Hope you’re having a nice weekend. Mine has been very nice and relaxing so far, I had a lovely evening of ‘cherish time’ with Tel Aviv last night, who, knowing I frequently check the keywords driving traffic to my blog, has taken to manipulating my search terms to proffer invitations to meet, such as this one from Thursday…
"tel aviv would like to meet you on friday fishwithoutbicycle".
Cute Tel Aviv, very cute. Very inventive :-)
Then, this afternoon, I met Jacqui for a leisurely brunch at Public restaurant on
Surprisingly for this trip I haven’t been anything close to my typically uber-organised pre-vacation self. Usually I’m the one that’s read all the guide books, sorted the hotels, made a list of the clothes I need to take, washed and ironed everything and laid them out ready for packing into my suitcase a whole week before I go - hey, don’t mock the afflicted, I can’t help myself, I was a Girl Guide - however, not this time around. This time Melissa and I have both been so busy with work we decided the only way not to explode in a ball of stress was to take a more casual approach and not try and organise everything before we go, so other than having somewhere to stay for the first few days in Santiago we planned to book everything once we got to Chile.
Anyone who knows me will be shocked to hear this – in fact that thunk you just heard is my friend Miles fainting to the floor – since I’m such a planner at heart and if there’s one thing I like to have sorted on a trip to foreign parts, it’s where I’m going to be resting my head of an evening. I’m just not someone willing to take the risk of booking hotels on arrival, since it would be my luck to discover the world’s biggest conference is in town and the only rooms available are in some dilapidated, bug infested hotel in the dodgiest neighbourhood. Call me high maintenance if you will, but I like to stay in a centrally located, roach-free room with a working hair dryer. However this time I just didn’t have time to worry about it, so I allowed the vacation to creep closer and tried not to pay it too much mind; that is until a phone call with my client contact, Patricia, this past Tuesday.
I’ve worked with Patricia sporadically for about 3 or 4 years. She’s a very nice woman, but very focused on the job, she’s not a client who goes in for much personal chit chat, but gets straight down to business. Even though I’ve known her for a while and love working with her I don’t know an awful lot about her on a personal level, so it came as a fortuitous surprise on Tuesday to discover that she’s from Chile, and on finding out that I’m heading to her home country on vacation in a few days, got very excited and started giving me recommendations of places to visit in Santiago and Patagonia, with the warning "whatever you do don't go to Patagonia without booking hotels, or any tours you want to do of the national parks in advance. If you don’t have it booked when you arrive there, they'll see you as desperate tourists and rip you off. It will cost you a fortune"
Hmmmmm!! Time to start doing a bit more research, and as my conversation with Patricia progressed I realised that organising accommodation wasn’t the only way in which I was unprepared…
PATRICIA: Are you planning to go to Torres Del Paine?
ME: Yes, we're thinking of hiring a car and driving up to Puerto Natales and using the town as a base for exploring.
PATRICIA: You should organise your car hire when you’re in
ME: Um….warm outdoor clothing. Isn’t it spring in
PATRICIA: Yes, but you’ll need outdoor clothing, ideally waterproofs since even in spring there’s a chance of snow. It can snow there even in summer.
ME: It can snow in summer?
PATRICIA: Yes, occasionally. Make sure you take lots of layers as it can feel really cold in Torres Del Paine whatever time of year you’re there, because the winds blow in from
WHAT!!!! It’s so windy the trees grow SIDEWAYS!!!!
Gulp. Suddenly I wasn't looking forward to my inevitably turbulent flight down to
Patricia went on to ask if I had a good pair of hiking boots. Hiking boots!! Clearly the woman doesn’t know me at all. I don't do hiking boots. Cute, trendy leisure shoes for walking around
However Patricia spooked me sufficiently that when we’d finished chatting I immediately went to Zappos.com to order
As of Thursday I’m the proud owner of a cosy black jacket, a snugly pair of black fleecy Patagonia brand pants to keep me warm against the Antarctic winds - $75 for fleecey trousers, can you believe that? They’d better bloody launder themselves for that price – and a pair of black Italian hiking boots - yes, even my hiking boots have to be Italian, I can’t help it, I don’t believe in skimping on shoes. They’ve been taking the piss out of me big time at work for ordering everything in black, claiming that even in the wilds of Patagonia I’ll still be dressed like a New Yorker. Pht, so what!! Just because there’ll only be a few pigeons to see me doesn’t mean I can’t be a little stylish now does it? No!! Besides, if I buy everything in black I’ll be able to wear it when it snows in
I also heeded Patricia’s warning and made inquiries into hotels and tours, in fact the whole week has been one big internet shopping and vacation booking frenzy, with some work thrown in for good measure. I've got the trip to the Penguin sanctuary sorted, all the hotels – nice looking ones too with hairdryers. We're just waiting on confirmation of a 2 day tour of Torres Del Paine and Bernard O'Higgins - very Chilean sounding is ol’ Bernie O'Higgins eh? - National Parks and we’ll be all set!!
