NYC: The city that never sleeps (just as well)

Went to New York for the day for meetings: I got the Acelor Express over at some unearthly hour (left house at 4am), attended some of my first *proper* meetings in the US, worked in Bryant Park in between (free WiFi, very civilised). NYC is one of the best places on earth, without a doubt.

But not the best when you miss your 4pm train on the brink of holiday weekend - with every train that evening and the next morning FULLY booked apart from the 3.15am train.

There are much worse places to kill 12 hours as cinemas, restuarants, chemists, bookshops and cofee shops are all open. All the same a nightmare - got back home to Boston at 9.15am... Zzzzzzz. A surreal evening/morning.

PS Photo is from one of the 'Girls' Holidays' (think it was this year's trip - we've had a few to here on account that a friend of ours lives here*) - my friend J as we walk through Times Square.

* A friend I would go and stay with for the evening while stranded here but she's over in Boston waiting for me to get back.... typical

Today's view

This isn't the usual view from our office window - but there has been a double-booking for a meeting room so we had to relocate for the day. This is the view we had - over the Charles River and the Boston skyline ( shame that the weather is comparable to Swansea):



And the meeting was great too - one of those ones where you worry unnecessarily beforehand.

It's all good. Though my 'bargain' fancy-client-meeting shoes ($12) have cut both my feet to shreds. Hey ho.

Boba / bubble tea

Am not sure about this. A drink that comes with jelly-frog spawny-like things at the bottom. And a big straw so you can gag on them. It's an acquired taste (I am told) and you learn to drink and chew at the same time. The lumps are balls of black gummy tapioca - the straws are meant to let you drink them up so it's like 'having a pudding'.

Had the drink (opted for Watermelon- great as long as I could avoid the lumps) at an amazing take-away place that flatmate swears by (we got there after she drove up and down the Charles River several times on a distracted detour) - specialities that caught my eye (though not my appetite) included frog and garlic on rice; spicy sliced pig ears (looked suspiciously like mushrooms) and spicy boneless duck claws.

Strange really that you wouldn't want to eat something like frog or pig ears - after all, we're omnivores (at least I am) and there's very little difference to eating a pig's ear to anything else off it. Perhaps next time - when I go back for some more 'boba tea'.

tags: boba ,bubble tea

The World's Biggest Paella

- Served up at a fabulous house on a lake in Michigan. Superb evening. Lots of very friendly people - and some zany / madcap / fascinating / fun / friendly (words cannot describe) Lithuanians...

This is the 'home made beach' (they have sand shipped in)


and the view from the lawn:



Weather was amazing - nothing like it has been in Boston! Flight back was delayed due to the bad weather and then a really choppy flight back... bleurghh...

Every home should have one

Though at the rate people were grabbing them straight off the truck at Home Depot last night they probably do.

I also bought some flip flops on my way home from work, so I can blend in with the locals.

Of course, now that I am armed with flip flops and an air conditioning unit, it's just started raining.

Mount Auburn Street

I have unpacked (hurrah) by relocating from a small budget hotel room to a budget-yet-fab flat apartment just off Mount Auburn St.

Am sharing with H, who sports a golden ponytail, golden legs plus the ability to wear flip flops all day without cutting her feet to shreds - all features that are typical of the locals - well, the females at least, (though come to think of it...).

All seems very promising - H is fun, sociable and able to make great cocktails out of bizarre ingredients - we spent last evening on the verandah drinking something that involved a number of things including mango and gin. After a few of them I could even forget how rotten/dangerous the verandah is (it's on the first floor and has gaps in it that I'm sure the person who built it didn't intend - does being on a first floor make it something other than a 'verandah'?).

H didn't realise that the Welsh were real - she thought it was all 'imaginary'. I am finding I have had to use Catherine-Zeta Jones, Tom Jones and the Stereophonics as examples of fellow 'real' Welsh. May have to invest in a handy map of the UK and a pointed stick (the latter for smacking ignorant people with).

Also met my first MIT geek yesterday - the place is full of them - you can't swing a Schrodinger's cat without hitting several (ho ho ho )- some of you (no names - you know who you are), would be in geek heaven. At least he knew where Wales was.

The other inhabitant of the apartment is a cat that is so old it's like a skeleton with some matted fur stuck on it. It's very sweet but it's also very ill, and incapable of judging the dimensions of the litter tray. Not the best in this heat.

Which brings me onto the biggest challenge so far - the heat. It was mid-nineties yesterday with a humidity that made it really unbearable. And even after the sun had gone down it didn't seem to make any difference. Now I understand why the room is so cheap - there's no air con. I actually woke up (for the gazillionth time) in the middle of the night, picked up the glass of water on mny bedside table and threw it over myself out of sheer desperation.

Tonight's mission is to buy some sort of a/c unit. And to get it home on the bus.

Boston: Day one

Well, I'm here - the other side of the pond. Thanks to A for the renaming suggestion.

My state of denial (which stood fast: even when handing over flat keys / getting car ready to sell / paying excess for my baggage at the check-in* / landing at Logan International Airport) seems to be lifting. After not being excited at all to date I was very gleeful (the only word that suits) yesterday afternoon.

To start off with I am staying in Woburn (read: it's cheap and has a shuttle bus to the T Line connection into Boston) for a week while I sort myself out.

Got up. Worked. Got shuttle bus to train station (the driver gave me a piece of paper with 'we need flappers muric acid' scribbled on it. A cry for help? Emergency ingredient for the kitchens? Part of the Holiday Inn's plans to take over the world?); I annoyed an MTA employee by buying a train ticket using all the dimes I had stored in my 'Old Navy Halloween' piggybank back in London and got into downtown Boston.

Sorted out mobile phone (Cingular was recommended by a friend); visted the new office (in Cambridge way - lively and fun, ideal in many ways) and thanks to the fact that it's run by a girl from a village near me in Wales that's all completely sorted out too.

Saw part of the World Cup match (US vs Czech Republic) - after the revelry and excitement of watching the match in London on Saturday, it felt like I was the only person in Boston watching this one. The Red Sox lost to Texas last night, so you'd have thought that the locals might appreciate a stab to cheer at a winning side for something else (then again perhaps they knew that the US was going to lose 3-0).

Noticed that one of the TV listings for the evening was the world rock paper scissor championships. Went to bed early instead, though did catch a few minutes of Hell's Kitchen - seems that good old Gordon feels it's necessary to step the shouting and swearing up a notch. Watched him make all the trainee chefs get in dumpsters full of waste food (with a fair amount of retching on their part). I hate to admit it but I am actually missing Big Brother back in the UK - probably a good thing that I'm not there and can't watch it and can break the addiction.

Tonight I am off to see some places to stay longer term. Would be nice to get out of here in the next few days - this hotel has got a good internet connection but that' sabout it for the highlights..

* Well, I am here for a while. Colleen McLoughlin was only going to Germany and might not be going for that long and she had loads more stuff than I did.