Birthday Drama

 To paraphrase Lady Gaga: I was born that day-heyyy

What a WEEK I'm having! I have literally been busier than several hives of bees. Not only have I been moved onto a new exciting but demanding project at work, but I've also been trying to organise moving house (stress central!), advertising for and interviewing several prospective housemates after my original to-be housemate flaked out on me (HONESTLY), organising some kind of activity to celebrate my birthday only to then have my phone stolen that night! So on top of everything else I had to deal with police reports, insurance claims and new phone contracts.

PHEW.

 Oh nana... what's my name?

So I had every intention of blogging last weekend about my birthday, but I think, given all of the above, its understandable why this is a week late!

Even though everything and its mother seems to have come at once (isn't it always the way?!) my birthday was (until the phone incident) a nice calm amidst the storm of activity that has become my life these days.

 Liberty oven gloves. For SHOW ONLY.

I spent a lovely day with my current (but soon to be ex - nooooo!) housemate Holly. We went to old favourite Wahaca for lunch - where they presented me with free birthday churros, complete with candle! Always a pleasure never a chore. Then, I have no idea how we made room, but we wandered over to Gelupo to sample some of their dairy delights. So scrummy.

Later on that night we had another lovely meal at The Real Greek in Hoxton before heading over to The Book Club for drinks and dancing until the wee small hours. It was all going so well until about 2.30am when I realised my phone had been taken from my bag, which put a slight dampener on what had been a brilliant day.

His name is Gerald.

But as is eventually the way with these things, everything seemed to work out in the end - an old friend confirmed he would like to become my new housemate, my phone was due an upgrade anyway before it got stolen so I walked away with a brand new one the very next day (and as it was iPhone to iPhone I lost NO data whatsoever - SCORE!) and I had lots of gorgeous presents to cheer me up from the stress and strife!

Hummingbird and Magnolia books, pretty glassware, exquisite oven gloves and a new stuffed animal friend were amongst my haul this year - I am a very lucky girl!

So basically the moral of this story is, that when the shit hits the fan - it's nothing good friends, good food and a stuffed owl can't remedy.

Paper Faces On Display

Lethal Cocktails. Deadly.

Forgive me. Normally I try and post on a Sunday. Yesterday I was unable to do this and the above photo pretty much sums up why. Dirty filthy hangover.

 On Saturday, my cousin celebrating turning 21 by holiding a super brill-pants party.

Biffday boy 

Above handsome fellow is my aforementioned 21 year old cousin. The theme of the party was a Masquerade Ball, hence the face gear. He doesn't just dress that way for fun you know. Or maybe he does. I didn't ask.

The best bit of all parties - CAKE

There was lots of yummy food, and yummy cake. And quite a lot of alcohol. 

 Yeah, don't be fooled. She's drunk as a skunk!

Seriously, a LOT of alcohol. At one point my mother (above) was even doing tequila shots. Ha! I love her.

 Also don't be fooled. I probably fell down right after this was taken.

Oh to be 21 again! I had a similar big family/friends party for my 21st, and it was so much fun. I love my family get togethers, everyone gets very very merry and laughs a lot. Sometimes we even dance. And there is a 99% chance that bacon sandwiches are served the following morning so really, life doesn't get much better.

Birthday Pavlova

Meringu-erang!! (as in Bang-er-rang!!... Anyone? No?)

Well, it took one failed attempt (Note to self: don't add the sugar too quickly because you're in a rush.. slowly does it, or the egg whites collapse and then you tear your hair out - It's 'Not Worth It'), but I finally got there! My very first meringue! Woohoo!

 Refrain from drooling, your keyboard will thank you

Pavlova's normally strike me as a summer pudding, but I have made this one to celebrate Holly's birthday today. It was the perfect alternative to a birthday cake, as she was being whisked off this afternoon for a chocolate afternoon tea, so I thought she wouldn't want anything too heavy after gorging herself silly on scones and petit fours.

