Braving the cold

I’ve mentioned before that I’m not much of a sports fan, but I surprised myself by getting really into The Knicks game on Friday night. It was a great game, although I wasn’t too impressed with them in the first quarter when they were 14points down against the Toronto Raptors. Pht!! They staged a good come back though, finally winning 103 to 99. My favourite Knicks player to watch was #4. He was only 5ft 9, but he was a feisty little bugger, very nimble, it was like watching a jack Russell terrier taking on a bunch of Great Danes. Since the game started at 7.30pm I was hoping to be out by 9.30pm since D and I had tickets to see Eddie Izzard at the Union Square theater at 10.30pm, but no such luck. It’s amazing how a game that takes only an hour can drag on for 2.5hours. Start, stop, start, stop. Are all those time outs completely necessary? I don’t bloody think so. GET ON WITH IT!!!!!! They waste so much time in these games, if they're not starting and stopping they're having marriage proposals at half time. There were two such proposals last night. The first couple were quite glamorous. They were both dressed to the nines and clearly on a special night out in a…um…sweaty sports stadium. Not my idea of a romantic night out, but to each her own, perhaps she’s a big sports fan. She seemed quite taken aback when the camera approached and her boyfriend got down on one knee and proffered her the ring. She nodded and then grabbed him for a full on Hollywood style snog as everyone around them stood and cheered.

The second proposal couldn’t have been more different. The ‘Will You Marry Me’ message appeared briefly on the scoreboard and then cut to an awkward looking guy clumsily thrusting a ring box towards his girlfriend who, looking stunned and embarrassed by the whole thing, grabbed the ring and shoved it on her finger without so much as a glance in the direction of her boyfriend.

It was kind of endearing and I could certainly empathise. Were this to happen to me I think my reaction would be more akin to the second woman’s than the first. I’d be absolutely mortified, but then I have a tendency to shun the spotlight. I used to absolutely hate it when Gobshite would coerce me to go for dinner with him at the restaurant he managed - can you believe that on his nights off he wanted to eat at the restaurant he worked at - and half the staff would leave the kitchen to come and have a nosy at me. I realise he had the sweetest intentions of wanting to show me off to his friends, but he never appreciated how utterly uncomfortable it made me. I felt as if I was dining in a goldfish bowl. I’m not shy by any stretch of the imagination, but I'm not one to relish the limelight. In the musical of my own life, I’d be in the chorus line ;-)

At the start of the 3rd quarter a couple of us went to get beers and I noticed marriage proposal guy #2 was stood behind us in the queue. As we left I heard him place his order…

His accent was unmistakably British!!

Ha. That explained everything. While we certainly have our fair share of fame hungry trollops – Jodie Marsh anyone – we definitely have a well deserved reputation for being a more reserved nation.

D and I had to miss the last 4minutes of the game to dash downtown to see Eddie Izzard only to wait for 30minutes to pick up our tickets. I have to say the show was quite disappointing, he was funny, but the material seemed to be a rehash of previous stuff I’ve seen on his DVDs and while his delivery of that material is funny it would have been better if he'd done something completely different, however I still enjoyed the performance. It was close to 1am by the time we left the theatre, but poor D had to head back into work for another 3 or 4hours to complete a client deliverable and was getting it in the neck from the account team, this despite the fact they hadn’t requested the work until after official office hours on Thursday and required the information by first thing Saturday morning.

Yes, by Saturday!!! As in the weekend!! The weekend people!! How obnoxious is that?

Excuse my language, but I have to say I am bloody sick of people seemingly assuming that all we do in our department is push a fucking button and hey presto, there’s your results. You need a maths degree to work in our department for chrissakes, it’s a bit more fucking complicated and time consuming than button pushing. Grrrrrrr!!!!!

For once I haven’t had work hanging over my head this weekend, my time has been my own to waste, so I walked the 5 or 6 miles down to the west village to stock up on British basics at Myers of Keswick. Namely cans of Heinz tomato soup and walnut whips. By the way how weird is it that Heinz, an American company, doesn’t sell canned soups in the US? At least not in New York, so I pay $2.95 for a 400g tin at the English grocery store in the village. The trip was more an excuse to walk than anything, I love to walk around New York, the destination isn’t really important. Buying Heinz tomato soup from Myers of Keswick was just an excuse to get out and about and shake off the cobwebs. If I can spare the time I’ll walk for hours on end around New York for no reason whatsoever. I was the same when I lived in London and it’s why I know both cities so well. One of the reasons I liked North Carolina Bill so much was his eagerness to walk around New York for no real reason whatsoever. Walking is usually a solitary activity for me, but every once in a while it’s nice to have like minded company on my jaunts around the city.

It wasn’t the warmest of weather today, but bearable with enough layers. I find the cold in New York to be completely different to the cold in England. The temperature may drop further down the thermometer in New York, but here I find that if I wear enough layers I can walk around without too many problems. However in England the climate is damper so even though it doesn’t get as cold, it tends to seep through your layers and chill you to the bone. Brrrrr!!!

Tonight I watched the 2007 Palme D’Or winning movie “4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days” on pay per view. The film tells the story of two college roommates who try to arrange an illegal abortion for one of them, during the communist regime of Nicolae Ceaucescu in the late 1980s.

Phew!!

Harrowing!!

It’s an amazing film, but not exactly light hearted fare, it was intense, heart wrenching. One of those films where you breath a huge sigh as the credits roll, but so engrossing that until it ends you don’t even realise you’re holding your breath. I had to lighten up by watching Zoolander after it had ended.