The Addam's Family Dungeon

Today was my first day at work proper, well first day sitting at a desk in an office. I've been doing plenty of presentations about our work all round the city. I passed all my medical tests so I could actually get hooked up by IT. You'll all be pleased to know that I am infectious disease free but have very low resting blood pressure. The nurse seemed to think it might be because I am a highly tuned athlete. Riding my bike at nanna-pace a couple of times a week apparently puts you in the athlete category in this country!

My 'office' and I'm using that word liberally is a windowless, rarely used laboratory complete with fume cupboards, chemicals, freezers, test tubes and other assorted glassware that just happened to have an old desk dumped in it.

And just to make life even more interesting I share it with a guy named Ray who is a cross between Lurch (personality) and Uncle Fester (looks) from the Addam's family. Tall, bald, and the charisma of a zombie!!

We have a flash staff cafeteria with cheap eats including a soup and build your own salad bar, sushi, sandwiches, hot meals and of course the obligatory burger, fries and pizza. But seeing as I have no friends, other than dead Ray, it was only a quick visit for me - once I managed to find the place - in yet another dungeon somewhere. Aptly called the Garden Cafe!

Get some Kulcha into ya......

New York Culture on a Budget.

First Stop: The Chelsea Hotel is covered in art, mostly painted by past and present residents. It's free to wander around and there's some great art. See Sid Vicious (above) whose girlfriend Nancy was found dead on the bathroom floor of room 100 here at the hotel with a single stab wound to her abdomen. During a drug-fuelled night Sid stabbed Nancy during a fight but 'didn't mean to kill her'! Or she fell on the knife......Sid couldn't quite remember whihc one on account of all the drugs.

Second stop: The Guggenheim on Saturday's from 5.45pm to 7.45pm have 'pay what you can' nights so for a buck each we got to spend two very pleasant hours spiralling through 6 floors of great contemporary photographic art in the Haunted Exhibition.

Third stop: The Lincoln Centre to see the final performance of Madame Butterfly performed by the New York City Opera for the tidy sum of $18 bucks each!!! Fortunately they had subtitles so we knew what was going on but it didn't stop me from getting a little sleepy in sections. I think I might stick to musicals from now on zzzz.....................

It's up...it's long...it's going....home run!!!!

Full of excitement we boarded the subway to Yankee Stadium with the other 50,000+ ticket holders and by the time we got there we were packed into that carriage like sardines!

Game time 7:05pm. Grab your foot long hot dog and find your seat. Ours, the cheap nose bleeders unfortunately next to two of New York's most stupid and nerdy men and a row away from two of New York's most annoying 'like...you know...like...OMG....like....I like so love baseball....' bimbettes.

Batter up....Derek Jeter - Yankees Legend (short-stop) and Alex Rodriguez - Legend with the Ladies (3rd base (on the field, off field he always makes it home)) both in the starting line up.

Los Angeles Angels are the opposition and have lost 2 from 2 so far in this visit to Yankee Stadium so the Yankees are keen to make it 3.

A home run from LAA's ex-Yankee player Matsui wakes the Yankees up and from then on it's all one way traffic....balls flying over the outfiled fence for home runs courtesy of Yankee's Cano, Jeter and some other blokes.

Bloody cold we went adventuring to see whether we could score a better view and hello...here I am field level behind the catcher. If only the large security guard would bugger off!!

Highlight: when the cameras found Jerry Springer in the crowd and put him on the big screen with the 50,000+ strong crowd cheering 'Jerry...Jerry...Jerry' led by Tugs!

Ahhh...the serenity

Things are a little less frenetic following the departure of our house guest and we're settling into more of a rhythm. We’re feeling a little less like tourists and more like we're here to work.

We moved house today to the West Village which is leafy and quaint and a bit more posh than the grungy East Village. Hauling 11 pieces of luggage down five steep and narrow flights of stairs and into a cab was not fun but thankfully our new abode is on the ground floor so we basically just wheeled ourselves in. Too easy!

A few interesting things to note about our ‘nabe’ as the cool kids call it. Sarah Jessica Parker lives nearby. The stonewall bar where the gay rights movement started is just around the corner and most importantly so is Magnolia’s Bakery……but we’ve both raved about that place so I won’t bore you again.

We have been checking out some local watering holes and here are a few we recommend…….

East Village:
Immigrant – E9th St - is a cute little wine bar run but a guy called Jason. They have a nice win list and a chilled out atmosphere.

SOHO:
Mercbar – Mercer St. btw Houston and Prince. More of a bar than a wine bar but a cosy place where they make a good cocktail.

Interesting booze facts....
We are seeing very little Australian wine in restaurants or bars and Jason (see above) told us that because the Aussie dollar is so strong it makes our wine too expensive for bars. So much of the wines are Spanish, Argentinean, Portuguese and Chilean which means we are getting to try lots of wines from around the world and lots of grape varieties we are not used to. YUM.