Okay, I’ll admit the title of this post is sooooooo lame, unfortunately I can’t do any better I’m overworked and lacking inspiration. Nine days to my hols and counting!! Whoo hoo!!!
So, a happy Halloween to you, I hope, unlike me, you’re going to do something fun tonight. I've been debating the merits of stopping by the Halloween parade in the village this evening, but quite frankly I don’t think I can be arsed. I’ve not been sleeping well this week so I’m in too crabby a mood to deal with the crowds, however if you are ever in New York on Halloween and of a sunnier disposition than I am at this moment then I definitely recommend stopping by to see it, it's a great parade. In fact, even better, you could join in, since this particular parade, unlike most of the others in the city, is a free for all. Absolutely ANYONE can join in as long as they’re in costume; you just have to turn up at the staging area at 6th Ave. and Spring St between 6.30pm and 8pm and as long as you’re all gussied up you’re in.
I did it myself a few years back; I joined a friend and a gaggle of her friends as a 1960s Tom Jones groupie – a very easy costume, mini dress, boots, big hair and Dusty Springfield style make up. We screamed and danced along in the parade behind ‘Tom’ – the husband of one of the women who was the spit of the Welsh singing sensation – throwing our knickers at him – we each had multiple pairs of lacy ones attached by elastic to our wrists - as he lip synched to Tom’s hits in his best Tom Jones costume - tight black trousers, shirt open to his navel and a glistening gold medallion resplendent on a rug of fake chest hair. He had the groin thrusting down pat. It was a very fun night and I’d say that if you can actually get your act together to be in the parade, it’s a much better way to enjoy the festivities since you don’t have to deal with the jostling crowds of spectators.
Of course festivities aren’t just restricted to the parade; there’ll be people in fancy dress all over town this evening and there were a lot interestingly dressed people on the subway this morning, many looking like they were half in costume already. I was trying to work out whether the woman next to me – in vivid orange skirt and matching tights – was making a fashion statement, or whether her outfit formed the basis of some pumpkin themed costume she’d be wearing later on. Whatever the reason it was an outfit that was a tad too bright for my bleary sleep deprived eyes at 7.30am in the morning. I also heard on the radio that dressing as Amy Winehouse is expected to be a popular choice this year - it was all about pirates last year - so I’ll be keeping my eyes peeled for beehives on the way home. In the meantime i've nabbed some pics of Halloween 2006 from NewYorkDailyPhoto - a blog I love to bits - for your viewing pleasure. If you are interested in seeing more photos I highly recommend checking out NYDP's Flickr site here. It's fab!! Have a good one!!
This post probably isn't what you thought it might be about given its title - although I am still playing the mating game with ol' teetotal, chick flick loving Tel Aviv - TCFLTA for short - I just haven't gotten around to writing about it yet, despite his many 'when are you going to blog about ME?' requests. Soon Tel Aviv, soon :-)
Instead this post is a bit of a plug for the band Bitter:Sweet. Not that they need it I'm sure, their music has been everywhere this past year. If you live in America and watch even the smallest amount of TV I don't see how you could have missed them, especially if you watch Grey's Anatomy.
Right now their song, Dirty Laundry, is being used - yet again - to promote 'Samantha Who', a cute wee TV show I'm trying on for size at the moment. I'm quite liking it.
Bitter: Sweet are a fabulous band, I love the whole slinky sound they have going on. For a while they were my band of choice for music to dance around my bedroom. They don't perform in NY very often, they're LA based, although I saw them at Joe's Pub back in February when my gorgeous gay hub - and Andersen Cooper looky likey - Miles was over for a Valentines visit. The lead singer has that whole sexy chanteuse thing going on. Miles and I had quite the girl crush on her. If you've never heard of them I hope you enjoy 'the mating game'.
Phew, it’s been a tough week. There just doesn’t seem to be enough hours in the day to get everything done at the moment. I’m working furiously to get through everything before I go off on my hols to
I need to learn how to keep my big mouth shut!!
Unfortunately the whole department is swamped with work at the moment, since, on the plus side, we’ve been fortunate enough to have already met our financial targets for the year. Unfortunately the picture is not so rosy company wide, so there’s a hiring freeze, a company wide hiring freeze, which means our department’s had to absorb a lot of the additional work and hold off on recruiting new staff. It’s not been the most popular decision I can tell you. The team has been slaving away morning noon and night and morale is at an all time low. There’s only so long people will put up with working until 10pm everyday.
I raised the morale issue to my manager at our status this week, and he in turn raised it to our head of department at the directors meeting later the same day. My manager suggested arranging team drinks as a thank you for everyone’s hard work. Unfortunately our head of department was extremely reluctant, saying he felt it was inappropriate when the rest of the company is not doing well. He then went on to brush off the heavy workload as temporary, saying, “I’m sure it will only be for a few more months.”
