Had a good Christmas, we hadn't really planned much in advance but I couldn't go without my
full Christmas meal so I ended up buying 99% of the food around 9pm on Christmas
eve, walking home in the sleet after work.
We cooked a full traditional (to me anyway) meal, the duck fat potatoes and my stuffing were just outshone by the Christmas puddings (another non-American item I apparently can't go without) I'd tracked down.
Heather doesn't do raisins etc so I HAD to eat the puddings myself. As I couldn't go without some mince pies either I managed to find some mincemeat and made twelve little pies. Unbelievably the pastry was nearly as hard to find as apparently it is normally bought from the ffreezer section rather than the ready to use refrigerated kind I am used to. So after buying two large jars of mincemeat I HAD to buy more pastry so I also made and consumed this entire pie :-)
Unfortunately I was ill with the flu from Boxing Day onwards (Americans don't know what Boxing Day means btw). Working a full really really busy day at work was uncomfortable, I was sweating and like the walking dead. It really killed me off and I had to phone in sick the next day. Apparently the flu reached 'epidemic' proportions across most of the US around mid-January.
I worked up to the 31st Dec then had 4 days off at the beginning of the year. We just spent New Years with our downstairs neighbours. We did flick on the tv for five minutes to see the Times Square ball drop but apparently locals couldn't think of anywhere worse to go to.
We actually had a couple of tourists instore that morning who were going down to it and asked when they should head down for a good view. Jerry told them "yesterday".
Into January I was informed that our work does a stock take/inventory night. This involved around forty employees turning up for 5.30pm on a Sunday, the store closed early at 6pm and basically being given sections of the store to work in. Scanning and counting every single item in the store!
After scanning each item in the section, this might have been just six pairs of socks or eighty-six, the handheld scanners gave you two opportunities to 'guess' how many you had scanned. If you got it correct you carried on, if you couldn't count the same number of items then you had to start all over again. I was scheduled to work until 2am but in the end was let away 'early' at around 12.40am.
The weather has gotten colder but not really that bad apart from the occasional couple of days. Although I was indeed missing my winter coat and boots. My shipped items had arrived early December and it was annoying to look up and see the crate was basically just across the water from us.
The boat was on the left in New Jersey and our house is on the right between the park and the cemetery:
In the end, they got in touch in January and with only $108 customs charges I took delivery of my sixteen boxes a couple of weeks ago. Most items are unpacked and due to the space available I have ended up swapping my winter clothing for my summer clothing and that is now waiting to go into storage.
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The little cat Piko loved the extra climbing items.
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Playing soccer in the winter is fun. The pitch is pretty hard and the breathing can be a bit harsh with the cold air. Tonight our game kicks off at 9.15pm and the temperature is supposed to be about -3.
On the pitch we play at you get a really good background with the Empire State Building all lit up but I'm just waiting until Spring when hopefully we can get a team together and into a league that starts on the newly developed pitches at Brooklyn Piers. I cycled past on the way home from work and they look cool, nice soft turf and great views of lower Manhattan.
Last Monday we used one of our Christmas presents which were tickets to a New York Times Talk. If you've never seen the show Portlandia then it won't mean anything but we were second row and it was a neat thing, an hour and a half chat with the stars and director.
Fred is a Saturday Night Live regular and Carrie was in the 90's west-coast band Sleater Kinney if that means anything too?
.jpg)
I finished up January with my Burns Night supper. It's true that you become more patriotic and traditional when you move away from your own country. Things that I might not have bothered with back home, I feel more of a need to have here. So I ordered some tins of haggis from a supplier in Louisiana and managed to find some turnips too. Heather had a little bit, she preferred the haggis she had in Scotland. It was alright actually, it was the turnips that were the disappointment, very pale and watery.
It finally snowed enough that there was snow on the ground the next day. Luckily I was off and managed a run through Prospect Park in the snow. It wasn't much and it was gone by the next day. There is supposed to be more flurries but nothing major so far.
I am running the Gridiron Classic 4M race in Central Park on Sunday, it's tied in with Superbowl Sunday and there is actually snow forecast for then I think.
Then on Wednesday I am running the Empire State Building Run-Up!!!! Eight-six floors, over 1500 steps, but hey, it's only a 1/4 Mile..... albeit upwards.