Show me the money...and pastrami

Katz's Deli is the home of whopping great big pastrami sandwiches and the orgasm scene in 'When Harry met Sally'. We couldn't find orgasms on the menu so we went with pastrami and pickles and both were good....

Being in the financial capital of the world and the place where the GFC started we checked out Wall St and the NY Stock Exchange to pay our thanks for the ever lowering US dollar (now at ~93 cents to the AUD).

You can't go in there now to watch the mayhem on the trading floor so actually it's quite boring...just staring at a building. In fact the big bull statue pulls more of a crowd these days. And surprisingly the back end of the bull is just as popular as the front end for tourist happy snaps.

We didn't check out the World Trade Centre site but we did find this sculpture that was there on September, 11. It's all mangled and damaged and now serves as a memorial for those who lost their lives.

How do I know what love is?

Well....I saw it today and guess what, it ain't pretty when you're trying to eat! Yes, two young lovers were reunited today at Balthazar in SOHO in a carefully managed and executed surprise manouver. Yes synchronised watches were required.

The only thing drawing attention away from the lovers smooching was the arrival of Michael Douglas who I must say looks quite the old man these days.

After a lovely lunch, star spotting and smooching (the lovers, not me) we all made our way over to West Village at a slow meandering pace in search of the famed Magnolia Bakery - the cupcake heaven Carrie loves in Sex in the City. And the cupcakes definitely live up to the hype even if I did lose most of my icing in a freak suicidal cupcake accident.

With only a short time in NY (the lovers, not me) we were keen to tick as many boxes on the Jordie and Lisa must do in NY list. Next stop: The highline - disused aboveground railway now a fabulous park and walk with views of the Hudson and New Jersey.

Then the Cubbyhole (cute little neighbourhood bar on W12th) for a refreshing ale or two before making our way uptown to JT's (that's Justin Timberlake for you uneducated peeps) restaurant for ribs and southern fried chicken.....mmmm......hello obesity!

Getting down to business

Today I checked in with my new work at Weill Cornell Medical College up on E86th and York Ave. I'll be working in the Medicine/Gastrointestinal department with A/Prof Andrew Talal. I have to sign up as a volunteer and have a physical examination so I can get an staff ID and IT access. I spent most of the time today filling in forms and then had a quick tour of the hospital and college. Like all hospitals it's huge and confusing and if I manage by the end of the 6 months to know my way around there I will be impressed.

In the same area as the hospital and college are Rockefeller University and Sloan Memorial Kettering Cancer Centre so the couple of blocks are chockers with doctors, nurses, patients and ambulances.

I then got to check out where I'm going to sit for my two days per week and it's not so fancy. I'm in a disused old lab with no windows sharing with some guy. It's not quite the quaint little terrace in Darlinghurst that I'm used to but I'll survive. I think I will be out and about at meetings quite a lot.

Speaking of meetings I have two next week, one of which I will be presenting at so it's time to get back into the swing of things and start working.........

Steaming balls of goodness!

Back to Chinatown today to check out a yum cha place recommended by Shelley B. Instead of getting run over by trolleys as is customary at the Cha we were almost mown down by picketing trolley pushers!!! Not sure what they were protesting about specifically, perhaps the steamers are too steamy, or lower paid international trolley pushers are flooding the market driving down pay???? In support of the trolley pushers we were unable to cross the picket line so had to try another venue. Summary score: Taste 87/100, Variety, 60/100.

The search continues.....

Thank you Kevin Rudd!

3 words...... G-Star Factory Outlet!!!!

Bargains to be had everwhere. Pip and Tugs in a frenzy aided by the brilliant exchange rate! The 46 kilos of luggage Tugs brought is now no longer needed as she has a new wardrobe and the US is no longer in recession!!!

Home sweet home....

We found an apartment!!! It's an awesome two bedroom place in Little Italy which is nestled in between hectic chinatown and cool SOHO. We move in on April 20th so have to find somewhere in the interim. We might head down to Washington DC for a few days to say hi to Obama.

Today we're off to Woodbury Common, the factory outlet mall for some retail therapy. Stay tuned.....

We made it.....

Despite United's best efforts to keep me from getting here I eventually touched down in lovely New Jersey some 28 hours and one false start after my scheduled departure time.

Staying in a great apartment in East Village but one hot tip is to check if the bulding has an elevator. Carrying 40+kgs up 4 flights of steep narrows stairs is not fun!

Our neighbourhood is full of cute little bars, restaurants and shops. It's hard to know where to get started. We were too tired to make a dint but tomorrow is another day!!!

We checked out a few apartments yesterday. No winners yet but a good start. Hopefully we can see a few more today. In between seeing the Easter Bonnet parade.