Gone to America

My sister Eleanor and her friend Ellen stayed with me last week. They arrived last Saturday at varying times and departed on Friday in the afternoon. They shared my pull out sofabed, which apparently is as comfortable as I had hoped. I would have given them my bed so that …

My sister Eleanor and her friend Ellen stayed with me last week. They arrived last Saturday at varying times and departed on Friday in the afternoon. They shared my pull out sofabed, which apparently is as comfortable as I had hoped. I would have given them my bed so that I wouldn’t have had to wake them each morning as I went to work, but my bed is really too small for two people. I could have given Eleanor the bed and slept with Ellen on the sofabed, but I wouldn’t want to infuriate her brother, my old schoolfriend Owen, who would doubtless have felt compelled to fly over to defend her honour.

Eleanor arrived first. Cruelly, she landed in Newark airport around noon. This meant that I had to discipline myself on Friday night so as to be able to be awake enough to get to the airport. I didn’t quite succeed in being as disciplined as I might have wished, but I made it only a few minutes late. If she had had the basic human decency to arrive at a more reasonable hour both myself and my apartment would have been a lot cleaner.

I introduced her to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority Subway System, Harlem and my local supermarket. She settled in by watching an episode House I had DVRed while I had a rejuvenating shower. We caught up while waiting for Ellen arrive, which she did at the much more reasonable hour of 9pm. We ordered some Chinese food and retired to bed. This was more or less the pattern. Neither Eleanor nor Ellen were drinking for various reasons. They were jet lagged and had active days, so they were tired in the evenings and were not that keen on going out. They arrived on a Saturday night and left on a Friday afternoon, so they didn’t get a weekend. If Monday hadn’t been President’s Day I probably would hardly have seen them at all! I consider this poor planning, but Eleanor insisted that she didn’t want to be jetlagged in her job on Monday morning so she needed the weekend at home to recover.

We are very different people.

On Sunday we went walking. We took advantage of my proximity to Central Park and wandered through from the Northwest corner to the Guggenheim. We took that in then headed South, stopping briefly for a hideously expensive lunch on Madison Avenue. We forewent the Metropolitan Museum of Art, preferring the more selective charms of the Frick Collection. I had never been to the Frick before and I was very impressed. Great place. After that we strolled across the Park to Strawberry Fields and had a look at the Dakota, then hopped on the C train and headed home. We ate at Spoonbread’s around the corner. Soul food, yum.

Monday was President’s Day and a R* holiday, but I had to go in anyway for irritating reasons. It was only for a couple of hours, but enough to break up the day. I took Eleanor and Ellen to Union Square. We walked up a bit to have a look at the Flatiron building. It’s a very picturesque structure usually, but it was encased in scaffolding which diminished the effect somewhat. We walked back to Union Square. On the way I was able to point out such landmarks as Where I Bought My Bed, Where I Bought My Sofabed, and Where I Bought My Rug. We spent a little time in the Barnes and Noble before I had to head down along Broadway to Houston and work. I abandoned Ellen and Eleanor outside The Strand and went on ahead.

I got in to work and informed my boss Eli that the price of my giving up some of my holiday was that he would have to buy lunch for the three of us – four of us, including him. He agreed. It was actually quite a struggle to find a delivery place that would meet everybody’s dietary requirements. We settled on Italian. It was a pleasant lunch. They got to see my workspace, and even watch me work a little. Eli very kindly provided them with elastic bands to flick at me while I was trying to concentrate, which was much appreciated.

When I was done we went for a walk through Chinatown, which is always worth seeing. I got a bit lost as I always do down there. We went into one of the Malls in search of a bathroom. The basement of that mall was about as deep into Chinatown as I’ve ever been. It’s like an entirley different country. We stood out. Afterwards We on walked down to ground zero. I know it sounds like I made them walk a lot, and I did, but you have to in Manhattan. It’s the best way to see the city and get your bearings. I think so anyway – I’m not sure if they agreed!

