New York Week #2

There is a strange transition period when moving to a new city / country, where one feels like a local and a tourist at the same time. Things that have been achieved this week:

• [Local] Found an apartment to live in, in Midtown West. After much deliberation, Bec and I felt that convenience was key to our enjoyment here in New York.
• [Local] Walked around with no backpack and no map, meeting friends at the Sunburnt Cow (of course, it was an Aussie bar)
• [Local] Reading mags and books at the Barnes and Noble store at Union Square
• [Local] Eating at a dumpling place just down the road from home
• [Tourist] Waiting an hour in line to go up the Empire State Building and see the city skyline at sunset and at night. Well worth the trip, I'll have to sort out the photos
• [Tourist] Visiting Central Park and Metropolitan Museum of Art and taking pictures (and yes, I had the backpack and with me)
• [Tourist] Pulling out the DK New York Top Ten book in the middle of Soho to find out directions.
• [Tourist] Still in awe of the lights when I walk down Times Square at night.

I think once I start work things will tilt in favour of feeling like a local. But for the moment, it's all good!

By the way, I've posted some pictures from the Europe trip:

1. If you want to see a selection of Prague or Barcelona pics, they are linked.
2. If you can't be bothered with 30 odd pics, go to this Redbubble link for an even smaller selection.

The RedBubble link will have more pics that I think are half decent added on a random basis.

New York Week #1

The first week in our new city is coming to an end, and it feels like I've been here for a while already. Highlights to note:

• Ability to read and direct other people around the New York Metro
• Having had alcohol every day of the week (except for Monday, the day we arrived)
• Being a tourist and taking one of those open-top buses around the city. The island is actually quite large, and it's a great way to see the different areas
• Hitting two well known restaurants in the first week (Tao, Nobu). I liked Nobu very much, the decor, ambience etc. That black cod signature dish is definitely worth visiting for.
• Attending a roof top (23rd floor) party and playing wingman. Free alcohol as well!
  
• Times Square is best at night, when it's all lit up. They love the LCD screens on building walls these days.
• Using my Aussie accent to make new friends :)
• Missing my old friends :(
  

So whilst I thought we had a bit more time to find a place, it seems that rentals go in a flash, so this next week's task is to book in for an apartment in the city. I'm so blase about prices now! Sydney looks so cheap compared to this place.

London Friends

It has been a blast coming to London and seeing old friends and checking out the place. Whilst sight-seeing has been good (Tate Modern, London Eye, British Museum, Portobello Markets etc) the real reason has been too catch up with people. Having gone to a party on Saturday, it was amazing how many Sydney-siders have made this journey over to London to do their thing. It made the concept of living here a lot easier to imagine for me.

There were a few special people that made this trip worthwhile, and I was glad to have spent some decent time with them in terms of outings, dinners, lunches and poker to see how their lives are now. I have to admit that I'm not that good with emails (2 months between replies is a fairly standard time period) so seeing them face-to-face was a real joy. It's also great to know that even without that regular contact, there are friends who will always have something to share, something to laugh about, something to remember.

Thanks to everyone I saw for making the effort to come out and taking time to see us. You've made me feel like I'm back home :) Please come and visit me in New York!

Post From Europe

Yes, I missed out on a Honkers post, but I'll post up my diary entry for Sunday 12 Aug.

"Barcelona definitely lives up to the party capital moniker. We were out till 1:30am last night and it felt like Sydney on New Year's Eve! There were so many people out and about...of course there were the usual drunken louts, but nothing threatening.

We found some new age tapas restaurant last night (Bubo's) that didn't quite hit the spot, but they did have some of the best looking desserts I have seen, and the taste wasn't too bad. We did find a more decent tapas afterwards and ordered a jug of sangria. The combination of thirstiness and easy-to-drinkness of sangria meant we downed it very quickly, and boy was I shattered afterwards! Straight to bed :)

Today was all about the sights in Barcelona, but with the holiday season, we had to queue to get into places. Checked out the majority of the Gaudi exhibits, and am very impressed with his mix of functionality, asthetics and design. He was definitely ahead of his time.
Would recommend to people the Casa Batllo, even if it was a bit expensive. The audio guide was very good, and the place is very cool. Still very livable to this day.

Noticed that there weren't many cars of the roads, perhaps because the Metro is so efficient? Maybe they have one of those congestion charge things like in London.

We also went to the Museu Picasso. Am becoming more of a fan, as he was skilled in all types of art. Liked his initial cubism work, but the latter stuff was a bit too abstract / strange for me. What stood out was that he was mind-blowingly good even at the early age of 15! Maybe in those days people died younger, and hence they needed to be all over it in their teens as opposed to now when teens still have no idea what they want!"