I used a Delia Smith recipe, which was very straightforward and easy to follow. As I've already mentioned, my first attempt did go completely wrong, but that is because I was worried I was overwhisking the egg whites and so tipped in the sugar way too much at a time. Start adding sugar when the peaks start to stiffen, take it a tablespoonful at a time, and whisk for 10 seconds between additions and you will be left with a sexy glossy stiff mixture. Boom ting.

Berry berry good

So I'm now absolutely knackered after a busy weekend of birthday festivities, on Friday we had dinner at Pizza East and then boogalooed til we puked at The Book Club. (Not ACTUALLY!) I might might have got a little bit boozy and may may not have been able to move until 2pm on Saturday. But this is merely rumour and has not yet been confirmed as fact. So don't believe everything you read folks!

Right time to tuck into that palava pavlova before I get overcome and start rubbing my face in it. 

Wait, what? No.. I would never do that. 

Honest.

Things That Go Bump in the Night

Grave things are afoot

Wow. So here it is, as promised my full post-party report. It was a big group effort to put together. Everybody in my family, cousins and aunts, uncles and grandparents helped out, making the food, moving furniture, wiring up laptops, decorating every available picture frame with pretend dust (a task which it turns out, my sister is a closet genius at! That fake dust is actually a very difficult thing to work with, but Eleanor has the knack it seems), and just generally pitching in to pull it off. 

And then people showed up. Lots of people. Many people we'd seen recently, and many more we hadn't seen in so long.  It was lovely.  And so many people made such an effort with costumes! Halloween isn't as big a deal in the UK as it is in America, and I know from when I was in New York last year, it is so much fun when everybody dresses up, so I'm really glad that people did! It was fantastic to see, and really good fun to guess who everybody was. 

Below are a few of the costumes that I managed to get good pictures of:

My friend Holly as a witch; I'm really feeling her facial spiderweb.. directional

My friend Laura, as another witch

My friend James, as some sort of creature of the night, and I don't mean a hooker

My lovely sister; she's just a devil woman, with evil on her mind

My youngest bro-fo Ed as Alex from A Clockwork Orange

My uncle, as Heath Ledger's Joker, one of my favourite costumes of the evening

My lovely mummy, as a Batwoman. With really shiny earrings.

My sisters lovely friends, Matthew and Pete, as Doctor Who and The Master in their signature "mortal enemies" pose.

See? Didn't everybody do well? I am now going to 'play you out' with some more generic party time type photos that I took that I like, which summed up the good time everybody had. And you may even see the results of my blood-making Carrie-inducing efforts in the form of my very own prom-queen nightmare costume in there as well.

My cousin Sophie (as a mummy) and my brother Ed. Cuteness!

Me and Holly: Blood, it's so AW08

My sister Eleanor and her friend Liam (not dressed up = upsetting)

I'm sure she loves me really. I'm sure...

L-R: Holly, Some joker, my lovely friend Esther as a 20s flapper, and Laura

Big fun!! Same again next year?

Happy Independence Day (or, How Too Much Sangria = Minimal Photos)

Happy Fourth of July!

So yes, this weekend, I believe it is common knowledge that it has been American Independence Day Weekend.

I also believe that it is common knowledge that I am in fact, British.

Nevertheless, my adoptive home for this year, could not have been happier to have me celebrate their national holiday with them. Which I did, in spades. And sangria. Lots and lots of sangria.

Apart from, apparently, you DO NOT sit on the American flag and use it as some sort of beach towel. That's what is known as desecration of said flag, and makes a lot of Americans very unhappy. Lesson learned!

So, where did all this merriment take place? WELL! I went to a party at Water Taxi Beach in Queens.  There was music, artificial sand, sangria (oh lord was there sangria), chicken, burgers and (my new favorite thing to eat) chili dogs. I mean, really, MEAT on top of MORE MEAT!?! If that's not the most genius thing you've ever heard, well, I just don't know what to say. 

However, before I drank my body-weight in sangria, I did think to take a picture of the amazing view we had from across the East River:

Mid-town skyline (check out the red white and blue Empire State)

Unfortunately, that's all you get from me on the photo front because, I then proceeded to drink sangria until 5.30am. Which seemed like a good idea at the time, but turns out, my stomach had other differing opinions on the subject.

Possibly never drinking sangria again...

