The first week

Greetings from New York.

Enjoyed my flight upgrade last Sunday through my BA points to the next class of travel and was pleasantly surprised to receive a menu and actual metal cutlery!

Plenty of bags......

but also plenty of leg room

Immigration was easy enough, handed folder to the guy and afterwards he directed me to a room filled with an African couple and a few Asians. A 20min or so wait and I was stamped and ready to leave.

Although I've been here enough times I'm still a long way from being a local!

The facial expression and the "really?" said by the airport guy after he received my original tip for the big baggage trolley he pulled to our car was the first sign that I still have a lot to learn. There are no prices, how is anybody supposed to know?

I have to get used to the lack of space in our new apartment. Heather did well to clear a whole dresser for me and although it took a while to unpack we're getting there!

Have to get used to new things like storage facilities (for winter clothing). At least the weather should be a bit more consistent. Hell, I've already been sweating in my shorts and tees in 22˚ weather. Sitting with the windows open past 9pm right now although it's supposed to cool down a bit for the next week at least.

So aside from family (ha ha) I am probably missing my regular tv & radio routines. Hopefully when we're employed we can get proper cable tv. I miss my tv sport so much :-(

Then again I'll need something to record tv as the "proper" sport is on at stupid times.

Was awake just before 8am on Saturday to find a stream of the Scottish and English cup semi-finals.

Couldn't get up in time to see the first half!

It will probably change when we get jobs (Heather hopefully will start her job in the next couple of weeks) but we've been going to sleep quite late especially as I've just arrived and when we're out and about.

For example we went to see Snow Patrol last Friday with a couple of Heather's friends (that I've met before) and both of their husbands are also Scottish!

© Heather Sina!

But afterwards Heather and I had a walk down to Times Square at midnight. If you're a local this is the one place you avoid like the plague so it made a change for her to be here.

Crazy busy for midnight and still some shops open!

Times Square

So when you add in the fact you need a drink and another bite to eat and the subway train and short walk home etc it's near 2am before you get to bed.

Saturday night a couple of Heather's friends organised a little hen night drink and eats for her so one of their husbands (he's English - I've yet to meet any actual Americans!) took me out for some food and a few hours of pool. So I didn't get home and into bed until nearly 3am.

Now for the fun part!

Before I left, I had entered a little duathlon in the local park, a 20K bike ride and a 5K run.

The trouble with these New York events, I guess to get the park while it's quiet and partly for weather reasons in summer, is that they start super early.

So out of bed I rolled at 6.30am, a slice of toast and cycled the 5mins to the park. Once outside I felt fine and wow, I wish I had my tri-bars (was on a borrowed bike) as the park loop has the smoothest roads I've ever cycled on.

Was a good event, even the weather was getting a little warm for me by the end (salty lips) and probably as it was a smaller event for New York I finished 27th out of about 190.

Not bad for a very tiring week and less than 4 hours sleep the night before. Of course I was then shattered by about 4pm.

Great freebie post-race snacks, and a pre-race pack, of course supplied Brooklyn style in a green recycle tote bag. Maybe the best quality finishers medal I've ever got too. Feel the quality of that ribbon.... nice!

Brooklyn Bun, like Bike & Run, geddit?

Other than that, I have made enquiries about a phone, was trying to get a sim for my iPhone but might have to wait until I get my social security number as they seemed to require that for setting up a monthly plan. But I did manage to open a bank account earlier today. Progress!

Totally different to the UK in that a lot of small shops and some restaurants only take cash so you tend to use more cash than in the UK where I use my debt card for everything. But the trouble is you get charged a fee for withdrawing money from any ATM that doesn't belong to your bank!

So I went with one of the banks that has a tonne of ATM's including one in all the Duane Reade chemists you see on nearly every street.

Then we went to Katz Deli for lunch. Heather had never been so once she checked that there wasn't a line of tourists waiting outside it was deemed safe to eat. The pastrami tasted a million times better than the couple of times I've had that in a pack from Sainsburys.

4 seats from Where Harry Met Sally