We cooked a full traditional (to me anyway) meal, the duck fat potatoes and my stuffing were just outshone by the Christmas puddings (another non-American item I apparently can't go without) I'd tracked down.
Heather doesn't do raisins etc so I HAD to eat the puddings myself. As I couldn't go without some mince pies either I managed to find some mincemeat and made twelve little pies. Unbelievably the pastry was nearly as hard to find as apparently it is normally bought from the ffreezer section rather than the ready to use refrigerated kind I am used to. So after buying two large jars of mincemeat I HAD to buy more pastry so I also made and consumed this entire pie :-)
Unfortunately I was ill with the flu from Boxing Day onwards (Americans don't know what Boxing Day means btw). Working a full really really busy day at work was uncomfortable, I was sweating and like the walking dead. It really killed me off and I had to phone in sick the next day. Apparently the flu reached 'epidemic' proportions across most of the US around mid-January.
I worked up to the 31st Dec then had 4 days off at the beginning of the year. We just spent New Years with our downstairs neighbours. We did flick on the tv for five minutes to see the Times Square ball drop but apparently locals couldn't think of anywhere worse to go to.
We actually had a couple of tourists instore that morning who were going down to it and asked when they should head down for a good view. Jerry told them "yesterday".
Into January I was informed that our work does a stock take/inventory night. This involved around forty employees turning up for 5.30pm on a Sunday, the store closed early at 6pm and basically being given sections of the store to work in. Scanning and counting every single item in the store!
After scanning each item in the section, this might have been just six pairs of socks or eighty-six, the handheld scanners gave you two opportunities to 'guess' how many you had scanned. If you got it correct you carried on, if you couldn't count the same number of items then you had to start all over again. I was scheduled to work until 2am but in the end was let away 'early' at around 12.40am.
The weather has gotten colder but not really that bad apart from the occasional couple of days. Although I was indeed missing my winter coat and boots. My shipped items had arrived early December and it was annoying to look up and see the crate was basically just across the water from us.
The boat was on the left in New Jersey and our house is on the right between the park and the cemetery:
In the end, they got in touch in January and with only $108 customs charges I took delivery of my sixteen boxes a couple of weeks ago. Most items are unpacked and due to the space available I have ended up swapping my winter clothing for my summer clothing and that is now waiting to go into storage.
.JPG)
The little cat Piko loved the extra climbing items.
.jpg)
Playing soccer in the winter is fun. The pitch is pretty hard and the breathing can be a bit harsh with the cold air. Tonight our game kicks off at 9.15pm and the temperature is supposed to be about -3.
On the pitch we play at you get a really good background with the Empire State Building all lit up but I'm just waiting until Spring when hopefully we can get a team together and into a league that starts on the newly developed pitches at Brooklyn Piers. I cycled past on the way home from work and they look cool, nice soft turf and great views of lower Manhattan.
Last Monday we used one of our Christmas presents which were tickets to a New York Times Talk. If you've never seen the show Portlandia then it won't mean anything but we were second row and it was a neat thing, an hour and a half chat with the stars and director.
Fred is a Saturday Night Live regular and Carrie was in the 90's west-coast band Sleater Kinney if that means anything too?
.jpg)
I finished up January with my Burns Night supper. It's true that you become more patriotic and traditional when you move away from your own country. Things that I might not have bothered with back home, I feel more of a need to have here. So I ordered some tins of haggis from a supplier in Louisiana and managed to find some turnips too. Heather had a little bit, she preferred the haggis she had in Scotland. It was alright actually, it was the turnips that were the disappointment, very pale and watery.
It finally snowed enough that there was snow on the ground the next day. Luckily I was off and managed a run through Prospect Park in the snow. It wasn't much and it was gone by the next day. There is supposed to be more flurries but nothing major so far.
I am running the Gridiron Classic 4M race in Central Park on Sunday, it's tied in with Superbowl Sunday and there is actually snow forecast for then I think.
Then on Wednesday I am running the Empire State Building Run-Up!!!! Eight-six floors, over 1500 steps, but hey, it's only a 1/4 Mile..... albeit upwards.
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