Still Snowy...

McCarren Park was looking lovely and snowy as we walked through it yesterday afternoon.

Staten Island Adventure...

On Saturday morning I went on a little adventure to Staten Island.

I've only ever been to Staten Island once before and that was a fairly brief trip to Snug Harbor, I didn't really think about the rest of Staten Island, but I realised on Saturday just how big it is.

I took the bus this time, so my journey took me across the bridge and through the suburban bits of Staten Island - it felt completely different to New York and Brooklyn, it seemed a lot more like the rest of America (from what I've seen). I think the pace of life must be completely different just across the water.

On the way back to Brooklyn I took a different route, I got a bus to the ferry port and took the free Ferry back to Manhattan, which despite being a bit grey and cold, still looked incredible...

I stood at the front of the ferry the whole way there, not quite like the Titanic but worryingly there were blocks of ice in the water!


It was a great little adventure - I think there's still quite a bit of Staten Island to explore, so maybe when it warms up a bit we'll go back.

Where Did We Park The Car?

I think there's a car in there somewhere!

Taxi!

I don't think this cab will be picking up many fares today...

Union Square...

Union Square was looking like a winter wonderland(ish) on the way to work...

I didn't get a photo of it, but there was a 10 foot snowman in the park too, with rubbish bins for feet, I went back at lunchtime to take a picture, but the snow had turned gray and there were a lot of pesky kids surrounding him.

Bring The House Down...

Unfortunately the snow been so heavy that our neighbours (pretty shoddy) porch roof had collapsed! I'm amazing how much snow had drifted in their drive - it looks like it's about 5 feet high next to their camper van!

This Morning...

We woke up to this...

14 fresh inches of snow!

I went up on the roof to have look at the snow covered view - the drifts on the roof were over 2 feet high, I don't think anyone had been up there for a few weeks and it's been snowing on and off quite a bit recently. I just wanted to jump in all the brand new, crisp, deep and even snow.

There was a bit of a drift against our front door too...

People were out clearing the pavements and driveways again - I've been so impressed with how quickly people spring to action here, the snow plows are out clearing the roads before the snow's really settled (actually, that's a bit annoying because they just scrape against the tarmac!).

Last Night...

Yesterday afternoon, all of sudden it started snowing - really snowing and by the time we went home Myrtle Avenue was looking preeeeeeetty snowy...

The wind was blowing the snow sideways around and our taxi was skidding around on the roads (we got a taxi home as we were all working late last night) - it was a very lovely feeling being all cozy and warm inside while it was cold, windy and snowy outside.

It's Blummin' Cold!

I don't really understand how the real temperature/feels like tempuratue works - but it certainly feels like it's -21 degrees!

No Joy For The Jets...

They didn't win last night - they're not going to be going to the Superbowl.

Oh well.

The Clocks What I Made...

On Friday, I had a bit of a Changing Rooms moment at work and made some new clocks for the office using the old boring Ikea clocks that we had already.

The clocks are for the 4 continents/countries our offices are in, so UK, USA, Australia and Singapore...



I've not put the Singapore one together yet, but it's going to be a tiger.

I'll take a picture once they're up in the studio so you can see them all together.

It's Been Snowing...

We woke up to another little blanket of snow this morning...

The weather forecast is for it to get mighty MIGHTY cold this weekend (minus 20°C!!!), so I think it'll be too cold for more snow then. I think we might have to start wearing three pairs of pants now.

I'm sorry I've not really been posting much these past couple of weeks. There are a few reasons, mainly because we've been hibernating though, we've been saving some pennies and keeping warm, staying in and playing Wii until it warms up a little bit (and until pay day comes around).

On the plus side, I've completed Super Mario Galaxy 2 on the Wii!

I promise things will get a bit more interesting come February.

Have Shovel...

Someone's cashing in on the snowy weather...

Go Jets!

On Sunday afternoon the NY Jets were playing the New England Patriots in the NFL playoffs (that sentance might make it sound like I know what I'm talking about, but I don't really...), so we met Ben in Anima (Ben's home away from home) to watch the game with a few drinks.

The bar was busy with Jets fans, lots of funny characters sitting at the bar, shouting at the telly. It made the whole game far more entertaining, I spent more time watching the old men giving running commentary that I did watching the game...



At the moment, the NFL playoffs are leading up to the Superbowl next month, so if you win your game you're one step closer to making it to the Superbowl - if you lose, you're out.