Very possibly.

Birthday Fun (aka When Holly Came To Stay - Part II)

I don't know what I was expecting. I was turning 23, no big milestone. I was 3000 miles from home. I was surrounded by people I'd only known 6 months (and Holly). I guess you could say, I wasn't expecting much.

Instead I got cards:

I got presents. From home, from Holly, from housemates:

I got to eat fish and chips for the first time in six months:

This place, does the only authentic fish and chips in NYC.  Holly had not been so deprived of such patriotic culinary delights for as long as I had, so even though it wasn't quite the same as back home (note unsure expression on Holly's face)...

...it was good enough for me (note ecstatic expression on my face):

And, I got to go out and have a great time at Cafe Wha? with my friends. Holly, was obviously there (I tried to get her to stay home, but she insisted haha):

And amongst others, my lovely housemates Jez and Lia were also there:

And finally, I got to pose in front of a camera:

For someone who wasn't expecting a lot, I had a fantastic birthday despite being so far from home. Thank you to everyone who made it possible!

x

It was acceptable in the 80s

Just a quick one today..

Yes, this is me (and my friend Chris!).  Yes, I have far too much makeup on.  Yes I am wearing some sort of black lace ra-ra monstrosity and fingerless leather gloves.  No, it is not 1987.  

Why? Why the bloody hell not?! No, seriously, this was all in aid of my friend Becca's birthday party, which was conducted under the umbrella theme of 'The 1980's" this weekend.

Just thought I would share the hilarity.

I have done other things this weekend, but I was an utter tard and forgot to take my camera out.  Luckily, thanks to Isabel, who let me borrow her camera for picture taking purposes (I guess, what else right?) I do have pictures, but not on my person/computer.  I will be getting them my way tomorrow though.  So I figured to let you guys know I haven't given up on my 'at least once a week' pledge in terms of blogging, you could all have a good old giggle at what I would have dressed like if I had in fact been partying circa 1987. Sexy no?!

Ween-tastic times

HI EVERYBODY!!! (to be said Doctor Nick stylee) hehe.

First off... MASSIVE HUGE MASSIVE APOLOGIES for not posting in such an uber long time.  Basically I have spent a bit of time getting into a routine here in New York. I really feel settled here now, like its home.  I am no longer a tourist!!

Secondly.. well what have I been up to??  Well lots of things really... I have spent a bit of time chillaxing in Central Park (as mentioned in previous posts)

I've also spent a bit of time messing about at the Museum of Natural History, which is a fascinating place.  The photo there is me recreating the classic scene from Hitchcock's "The Birds" haha.

Also, whilst the weather was still warm, we went to visit Little Italy. For part of the Mountbatten syllabus we have to have an architecture tour... and mine was for Little Italy! it was an absolutely BOILING DAY in October, and me and Sam and Dan made our way (hungover!) to Little Italy for the architecture tour... I can't remember a lot of what the guide said as I was too hot and bothered, but basically Little Italy is located where it is because a pond went stagnant down there and none of the rich people wanted to live there because it smelt, so they shoved all the immigrants there. LOVELY!
A lot of Little Italy is lovely, totally different to the huge scale of midtown, plus the food is YUMSCRUM!!  That's one of the things I love about Manhattan - each district is totally different in style, feel, atmosphere, and vibe, but yet they all sit happily together on this small island.  I hope to do some more in depth exploring of all the districts like I have done here over the year.


I like this building cos of the Italian stripes.  We were lucky when we went to Little Italy, because it was Columbus day weekend when we went: the bank holiday where Americans celebrate Columbus happening upon them!  And as Columbus was Italian, in Little Italy particularly they go a bit crazy for the guy.. while we were eating lunch they had a parade in his honour which was really fun to see.


So.. talking and showing all those photos all that stuff seems like AGES ago.. I'm really going to make an effort to blog more often!!  More recently, the weather in like, literally the last week has suddenly got a lot lot colder.  Like its not freezing yet (don't panic mum), but I just mean in comparison to the unusually high temperatures we had been seeing for this time of year, now the temperature feels more autumnal and the leaves are turning finally.  The other day, the air was actually 'crisp'!  Autumn, or 'fall', is so nice here, I wish I had enough money and time to go to New England where it is supposedly more spectacular, but there's always next year because I can technically stay here til 18th October 2008...


