we have a view northwards on Broadway with an LED billboard advertising the M&M World just below us.  After spending the better part of the day as the target of the shameless and technologically stunning advertising, guess what I have a hankering for?  Argh...M&Ms melt in your hand, not in your mouth.  I’m going to fight the power as long as I can.  Not having cash in my pocket is helping as well as avoiding that side of the street.

This morning’s coffee run spawned a few observations:

1) The well-heeled NYC businessman wears a uniform of blue dress shirt, tie, black pants, sunglasses and funky black leather shoes.  They are all very busy and very important, traveling at a pace just shy of light speed and focused on getting to their destination without coming into contact with hoi polloi.

2) It doesn’t matter what time it is, construction, sirens, alarms and traffic sounds keep on blaring but it only takes a few hours to tune them out.

3) Coffee is, indeed, pronounced CAW-fee.

Need I say anything more

Took the Q train to Coney Island for $2.50.  It was well worth the price for the 45 minute air-conditioned ride alone.  The Aquarium was great fun from the snaggle-toothed sharks to the two walrus bumping bellies underwater.  The weather was Africa hot so the cool breeze blowing off the water was a welcome sensation  while strolling along the boardwalk.  Top that off with a Nathan’s hotdog and the day was a complete success.

The train trip back uptown was made much more fun once the “entertainment” arrived in the form of a 20-something-year-old singing a medley of songs all to his very own percussive improvisation.  The kids sitting across from us seemed to enjoy the show and were even dancing to the beat.

As for the possibility of catching a show, so much for the Lion King -sold out until Saturday and after an hour of waiting in line just in case someone called their tickets in, I called it quits.  No joy.  We opted instead for a walk slightly uptown for dinner at Carnegie Deli.  Holy shit, I’m glad we walked.  Suffice it to say that the hot pastrami sandwiches were shameful and the coleslaw was wholly unnecessary.   Tomorrow we’re WALKING to the Museum of Natural History.

I love New York

Step one: put your stuff in a box...

It is rather humbling to remark that all of your worldly material possessions fit neatly into a collection of 148 cardboard cubes of various dimensions and several pieces of furniture.  A small army (that consists of a burly, young lumberjack, a thick-necked tank, a non-descript guy and his wing man Harry Potter) has descended upon the house for to shuttle our stuff to an as-of-yet-undisclosed storage and shipping facility.  The land line, cable and internet have been cut off and things are starting to seem “real”.  Well, I guess we are officially homeless since we haven’t a clue about our address overseas.

It seems that it has all fit into one cube van for our Sea shipment and one honking truck (with air brakes) for our Long Term Storage “stuff”.  It is quite amazing to see it all go so quickly.  Hopefully our sea shipment will arrive in a timely manner and we can take possession of it all when we move from our temporary flat to our permanent one in September.

My one fatal error today was proving someone-who-shall-remain-nameless with a venti Pike Place from Starbucks.  What was I thinking?!!  He is more of a hovering helicopter than I am.  Wow.  He is pretty much pacing back and forth across a 2 metre patch of hardwood flooring and I’m worried that he will wear out a section of the varnish.  He is speaking very quickly and not making much sense.  I’m going to check to see if he has any Ritalin in his coffee.  Sheesh

Quotes of the day:

“I want to go home.” (umm, I hate to burst your bubble but we have no home)
“Fuss.”
“C’mon boys, I want this to be over.”**
“You’re still in trouble, you know.” (that was my comment to him)

**please note the time of this comment was 11:04 and the first truck had just departed and the second one had just arrived

The keys and paperwork will be handed over and finalized at the lawyer’s on Thursday PM and the official handover is on Friday.  We are really thankful that the house sold as quickly as it did as the market seems to have slowed.  Being saddled with a house to sell while overseas is not my idea of a good time.  We have enough crap to worry about without having to deal with that sort of hassle.

The next few days are going to be busy as all get out managing last minute paperwork, trying to fit in last minute visits, dinners and time with family in preparation for our departure from Canada on the 26th. We are now safely ensconced in the Minto Suite Hotel for the next week or so.  I’m glad we decided to move there last night instead of staying in the house because a last minute laundry load and bed stripping this morning would have resulted in my face peeling off. 

Dare I say that things seem to be progressing well at this juncture?  Our papers are (thankfully) in order and we have 2 suitcases and a carry-on apiece to drag to NYC and then on to Moscow. 

Stay tuned for more news from the Big Apple where I plan on catching a show, visiting Coney Island (for the first time ever, can you believe it?  10 trips to NYC and never once to Coney Island), MOMA, the Guggenheim, The Museum of Natural History and possibly Tiffany’s (whether for breakfast or for bling it remains to be seen).  This may in all likelihood result in a three day sleepfest in the hotel, but I have plans, you know!!

рыбы ушли (the fish have left the building)

OK, all of the fish are now safely ensconced in their new homes and the house seems so very empty.  There is no art on the walls and the piles have piles.  Thankfully, the movers come on the 18th!

The Costco run has been made and I have to admit it was strange to shop and pay for 4 shopping carts worth of "stuff" and walk away with nothing in my hands.  I am going on blind faith that my purchases will actually make it to my new home eventually, otherwise I am out a very large sum of money and I'll be really, really cranky.  I'm hoping not to have to learn or use any "wirty dords" in Russian.

With our moving date coming up quickly, I have been trying to use up all the food and "stuff" in the refrigerator.  As today happens to be "anything can happen Sunday", someone (who shall remain nameless) -not me, decided to make frozen yogurt sundaes with what appeared to be chocolate sauce.  I was delighted to be presented with a treat.  Sadly, the first spoonful was acrid and unfamiliar and I thought for sure that the sauce had spoiled which was both curious and disconcerting.  We looked at each other with expressions of bewildered concern and promptly removed the offending food from our mouths in a manner that I would love to call graceful but truthfully cannot.  When I say the sauce appeared to be chocolate sauce, I mean what covered the frozen yogurt was a dark, viscous liquid from a squeeze bottle housed in the door of the fridge.  Someone (again he shall remain nameless) didn't read the label and poured balsamic glaze liberally over what remained of the PC Blue Menu frozen vanilla yogurt.  Wow.  The chocolate sauce was one shelf higher and someone wasn't paying attention.  *sigh  You've got to love "anything can happen Sundays".

Why does stuff like this always happen to me?