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Winter in New York

Posted on March 2, 2008 by | Leave a comment

Believe it or not, if you have a good coat, hat, boots and gloves, Winter in New York is a wonderful playground.  It may not be “normal” for an Australian to enjoy living in weather where the mercury never rises above “freezing” (I use that reference now as a multi-lingual term that both Americans and Australians can understand). Usually, the movie studios start filling the theaters with their Oscar fair so there is always a list of good movies to see.  One of the best places to go in the City is “The Angelika” – really its only to watch the crowd before and after the movies as generally the theaters suffer from poor sound (the rumble of the subway during a romantic scene is particularly amusing), cramped seats and scratchy film.  There is always a buzz on a Saturday night as the crowd starts lining up for 30 minutes or more before the show – usually an indie flick with a foreign name and subtitles.  The crowd is an eclectic bunch – students, retirees, yuppies, etc. – but they are united by their love for “intelligent” film. It reminds me of the scene from “Annie Hall” where Woody Allen and Diane Keating are on line for a movie and the whole crowd is crapping on about movies – the director, movie theory etc.  I can’t claim to have that knowledge (or even want to) but its really fun to just people watch (and over-hear).  Also, its a great contrast to the Multiplex experience where the lobby is filled with teens and young 20-something males, jostling each other and goofing around while getting their tickets for the next slasher movie.  Anyway, going to the movies in the City is always a fun experience for me – you have so many to choose from and once you decide you get all dressed up and then brave the cold to get there at least 15 minutes before the screen time to get a seat that doesn’t cause you to have neck cramp and then sit through 20 minutes of ads with your coat and hat on your lap because the cinema is packed!  Sounds terrible I know, but once you’ve seen the movie, gone for coffee afterwards and made it back home you really feel as if you’ve accomplished something!Then there are the museums… but that is for another blog. Actually, another great thing about Winter is snow!  On a weekend it is great to grab a train out of the City for a day trip up the Hudson to Fahenstock State Park where they have 15kms of trails.  It is skiing in the slow lane!  A pass costs you $8 for the day and then you are left to your own devices to explore the groomed trails (including a large lake that you can ski around).  After a couple of hours you are exhausted and feel great.  Then its time for Apres Ski in the town of Cold Spring about 10 minutes from the trails by car/taxi at one of 2 or 3 good restaurants.  After a late lunch you can then catch the train back to the City and snooze as the sun sets over the Hudson River.  By the time you get back to Grand Central you feel refreshed and ready to hit the City again.Winter in New York has many more wonders……

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My husband’s new best quality – media concierge

Posted on January 14, 2008 by | 1 Comment

So it’s a tough gig being my husband and he does a pretty good job.  We both work, and with 2 kids, a house and a fish our family just doesn’t function unless he’s doing his share (or as he likes to point out, more than his share).  So sure, he does most of the cooking and yes, and he does most of the shopping, and some of the laundry, and does the garden…you get my drift, he’s a fully evolved and super-involved husband.

There’s a lot of things as a full-time working mum in LA I just can’t get to right now.  Sleep.  Regular eye-brow waxing.  Reading Sunday’s NY Times.  Going to the gym.  Updating my iPod.

So it’s in that context that my husband has upped the ante with his new role in our family – my media concierge.  For my birthday right before xmas he got me the new iTouch (ie iPhone without the phone bit).  That in itself was a great present (he’d forgotten my birthday the year before in an uncharacteristic move so it was doubly appreciated).  But the best part was that he’d loaded all my photos, all my favorite music (he’d even sucked it up and included Kelly Clarkson and the Dixie Chicks which he has no time for), plus some Aussie faves (Sneaky Sound System) and other things he thought I’d like, including movies and tv shows.   And the best part was he signed up for keeping it updated on an ongoing basis.  BEST PRESENT EVER! 

 I mentioned this to a friend who had heard of a small company in LA who had just started providing media concierge services to people like me who consume lots of entertainment but don’t have the time or inclination to get the electronic shit together.  So maybe this is the start of a new trend in business.  Or maybe just husbands?

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Happy New Year in Los Angeles

Posted on January 2, 2008 by | 1 Comment

I have been 15 months in LA now and I each time I leave I feel more and more settled as I return. I can’t put my finger on what beyond time has made me fall in love with this metropolis. It could be the laid back attitude of beach side Venice in the winter sunshine, recent drinks with neighbours or the knowledge that having a new job means I can stay.

LA in winter is a treat, with few cars on the road a batch of awesome new films in the cinemas and the late morning sunshine.

Happy New Year everyone, I hope 2008 is your year.

This photo was taken in our garden on 31 December 2007

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Finding a place to live in Los Angeles

Posted on November 14, 2007 by | Leave a comment

It took me a while to work out where I wanted to live in Los Angeles. One of the deciding factors in my choice of Venice (by the beach on the Westside) was that the beach suburbs are 10 – 15 degrees cooler than the Eastside and Valleys. I love Venice as a local cafe says “where art meets crime”. There no sense of it being a cookie cutter Los Angeles suburb there a great mix of people, cafes, second hand shops, bars and all by a fabulous beach.

Now if I was to move again, I would think about Culver City, Mid- Wilshire/ Fairfax area or West Hollywood. I would love to live near Sunset Boulevard in Silverlake but it is just too far from the beach and airport. I am not brave enough to live downtown and the amenities just aren’t there. I don’t get Santa Monica – too many people and too many high street shops.

So down to business- where to find a house:

I found our first house on craigs list I think a lot of agents put houses there as well as other places. Be quick the places go fast. I was lucky to meet the owner and she accepted my application without US references.

