Innit pretty

porchswing
Originally uploaded by stevenjude.

Back to a New York City that's starting a low simmer in the first sun of the season - 24C this weekend, 28C to start the week and firm in the knowledge that I'm about over all that is urban. That doesn't mean that I want a catalogue paint job porch (heaven forend) but a house, a car, a job - that doesn't seem an enormous amount to have as an ambition.

Anyway having done the gym this morning and too big a lunch an hour ago it feels as though it's about time I dragged an overheated dog around the park...

Another sunny day...

barsign
Originally uploaded by stevenjude.

I do like the sunshine it puts a different sheen on the day doesn't it? Nothing quite like waking up in a strange bed, showering with unfamiar soap, listen to Alec Baldwin berate his daughter on a TV News morning show and then heading up to print out NWA boarding passes and feast on a breakfast made by somebody else. Gladdens the heart and soothes the soul it does. At least that's what I tell myself. Test driving Hondas today - all things good. Hurrah!

UM Rocks

Snow on State Street
Originally uploaded by gsgeorge.

Ann Arbor. The sun shines. The air is clean. Spring envelopes you in its optimistic embrace. Everywhere there are university buildings and cute coffee shops and in them young people bringing energy, cheer and enough money to have the place feel as though it's thriving. It's a Disney America. Beautiful, peaceful, quiet and yet with entertainment on every corner. All of the serene fecundity of Wappinger's Falls, some of the culture and verve of New York. If I had a green card I'd be knocking on doors right now - trying to figure out a way to get here before Jude does (in September); but of course I don't and I do rather like the people that I work for at he moment. Of course it might just be the weather speaking. But be not surprised if 12 months from now you don't see me working remotely from MI....

The dollar is officially crap

Dollar Dollar Bill Y'all
Originally uploaded by katieeeeeeeeee.

So the dollar is now worth 50p. Yup we finally crossed the $2 to the GBP mark yesterday making trips to the UK frighteningly expensive and marking New York down as a place ripe for the maurading. It's been 15 years since the dollar was as low and I have to say that seeing the pound value of my salary drop by 20% based on currency exchange is just horrible.

We'll be staying in dollar friendly countries for the foreseeable future therefore. We are however getting on a plane soon and heading for Ann Arbor, MI where Jude has accepted a job and I have become excited by the prospect of owning a car again - all be it in absentia. I'll not bore you with the car thing again but the list (after lots of excel, lots of formula and 2 days of fact digging) looks like this

1. Honda Civic Hybrid (great choice but a saloon)
2. Toyota Yaris (1.5l, 109bhp but nasty interior - only $11k though)
3. Toyota Prius (the greeny's hybrid)
4. Nissan Altima Hybrid (the non-greeny's hybrid)
5. Honda Fit (again 1.5l, 110 bhp, endless seat configurations, tiny)


Will drive the Civic and the Prius while we're away. It'll be good to take a break from the city, from arranging the 3 monthly scans, from the rain and from dental treatment and from the incessant demands of the Blackberry

Scramble

11-9-06
Originally uploaded by chrismaverick.

My new client has pushed the start date of our project forward - to better accomodate a big meeting at the other end of the process. So today sees me scrambling to get everything in place in a way that's both timely and tidy. It's actually all rather exciting. We have the time, the money and the freedom to get this one stunningly right. It's a great process designed to free people up from the voices in their heads that constantly question each and every idea and to encourage them to charge in the direction of their whims and fancies and to see where it takes them.

We do this by offering the safety net of regular meetings where we sit down and judge all that we've done against some pretty stringent criteria. The idea is that knowing that there's a forum to raise eyebrows and objections will free people up from that everyday behavior of checking mentally whether what they're doing is sensible and prudent and all of those Gordon Brown words.

It's going to be great - I woke up excited but it's also going to be a scramble toward the first meeting. I'm out for three days, the guy running the thing is out for a week after that and we have out first big session in a little over two weeks.

I just went from excited to stomach churning. This is good.

before the rain came

thebar
Originally uploaded by stevenjude.

the rain here is just horrible - and it keeps coming, wave after wave after wave - almost literally. It's just curl up in a ball and eat toast whilst watching re-runs awful. Which reminds me - scans. Must call hospital. More later

A day in the sun

Spent yesterday on a bit of a photo safari around Williamsburg - and was lured into a local bar by the sight of a man in kilt and Arran sweater talking with a women in, well not very much. Turns out it was 'open to all art class' day and that even I - clod with camera was welcome to join. Hurrah! I promised the model that I'd not post anything that she hadn't seen and approved - so have a folder heaving and straining with pics that I really want to share, but can't yet. This isn't one of the better pics, but it's one of the few that's approved to date. More later. Oh I do love living in the city.