The List of Lasts

We're hitting the final stretches of this move, and compiled is a list of things done over the past week that I won't be doing for a while:

1. Last Karaoke session (with End of the Road to finish it off)
2. Last Harry's (dog with chilli con carne, BBQ and cheese sauce)
3. Last Sydney friends gathering (enough with the farewells already, I hear)
4. Last Hoyts (Transformers was great fun, Megan Fox is hot!)
5. Last drinks in Sydney (strangely not Privos, as people expect, but Pier 26)
6. Last Privos (it has to have a separate mention!)
7. Last family dinner (so many nieces and nephews around, they're at the cutey stage at the moment, will be all grown up when I get back)
8. Last volleyball game with my team of 8 years (tonight's the semi-finals)
9. Last sleep in Crows Nest (still looking for renters!)
10. Last day at work (hoping that the New York office is as good as The Bond)
11. Last drive in a car (walking to the office from now on!)
12. Last train ride (surely NY metro is better than CityRail)

All good memories. Next post will be from Honkers. The adventure has started!

Bonus Wednesday Post

Enjoy for all my couple friends!

Good Friends

Apologies to my avid readers that I'm behind on my Sunday post by a factor of two days. The administration over the last few days coupled with work has made blogging a lower priority, but I will endeavour to keep up the postings (especially in Europe!)

Having some of my good friends over for a BBQ on the weekend made me start to realise that it's going to be very sad to leave Sydney. My friends are my lifeblood, and moving to a new city, whilst exciting for Bec and I, will mean a lot less good friends around. I'll miss the poker games, the X-Box nights, the board games, the dinners, the Singstar/Guitar Hero, the general hanging out with people that I've known for a very long time. Sure we'll meet new friends there, but it will take a while (if ever) to get to know them to a point of sharing old jokes, laughing at stupid things and generally being as much as myself as I can be. It hit me pretty hard.

However, I realise how lucky I am to live in an age where email is a click away, I can hook up a video link via the internet, and even airfares are affordable enough for a visit. But it's not the same as being together in one city. I'm sure a lot of my other international friends have gone through this ritual and survived, so I'm sure there is light at the end of the tunnel. I did it once before, going to Sweden, it should be ok.

To all my buddies, I'll miss you all, take care of yourselves, and more visits to New York! :)

Video Game Pleasure

We won the Copa del Rey 3-2 in a nail-biting game, with the winning goal scored in the 112th minute of the match. It was a long hard struggle for our team to make it to the finals of the tournament, but it was worth it. We even did the Spanish double of winning the Segunda and the Copa Del Rey.

Of course, all of this occurred in FIFA 05 for the PS2, in the comfort of the St Leonards couch. We used gamepads instead of our feet to score goals but the feelings of scoring a goal in the game were much the same as in a real life soccer match.

I find it strange that there are articles out there saying that kids these days are more anti-social because they spend all their time playing video games, and that it's the video games that are to blame. Judging by the amount of camaraderie and team work that FIFA 05 created for between my friends, I would say that there is nothing wrong with the medium. One only has to look a bit further at the Nintendo Wii to realise the power that an interactive device such as a video game has to bring people together to have some fun. It's the new-age board game, enjoy it!

However, whilst video games may not make you anti-social, it will make you paisley white and weak if you don't out during the day and do some real exercise. Everything in moderation.

Being A Dependent

I apologise that my Sunday post was delayed to Monday. Part of the issue was that I spent my Sunday night watching Entourage on DVD (thanks Boges!). It's a funny concept, one guy gets famous and his friends are basking in his limelight. There's a lot of cheap calls in this series, and a ton of hot women!

What I thought interest was for the guys who are his friends. They are basically living off his successes, and if he fails, they fail. For my, I would find it very hard to be in that position where so much of my life is dependent on another. In such an imbalance of earning capacity and power, would I become a "yes-man"?

There is a lot of "what do you think, Vince?" (Vince is the successful star) in the episodes, that, if I was Vince, would make me feel weird. No one would disagree with you, no one would question you. It's not surprising that some stars would get such big heads, if they are surrounded by people like that.

However, one of the characters makes a point to Vince's best friend that Vince and his best friend are "co-dependents". The successful star needs those people around him as much as they need him. Why? Because they are insecure about themselves and need that validation. I wonder if that is the case?

I've already finished season 1. Need to buy season 2 when I get to NY. Bring on more of those pool scenes!

Computer Intelligence

I use a lot of computers and build a lot of applications. There is an expectation that things will work as designed, and when they don't, or users complain that the system is not working as they think it should, I never doubt the application.

As we move towards the future, and computer intelligence becomes more and more advanced, there will be a point where computers can think for themselves. Whilst this will be a major breakthrough in technology, I can't help but wonder whether the trust in future systems will be compromised.

If a system has the ability to think for itself, would they be the equivalent of a human decision maker? Given the amount of 180 degree shifts in decisions that I have seen from business reps, business sponsors. and everyone else, will this become an issue? Even when the same data is presented to people, they can changed their minds. Will we allow the same kind of flexibility in our systems?

US has sent robots to Iraq to fight the war there. Whilst these are still human operated, there may be a time when the robot makes its own decisions. Will they make the same mistakes that humans will make, and shoot an innocent when they shouldn't?