A FEW MORE MONTHS!!!
Ha! Take us for granted much!!
So, let me get this straight, we’ve beaten our revenue target for 2007 by 20%, got the extra work done, despite being 6 people down, and he won’t even take the team out for a beer? Meanwhile, across the hall, his co-head of department seemingly finds the money to whisk his group – albeit a smaller team - out for dinner and karaoke shindigs!! Hmph!!
I was ready to jump across the table and give him a slap in the director’s meeting, but reminded myself I have a vacation to pay for and Christmas presents to buy, so I restrained myself, but I was fuming at his attitude. The man is an idiot!!!
Why is it that senior managers in marketing agencies never think to apply their marketing expertise to the experiences of their staff? They’re always pontificating to clients about how it costs 5times more to acquire a new customer than it does to retain an existing one, but do they apply that to their own staff? No, of course they bloody don’t. It would certainly cost his nibs a lot more in recruitment fees to replace even one of the most junior staff members, than it would to buy an appreciatory round of drinks for the whole department, a small, relatively inexpensive gesture which would go a long way in boosting the morale of the team.
Whatever! It would serve him right if everyone quit.
On top of work stress I'm also starting to get a little freaked out this week about the fact that done precisely bugger all to prepare for my upcoming trip to Chile in exactly 2weeks, something that I'd pushed to the back of my mind until an email from Melissa – my travel buddy – landed in my inbox this week.
We booked our flight to
As part of the trip we’ve been investigating popping down to Patagonia to see the Magellanic penguins and what not, but when we looked into booking the 3hour flight from Santiago to Punta Arenas – apparently the world’s southern most city – it was close to $700. Yes, more expensive than the flight from
Last night I set about looking for a hotel room in
Bollocks!!
It looks like we may well have to resort to camping out with the penguins. Hmmm these chicks look nice and fluffy, do you think they'd make a nice pillow? :-)
I've been a little bogged down with work this week and haven't had much time to blog, but ,like many places, New York is in full on Halloween mode at the moment and this Saturday sees the 16th Annual Halloween Dog Parade held in Tompkins Square Park in the East Village.
I've never been before, but it looks like a fun event, so I'm going to try and stop by and check out the dogs in their costumed glory. The short video above is of last year's event. Enjoy!!
So, no need to pop down and give the bull a tickle for Kim after all. She gave birth to a 7lb 10oz - as yet unnamed - baby boy yesterday. I got the news via text last night when I landed back in NY after my 3day business trip to Florida. I'm looking forward to meeting the little fella when I'm back in England for Christmas in a couple of months time. Speaking of which, can you believe my sister emailed me this week to ask if there's anything in particular I'd like for Christmas? Um....hello, it's still OCTOBER!!!! Honestly!
The business trip went well, although I am happy to be back in New York. We were all a bit worried that we might get stuck down there an extra day, due to the heavy storms that had been forecast for the north east. The weather types seemed very concerned that the storm which caused a freak tornado in Pensacola would travel up to the New York area and cause problems for our flight, but thankfully we dodged that particular bullet and only had a couple of hours delay.
It's hard to believe these days that air travel was ever considered glamorous!! The flight home wasn't too bad, but the flight *to* Florida was not the most fun I've ever had. There were some...um...interesting characters, including the actor Joe Pantoliano - Sopranos, Memento - who I noticed making himself very much at home in the front seat of business class while making my way through to economy. You couldn't miss him in baggage claim at Fort Lauderdale; he was wearing a HUGE stetson. Clearly trying to travel incognito, so that no-one would recognise him ;-)
We also had the full complement of screaming babies - 4 of them, all sat very close to me. I sympathise with the poor little mites I really do, but my God it was quite a cacophony. I almost lost the will to live when they didn't calm down for even a second during the flight. The older guy across the aisle from me dulled the pain by drinking heavily and cranking up the volume on his iPod, occasionally singing along at full volume - Petula Clark's 'downtown' seemed to be a favourite - clearly oblivious to the fact that he was shouting over his headphones. I think even Joey Pants all the way upfront must have heard him roar his drink orders to the flight attendants. And then there was the woman behind me who thought it perfectly acceptable to put her feet up on my armrest so that her toes - not the prettiest - were inches from my face. Um...hello! Manners!! She then huffed and puffed her annoyance when I asked her to move them.
Unbelieveable!!
After that experience on just a 3hour flight I am seriously considering prescription drugs for my 16hour flight down to Chile in a few weeks.
You're Catch-22!
by Joseph Heller
Incredibly witty and funny, you have a taste for irony in all that you
see. It seems that life has put you in perpetually untenable situations, and your sense
of humor is all that gets you through them. These experiences have also made you an
ardent pacifist, though you present your message with tongue sewn into cheek. You
could coin a phrase that replaces the word "paradox" for millions of
people.
Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.