We found our current house via  Sabbatical homes  - the advantage of this site is that the houses are often are furnished which meant we could get a bigger joint. It is pretty hit and miss.

Local estate agents are worth speaking to as they can act as a broker and find you a house here is one for Venice.

The other site I like is the multiple listing services which has a watered down version of the site that the agents use. The other advantage is that it is a good way to get to know the rental market in various suburbs.

Good luck!

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Hollywood Forever Cemetery- Day of the Dead

Posted on November 2, 2007 by | 1 Comment

Last year I wanted to go but was overwhelmed by the thought of the drive. This happens a lot to me in LA, I think about driving downtown or to Pasadena and then I think about facing the traffic – will it be worth it?

But this year I was determined brave the journey to experience this annual event. I roped in six others and with military planning and hand drawn maps we headed to the Day of the Dead celebrations in Hollywood – and it was most definitely worth the effort.

The Day of the Dead is a Mexican festival to honour and celebrate of the lives of the deceased. The celebration in Los Angeles is one of the bigger ones outside of Mexico. It was one of the most original and vibrant events I have ever seen. I loved the Mexican iconography and I was very moved to see the beautiful altars that had been created to celebrate heroes and family members.

Main Stage

The main stage

Two family members created an altar of all the things their lost ones had loved.

one of the altars

As we left the road was blocked by this car – I am not sure he will be quite so pleased he made the effort. (no one was seriously hurt)

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Singapore Girl is Hip to the Drive

Posted on October 22, 2007 by | 1 Comment

Singapore is hardly the most fashionable or stylish place on earth, but have to give it full marks for trying.

Last week a CD-like package arrived in my mailbox (the physical one out the front of my house that is).  It was a slickly produced pocket of information about … would you believe it … the new KPE Expressway that is to open in a few days time.

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The ‘CD’ that arrived in the mail

Promoting itself as “Sounds on the Underground” it contained the lyrics for a series of songs commissioned by, that doyen of cool, the Land Transport Authority.  Performed by what are presumably Singapore’s hottest young artists, titles of the songs include “Look at the Signs”, “Turn on Your Headlights” and “Don’t Change That Tyre”. (Hilarious given the poverty of driving skills here – but that is food for another post).

A visit to the website (http://www.kpeunderground.sg/) demonstrated the same graphic sophistication and what sounded like pretty good mood electronica.

It seems so bizarrely Singaporean.  Here is another fantastic new infrastructure project for the island (as I write I am reminded of the horrors of arriving in Japan; James is still stuck in traffic, 2½ hours after landing in Tokyo).  And the promotional material is a combination of earnest civic-minded self-improvement with a desire to transform the image of Singa-bore into a modern, sophisticated urban metropolis.

Weird certainly, but it works for me. Like I said, full marks for trying …

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Escaping Los Angeles to the Joshua Tree

Posted on October 18, 2007 by | 1 Comment

One of the best things about living in LA is the number of fabulous places you can escape to on weekends. And boy I need to escape regularly – the longer I stay without a break the more I believe I should do an hour of cardio a day, that carbs after 3pm are a disaster and $10 for a sandwich is the going rate.

Last weekend we went to the desert and stayed in Josuha Tree (‘Josh’ to the locals) . I can throughly recommend Spin and Margie’s hideaway for easy pleasant accommodation near the National Park. On Saturday we took a guided walk though the park with local guide Cal. The guided walk was one of my SoCal highlights.

Here are some of the photos:
The begining of the walk.

The Joshua Trees only grow 10 cm a year

Take the ancient ink blot test – a porpoise?

I see a tortoise here…

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Great NY Website

Posted on October 12, 2007 by | Leave a comment

If you can’t be in NY this is the next best thing – gives you insight into what New Yorkers really talk about – trust me some of the things I have herd on my subway rides and city strolls have stopped me in my tracks.  In a city where you are never really alone it is crazy what people will talk about…. careful though it can be addicting.

http://www.overheardinnewyork.com/

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The sun rising over Venice

Posted on October 12, 2007 by | 1 Comment

This was the view from my bedroom window this morning.

I have a good feeling about today.

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Singapore Girl in Treacherous Waters

Posted on October 11, 2007 by | Leave a comment

I can’t believe she crashed into me again. It has to be at least twice today.

I love swimming at our local Toa Payoh Swimming pool. We tend to go on Saturday mornings as a family, James and I taking turns for a big long swim while the other plays with the kids in the shallower pools.

I love the fierce swim teachers barking to the kids in Mandarin or Singlish – “keep head down ok lah” or “both arm, both arm ay”. The school kids in their Disney character pajamas. Why the PJ’s? We have no idea, something to do with life saving perhaps. And the delicious corn in the styrofoam cups we all share after a big swim – half of which tends to end up on the none too clean table and then back in the cup for further consumption, but that’s kids for you isn’t it?

Corn & 100+

Corn and 100 Plus: the perfect post swim snack

It is dangerous though, very dangerous at times. The Singaporeans do not seem to share my keenly developed Australian sense of pool etiquette (keep in your lane, circle swimming, give way to faster swimmers etc). No it is pretty much a no-holes barred, swim wherever you like, jungle out there.

You splash along, constantly having to have your wits about you. Craning your neck looking for on coming traffic, or the odd granny in very dark goggles gliding diagonally in your peripheral view.

Worst of all are those teams of school kids in pajamas, swimming ACROSS the deep end of the pool perpendicular to everyone else. I feel a little like I’m in Frogger, moving in jerky, stop-start movements for the last 5m of the pool. Hardly easy when you are in over your head. Needless to say the odd one crashes in to me, and I’m left with an arm or leg that just won’t quite behave for the next lap or so, increasing my chances of being hit the next time around …

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