So, we have just had Halloween here... which everyone LOVES over here by the way... it's a proper holiday, like Christmas and stuff, there's loads of parties and all sorts, and everyone goes crazy for dressing up. Like in England people dress up but its always kind of half arsed to be frank... you haven't seen dressing up until you come here!!  I went to a costume shop with some friends to get some and it was literally like Calcutta!  People were selling their kids just to get the perfect one!!  Haha.  I went as Britney Spears, as, lets face it, having her for a mum has to be pretty scary hahaha.  But I went as her in her hey-day... to two parties.  The first was a party thrown by my American colleague Heather. (<---that's her in the picture) This was a pretty fun time, as all my work friends were there.  The second party was a week later and was an official Mountbatten party at a club.  Before we all made our way there tho, one of my friends, Dan (aka Teenwolf haha) threw a pre-party party at his apartment, which they had decorated for the occasion... it looked fantastic.. and everyone had made such an effort with the costumes.  It was a really good night!!


Yesterday which was actual Halloween, on which they have a parade downtown, I had class.  Which was a bit lame!  But as soon as class was over, me and my friend Penny made our way down there, and managed to catch the tail end of it.  It seemed like good fun.

So, my first American holiday, and my first American Halloween experience, all in all, I have to say I prefer the way they do it over here, you can never have too many excuses to dress up and have fun now can you?!?!?  Although it is weird to think that I wont be celebrating Bonfire Night this year.   But I guess I have Thanksgiving to look forward to instead!


Happy HALLOWEEEEEEEEEEEEEN everyone!!

xxxxxxxxxx

Parklife

Sooo! I realise I don't update as often as some people would like!  Life out here is so busy, I work all day, I play all night, I don't got a lot of time, but I'm really trying to make time for this.

I especially wanted to blog about today simply because it was such a nice one.  I have so many photos, but I haven't managed to find a way to upload them without owning a computer yet.  I think I'm gonna ask one of my housemates if they mind me doing it on theirs until I have my own, hopefully they wont mind!

Well firstly, this week in general, work has been great, I'm really busy but in a good way, I think my bosses are pleased with what I'm doing, and Julie (one of them) said that she wants me to be able to go home next year not putting 'project assistant' on my CV, but that I'll have learnt and done so much that i can put 'project coordinator' so that's cool.  I went out to lunch with Julie and Pat (my other boss) on Friday to another really nice restaurant, Italian this time.

Also, we had our first lecture on Tuesday, on the American Constitution, cos we're doing the history module at the moment, I found it very interesting!  I think I'm going to enjoy this part.  I haven't done an awful lot more as I was very poor, but it was nice to have a few days chilling in the apartment.  Loads of new series of stuff as started this week on TV, the new Heroes, the new Ugly Betty, the new America's Next Top Model, the new Desperate Housewives is tomorrow, so I'm gonna be all clued up before anyone at home!  Even though I haven't done a lot as well, it's nice just walking from the PATH station to work and back.  I love just walking in New York in general, and there's so many different areas, each one has it's own atmosphere and vibe and there's always something to take your breath away.  I feel so inspired by this city, more than I have ever felt anywhere else.  At the risk of sounding incredibly cheeseXcore(!) I feel like I really 'get' New York, and more importantly, that it really 'gets' me too.  I feel like I'm really alive here.

On Friday we all got our first paycheck so everyone was in the mood for a bit of a celebration!  We headed out to a bar downtown called Madame X.  It sounds filthy but really it was just a regular bar, with a really nice little beer garden with fairy lights!  Then we moved on to a dive type bar for a few more cheap drinks called The Peculiar Pub... and then some of us ended up at this house club, it was a pretty cool night and very funny at times!