After a bit of shopping in Century21 we took the subway out to Sunnyside. Vanessa was in London at the time but we met up with Julian and Michael for a few pints and a Romanian meal. They didn’t get to Brooklyn, but at least they left Manhattan – most tourists don’t. After that I was back in work full time, so a full account of the rest of their visit will have to come from another source. We had a meal with Vanessa and Young Min, another in Katz’s Deli, and another in Angus McIndoe’s after seeing Spamalot. That was actually the first time I’ve ever been in there without seeing someone famous, but what can you do? (For the record, the list: Mel Brooks, Matthew Broderick, Barry Manilow, David Hyde Pierce and the main cast of the musical 42nd Street). Spamalot was amusing. We had seats in the third row, which was close enough to be spit on. Luckily, we weren’t.

It was a short visit, and they didn’t really get to meet many of my friends or see a lot of stuff. I don’t see Eleanor very often. My parents have come over here twice, for two weeks at a time. I see her at Christmas, but she splits it with her husband’s family so it’s never for long. She’s my only sibling, two years younger than me and, as I’ve said, we’re very different people. She lives in a small town in England with her husband, working as an English teacher. I live on my own in New York City working for a controversial video game company.

Family is strange. I don’t know how I feel a lot of the time. I don’t miss Dublin. I don’t miss Ireland. It’s small and irritating. I read things like this and the pettiness and insularity of it all embarrasses me. Ireland is getting more cosmopolitan by the day, I’m told, but there’s a lot of intense parochiality about the place. But in a lot of ways I’m alone here, and that’s not good either. Ah, the emigrant’s lament.

Anyway, there was a plant waiting for me when I got home on Friday night, as well as some nice shot glasses and a small pair of jeans that I’m fairly sure were not left deliberately. The plant is a nice feminine gift in my TV, sound system and computer dominated apartment. I wonder how long it will last. It’s supposed to be easy to look after. I saw that the soil was dry so I took the obvious step of watering it, then I looked it up on the internet for other care tips and saw that it is not supposed to be watered in the winter months. I don’t know if this is going to work out. I’ve left it where it will get some sun and I promise I won’t water it again, but there are some brown edges on some of the leaves already. I’ll put up photographs to chart it’s progress. Maybe I’ll even make it a sidebar. If there are any gardenologists out there you can give me advice – it’s a Jade Plant, Crassula Argentea, and I shall be calling it Duncan.

I invite Ellen and Eleanor to submit their own versions of events. Fill in the blanks, correct misconceptions, provide illuminating additional News. Email them to me and I’ll put the up, censoring where necessary. Although I doubt it will be necessary. You were very sedate guests as it goes.

It seems to be visiting season. Tomorrow I’m going to be meeting up with Alan and Tom from Ardmore Sound who will be in town, and on the 1oth of March a couple of friends will have a mivie in a festival here. I hope they’ll accompany it. Even this weekend there were a some people from Dublin in town on a birhday rip, but they never quite got it together to meet up with me. Anyway, come one come all. I’ll probably disrupt my bi-weekly posting routine next week to put up my Oscar “predictions”. I hope nobody minds.

Two posts in two days! What can this mean!

Well, nothing. I just upgraded to Wordpress version 2.01 and I’m testing it out. This has broken several things – Polls, Galleries and the Subscribe function. Some of these will be fixed quickly, others not at all. I’m not sure which is …

Two posts in two days! What can this mean!

Well, nothing. I just upgraded to Wordpress version 2.01 and I’m testing it out. This has broken several things – Polls, Galleries and the Subscribe function. Some of these will be fixed quickly, others not at all. I’m not sure which is which. The only reason I did it was to avoid cleaning my apartment, in which it has been successful.

In order that this post will have some non-tech content I shall provide below a picture taken from my bedroom window. It was quite warm yesterday.

I hadn’t planned on hitting thirty-one. In fact, I seem to remember that I had at some point set twenty-nine as the age beyond which I was not prepared to go. Unfortunately, time has once again taken no heed of my wishes and I had another birthday. Last Sunday.

I didn’t …

I hadn’t planned on hitting thirty-one. In fact, I seem to remember that I had at some point set twenty-nine as the age beyond which I was not prepared to go. Unfortunately, time has once again taken no heed of my wishes and I had another birthday. Last Sunday.

