“One belongs to New York instantly, one belongs to it as much in five minutes as in five years”

Hello everybody!

I am so sorry that I have not written anything on my blob for a long time but I have been rather busy. After finishing work at MJF I went to Hockey Camp (as you should know from reading this blob) for 5 weeks and after that my other half came over to visit and I spent the subsequent, and therefore previous, 4 weeks relaxing and traveling (i.e. not working).

What have I been up to, you may ask? Well, I'm glad you did. I basically spent most of my time relaxing and seeing parts of Toronto I like and others that I had never seen. I went to a screening at the After Dark Film Festival at Bloor Cinema of Robogeisha, a bizarre SciFi film featuring a geisha who becomes more and more android-ee and kills lots of weird men in very strange ways. I was really weird but very funny.

I was taken to dinner on the 51st (?) floor of a building in Toronto where we could see the skyline as it got dark. The food was nice and the view was incredible.

I went thrift store shopping more than ever and got a few bargains; I'm really stocking up on woollen monstrosities, ready for the harsh winter (he says hoping). The hot weather is driving me mad and I want it to stop. No one should have to wear shorts and flip-flops for 8 weeks straight.

Then a few weeks ago we went to New York. N'ork is the one place that I have wanted to visit for as long as I can remember. Through books and film and television and music it has become synonymous with glamour, intrigue, excitement, opportunity, potential, buzz, avant garde, towering and the ultimate city on earth in many ways. I went there not so much with expectations but rather a vortex of 'feelings', almost knowing what it would be like before I got there. I was pretty much on the money. It is incredible. It is magical. It is one of the best cities I have ever been to. The most amazing part about N'ork is that as soon as you arrive and get amongst it's rising rectangles and stretching streets you feel as though there's nowhere else you'd rather be and there's nowhere else you should be. It's very strange. It's not like one is instantly at home there but there is an overwhelming familiarity that floods the brain when walking through movie scenes and drifting between lyrics of songs. I don't meant to sound overly romantic or rose-tinty about the place but it truly is a spectacle and best of all I didn't find it dirty, rude, intimidating, messy or unfriendly. Just the opposite. It's kinetic and I want to live there. I can't. Damn.

Here's what I did there:

1. Tuesday: Arrival in the evening after a 10 hour bus journey. Dan and I stayed with some friends of his family just off Central Park.
2. Wednesday: We walked to Central Park and had a mooch around (it is massive). From there we wandered to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Guggenheim, walked down 5th and Madison Avenues to Times Square. It is good. Like a higher, bigger version of Leicester Square. On the way my favourite building was playing hide 'n' seek with me, the cheeky scamp! The Chrysler kept peeking round corners at me. We visited ToysRus (there's a T Rex in there and loads of Lego!). We walked back up to the apartment we were staying in, dropping by the American Museum of Natural History on the way and saw some animals and dinosaurs. Nice.
3. Thursday: We went to Staten Island using the free ferry and saw the Statue of Liberty and the skyline on the way. We got off the ferry and immediately back on and went back. From the Southern-most tip of Manhattan we walked up to Ground Zero (basically a huge construction site) and had a pizza nearby. Then we walked to/through China Town and Little Italy. The former was a bit shabby and oppressive but the latter was lovely and I wanted to eat there but we were cooked dinner that evening. Cheese, wine, pasta, wine, cocktails, corn on the cob, wine, salad, wine and soup. And wine. Nom, nom, nom.
4. Friday: Rockerfeller! We went to the newly opened Lego shop where I bought some Lego (obviously). Then it was up 60 floors to the top of the building for incredible 360 degree views across the city. We debated this and it was our single most lavish expense ($20) but it was awesome. The Empire State Building truly has to be seen. It comes in at number 2 Then we went to the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and had an ace time looking at arty fings and that. I am well cultured. I think I had a bagel for dinner that night. It was quite late.
5. Saturday: Flea Market. Wow. Lots of lovely things. Probably the only time I regretted not having loads of cash to splash (there was a really nice tea towel for example...) but I did buy a German copy of The Little Prince from the '60s and Dan bought some old printing blocks wiv fancy geezers on 'em. I then visited my third favourite building in the city, the Flatiron building. It. Is. Narrow. Then we had a look around the Village and saw Grace's office (Will & Grace). We were taken out for dinner (a lovely Indian) which was dericious and nommers.
6. Sunday: What a day. We went to Brooklyn (I desperately want to live there) and attended a free gig by the water looking over at the Manhattan skyline. All week we'd had hot muggy days and sunshine and blue skies. Not Sunday. Of course not Sunday: we were at an open air gig! We queued for 2 hours in torrential rain (which held up the gig even more) and although we both had brollies we got soaked. It was the worst weather I have ever experienced in North America to date, fact-fans. Once we got in we reveled in the views of Manhattan and watched all the warm-up acts: Telephone, Suzann and Kid Sister. Then the headliners (who we were there to see), Chromeo, came on and were amazing. The rain pretty much stayed 'threatening' as opposed to 'pissing' so it was perfectly fine. After this and 8 hours of dampness and feet pressure we grabbed a bagel in Brooklyn and then went back to the apartment, shattered.
7. Monday: Home. Sadface.

So that was N'ork. It was ace. Toronto felt so small afterwards. And calm. And provincial. But also homey in a way. Once back there was more relaxing and then job hunting to be done. I saw Scott Pilgrim (which I thoroughly enjoyed). Dan left a few days ago which was sad but it was a lovely time had by all. I managed to get a job unsettlingly quickly (for a Nuclear Waste Organisation, weirdly) and start that on Tuesday.

In other news I have plopped my Lego and button badges into a little retro/vintage store near where I live and I have just found out that a funky (and very tasty) diner near the aforementioned store would like to display my photographic images (previously seen in the Sleeping Giant Gallery).

Oh! Ceri and I have been approved and now trained to volunteer for TIFF (Toronto International Film Festival). Ceri will be doing general things at the World Cinema screen and I shall be doing the same thing at the Press & Industry screens. We're very excited and there are some groovy films playing this year that we should get into.

I think that's it, everyone. This has been a well long post so you should be happy! Don't moan at me again, pleasethanks.

Is everyone ok? I'd like to hear what you're all up to. It's hard to ask you all individually so if you ever fancy dropping me a message I would likely well up with honour and then cry for hours about it. Honest.

I have added all my N'ork pictures (not really all, but possibly the only ones you lot will be bothered about) onto Flickr. Have a look, yeah? They are HERE! (click on the word 'here')

: )