Luckily the Jets won - so they're one step closer to Miami. At the end of the game everyone in the bar was given a free shot of something green and we all toasted 'Gang-green's going to Miami!' (Gang-green is the Jets knickname - not the most fortunate of knicknames though really... being named after a disease isn't the greatest start)...

Things will get more exciting with each game they play - I hate to say it, but I might actually get into American Football!

The King's Speech

WOW!

What a film.
What an incredible, beautiful, funny, moving, brilliant film.

We went to go and see The King's Speech at the BAM cinema in Brooklyn, just a couple of train stops away in Fort Greene. The BAM cinema is a bit like the Showroom cinema, it's quite small and only has 4 screens. So it was nice to see the film in a smaller, more intimate screen in a more arty farty cinema.

The film was absolutely brilliant, I thought the acting was amazing, the story was incredible and the film was shot beautifully - it's one of the best films I've seen in a very very very long time.

What else was great was that in the evening we were watching the Golden Globes and Colin Firth won best actor - fingers crossed he'll get an Oscar for his amazing performance too.

BAM seems like a fantastic place, there's a theatre, an Opera House and a cinema. Looking at their programmes there are some pretty good plays coming up, Alan Rickman's in one during January and February and then in March Geoffrey Rush is going to be doing 'Diary of a Mad Man'... some pretty big names for such a small theatre.

Hopefully we'll be able to go back to BAM to the theatre sometime soon.

Wintery Wednesday...

The news on Tuesday night was full of dramatic warnings about another snow storm heading our way, infact it was saying that two storms were going to collide over New York and cause snow to fall at a rate of an inch per hour for the whole night.

So we were expecting to wake up to a good 10-14 inches covering Brooklyn, I kept looking out the window on Tuesday night to check on the progress... it was slow going, but it was snowing for a long time. Not really an inch per hour though.

When we woke up, we were a wee bit disappointed to see that we hadn't been snowed in, and all the roads and pathways had been cleared well enough for us to go to work - no snow day for us...

There's no more snow forecast for a wee while - but I've still got my fingers crossed for another winter wonderland like last January.

Chilly Willy...

Yesterday was the 10th annual No Pants Subway Ride!

Unfortunately Abi and I were feeling very under the weater, so we stayed in all day (with our trousers on), but if we had had ventured out this is what we may have seen...

It looks a little bit like it was the 10th annual 'keep a straight face' day too, everyone looks a bit serious don't they... I just hope they had all put a clean pair of pants on in the morning.

Lucy...

Today we had an extra memeber of staff in the studio...

Lucy is Laura's 2 year old dog, and she came to spend the afternoon with us all to help cheer us up. She was very helpful, she helped find left over bits of food in our bins, and she let us know when someone was coming through the doors, she let us know where her bone was and she showed us some of her tricks - rolling over, spinning, hi-5ing and sitting.

She was lovely.

Singing On The Stairs...

This afternoon, as we were stepping out of the office for lunch we heard three guys out on the pavement singing Proud Mary acapella, they sounded absolutely amazing and I wanted to take a video of them but I didn't have my phone with me, and they'd gone when we came back.

Then a little later this afternoon I thought I heard them again, so I went over to the window to see if they were down on the pavement again, but the sound wasn't coming from outside, it was closer...

I walked over to the fire escape door and realised that the singing was coming from the staircase. This isn't the best video in the world, but hopefully you can hear them signing OK, they sounded amazing and when they were talking they sounded like real characters. Old hands talking about 'opening the song up' and different harmonies. It was great, and just another amazing thing that you'd never expect to see or hear, but something that seems very New York...

Dipping and Diving...

Yesterday afternoon, whilst strolling back from Maggie Browns, we saw these pigeons having some fun...

I didn't know pigeons did this - I thought it was just sparrows or whatever those other little birds are, but they seemed to be having a party up there.

I'm Back...

Hello again!

Well, I'm finally back in New York after a journey that seemed to take days and days - oddly enough the most enjoyable part was the flight itself (I think the Jack Daniels, gin and red wine helped a lot), the rest of the journey was horrible though... lots of waiting around, lots of queues, lots of annoying people.

But now we're back to work, after a lazy day yesterday trying to stay awake and playing Wii, we're back in the office - which couldn't feel any more different to the lovely relaxing, festive time I had back at home. I've definitely got the back to work blues.