I didn’t do much about it. A few of my friends are away, in Ethiopia or Ireland or wherever, and it was Superbowl Sunday which would have overshadowed any serious pub going. For the curious, I’m pretty sure one of the teams beat the other. I had a fairly quiet day, although I did get quite a lot drunker than I had planned.

I started by having brunch with Vanessa (I’d link to her blog but she hasn’t updated since August 2005) in the West Village – very pleasant. After the brunch we headed to Magnolia to buy some cupcakes, inspired by the Lazy Sunday Rap. But there was a queue, so we went to the bookshop across the street and browsed.

Vanessa has been very taxed of late what with her job and her education. She has to do a lot of studying and paper writing and such, so her pleasurable reading has suffered. I’ve been suggesting that she get herself some PG Wodehouse, but it’s not as plentiful here as it is back home. They had a couple, but no Jeeves which I would consider an essential starting point. We headed up to The Strand, but they didn’t have any either.

Vanessa went home. I was wondering what to do with myself when I got a call from Hilary Kehoe. She was in Williamsburg and wanted to know if I was about. I was in Union Square which is just a short trip on the L from there, so she came and met me. I told her it was my birthday and she insisted on taking me for a drink. I didn’t protest too much.

I’d only met Hilary once before, but we’d spoken and emailed. She originally contacted me when she arrived over from Dublin – Paul Moore of Ardmore Sound had given her my number. She’s following a similar trajectory to myself: Green Card in the Lottery, abandon career, give New York a whirl. The first time we met she’d literally only been her a few days. I gave her all the benefit of my experience, about how it takes a long time to find your feet, the jobs will come if you’re patient but it can take a long time etc. Of course, she completely turned it all upside-down by almost immediately getting a job on an Uma Thurman film.

We had never met in Ireland, although we had worked on at least one of the same projects. She’s in production and I’m in post so it’s not surprising we had never crossed paths. We know people in common, so she has recent news from home. It’s nice to hear the industry gossip. I’d heard a little while I was home over Christmas but it wasn’t my focus.

So she got me nicely toasted. You can’t beat a bit of drinking in the afternoon. I didn’t drink a lot, but it got me. I actually hadn’t really been drunk since returning from Ireland. I wasn’t too bad, just a little merry. I left her to meet up with Young Min for dinner uptown – a very nice Thai meal. Another couple of beers with dinner, then we went to a bar for a couple more. I guess I got home around 10pm, pleasantly intoxicated. So, a nice day – three dates, I guess, although I didn’t make out with any of them.

I wasn’t too hungover the next morning. There was cake in the afternoon. There’s always cake for employees’ birthdays. They tried to make it a surprise, but everybody knows it’s coming. Coincidentally, Young Min was there – she was helping us out by shouting loudly in Korean for reasons I can’t go into. She got to see my coworkers sing me Happy Birthday and have a slice. There have been a lot of birthdays recently in work – it’s getting positively unhealthy. Just this week there was me on Monday, Ian on Wednesday and Paul on Thursday. I suspect that the R* HR department has a secret policy of favouring Aquarians when jobs come up.

Ian (also 31) didn’t do what I did. There was drinking. This was last night. Before I headed along there I met up with Maeve O’Boyle. I had known Maeve about five or six years ago. She took a Screen Training Ireland course I was co-tutoring in assistant sound editing, and then worked on feature with us in Ardmore Sound. She had lived in NYC before taking the course, and headed back here shortly after the feature was done. She was back in Ireland last year, heard that I was here, found this page and got in touch.

I met with her in Milano’s on Houston. She was meeting a couple of her former employers, Patrick Farrelly and Kate O’Callaghan. We all had a nice Italian dinner (no food poisoning) and then Maeve came with me to Gstaad to join in Ian’s celebrations. It turns out that she knows my boss Eli and m’colleague Paul from way back, from before I met her. She hadn’t seen Eli for about three years so they were able to catch up. Small world.

Today I have done nothing but write this. Tomorrow I will clean my apartment in anticipation of my sister Eleanor and her friend Ellen’s visit. It’s supposed to snow heavily tonight. Actually, I just looked out my window and it’s started. Lightly at the moment, but that will probably change. Is our exceptionally mild spell over?