Today is what I really want to talk about tho.  I woke up feeling a little hungover but not hugely.  And it was such a gorgeous day so after lunch me and my friends, Zoe, Julia, Jenny, Russell and Tom took a fun trip to Central Park.  We had the idea that we were gonna hire some bikes and cycle round, but when we got there at about 3.30 they only had two left.  So instead we decided to go to the lake and hire two boats out.  It was so fun, I had a boat with Russell and Tom, and they took it in turns rowing at first cos I'd never done it before and so I was on camera duty.  But then I decided I wanted a go and I turned out to be better than both of them!  FYI, Central Park is the best thing ever!  It's crazy, there's all this city and then suddenly it stops and your totally at peace in this amazing nature playground.  I don't know what I was expecting, like some kind of really big field with a few fountains I guess, but it's amazing!  It's like really hilly and rocky and grassy and lots and lots of trees, and ponds and lakes and horses and cyclists and taxi cabs and merry-go-rounds and the paths all go over and under each other.  It's just so so pretty as well.

After that we walked back onto 7th and got coffee and cheesecake at a deli... the hugest slices ever!  Then we went back home and decided to go to see our first American movie.  One bad thing about America, and pretty much the first really bad thing I've been disappointed with (the second one being supermarket food), was the fact that they don't do sweet popcorn in movie theatres.  It's butter or nothing and then there's a squirty pump that lets you pour what is supposedly butter sauce but is really just this oily gloop all over your already shit popcorn.  Yuck.  Luckily the film we went to see was AMAZE, I actually cried at one point I was laughing so hard. it was 'SuperBad' and I know a lot of people at home have probably seen it already because I think its been out for a while, but for some reason it must've totally passed me by.  Anyway, if you haven't seen it, see it - it's SO FUNNY if you like that kind of stupid comedy.  And I do.  I am McLovin.

Sooo, I am really beat from writing this... its like 1.30 in the am... I think we're gonna try and get to a beach tomorrow on long island, but we'll see what time we get up!

ACTUAL LOVE (often mistaken for arthritis... don't ask) to everyone at home, love love xxxx

My first proper weekend in the city

Hi guys, I know I know, I don't update very often yada yada yada... I can't do it at work, and the t'interweb is not working at our apartment at the moment... so I don't have a lot of a chance to do so!

So, my apartment.  Well, it was a bit of a state when we moved in last Sunday, but we've cleaned it up a treat now and it's looking good... no cockroaches yet!!  My roommates are really nice, and clean which is good!

This weekend was really cool, I took the Staten Island ferry to see the Statue of Liberty which was very exciting, I took a lot of pictures.  Then we went for a wander through Battery Park.  I got a bit freaked out by the fake Statue of Liberty people.  They are just people dressed up as the Statue of Liberty and you can have your picture taken with them, but mostly they are just weird!  Also there, was a cool water feature that I ran through cos it was so hot... and on a more serious note, there was a memorial for 9/11, a sculpture that used to be in the WTC has been placed there as a memorial, you can see where it was damaged in the attack... its quite sad.  Also a pigeon had pooed all on it which mad me even sadder.  Those pesky pigeons.

Then we took the subway up to Union Square which is really cool lots of nice shops.  And I bought some brand new ghd's to replace my poor old broken ones.  They work in both the US and the UK, so all is good. Then that evening it was some Mountbatten's birthday called Ashley and he'd got us all on the guest list for this club called Hiro. It was really cool because it was the place where they filmed the main fight sequence in Kill Bill.  Awesome.

On Sunday I just stayed around Newport NJ, which is where I live.  It was a mega mega mega hot day (as it has been today), so I went and had lunch with some friends, and then we checked out the local mall, which is MASSIVE, and then sat by the harbour for about half an hour, its really very nice, with a good view of downtown Manhattan.

Now, moving on to the subject of back at home... I didn't understand a word of Nanny Joan's comment, but I did gather that she was drunk... I think I take after her because I have drunk soooo much this week ha ha ha. Especially on Thursday night, because it was happy hour, $3 wine between 7 and 8.  Bonus!  I think it will all die down a bit from here on in as people get more settled into work and stuff.  And also because everyone has run out of money!  Pay day on Friday, yay!

Hope everyone is good, I have to run now cos I have no time left on this computer.

Miss you all xxxxxx