The Illusionist

So I hope you had a lovely weekend. It was bitter cold in New York so for the most part I favoured hibernating in my apartment, although I did get out to see The Illusionist at the Landmark Sunshine on Houston St and because I chose sleep over my usual 8.15am total body conditioning class I decided I would get some exercise and walk down.

4-miles in the snow*!!

Let's just say here and now that I am an idiot, although to be fair it wasn't snowing when I set out and was a relatively balmy 32F according to NY1. As I headed down I realised I would be passing Stuyvesant Town and decided to call Megan, who lives there, to see if she had any interest in joining me for the film. Our conversation went something like this....

Me: Mnh mnh mnh mnh mnhist?
Megan: I'm sorry I think you were breaking up, I didn't catch what you said
Me: I wasn't breaking up, my face had frozen and I was temporarily incapable of speech. I was asking if you wanted to see The Illusionist at 5.10pm?
Megan: Oh I just got in from running errands, it's too cold to go out again, but thanks for asking

The woman had sense. Anyway the movie is beautifully animated although I have to say I found the ending slightly depressing so not exactly the thing to lift me out of the January doldrums.

*Admittedly very light snow, but snow all the same.

I've Only Got One Pair Of Hands

So how's the first week back at work going? I'll admit I have found it REALLY tough, I could have done with returning for a partial week, I really wanted the week to end yesterday and I'm already feeling the stress bubble up which I am trying my best to quell, but it's not easy to keep it together and stay calm in the face of idiocy, especially as I haven't slept well the past couple of nights. I'm still off the booze though - 7 days now - and even though I REALLY REALLY wanted a glass of wine last night I resisted. Yeah me!!

This week at work I've spent a good amount of my time getting to grips with all the items on my team's to do list and created a big Gantt chart in MS project so that I can track what's due, what's coming up and the amount of overlap we have on projects. It seemed like a good idea to put it together on Monday, the idea being that I will carry it around in my notebook and then when I'm in meetings with account people and they try to cajole my team into doing more work I can whip it out and show them how busy we are and force them to re-prioritize other projects. Essentially it's a tool to get us out of being overworked since I find that more often than not account teams will come to my team with a new, urgent project with an intensive deadline when the team are already busy with other deliverables. Fine, I understand, but what grates on me is that the account teams who are pushing these urgent projects on us don't seem to realize that if they drop a new urgent project on us then the deadlines for other tasks have to shift. Seems only fair right? Unfortunately the account teams don't seem to grasp the fact that there is a finite amount of resources available, so I receive these quizzical looks as to why we can't deliver the original projects within the previously agreed timeframe.

Um...expect us to work 24 hours a day much?

I especially love it when they say, "oh but don't you have someone else available to continue with XYZ while so-and-so works on the urgent project?" To which I always want to respond "yes meet my imaginary employee John. John spends his day twiddling his thumbs with his feet propped up on his desk while receiving the exact same salary as everyone else, but without being subject to the usual agency rules of having to bill 80%+ of his hours on projects, because John's sole purpose in life is to hang around waiting to work on the projects that you seem incapable of prioritizing."

Of course I don't say anything of the sort I just smile through gritted teeth and inform them that it's not possible to hand the work to someone else, because everyone is busy so then they'll waste half an hour trying to coerce me into delivering everything they want at which point it's an exercise in suppressing my irritation with them for wasting my time with such nonsense, I mean hellooooo, it's called account management, so call me frivolous for making the suggestion, but perhaps you could, MANAGE the account and push back on the client's unrealistic expectations instead of just parroting their requests back to me. Seriously the client may as well just call my team directly for. Grrrrr!!!!

For the record my entire team is over 120% billable, not sufficiently over to allow me to hire another person, unless there's another team that also needs half a person, but enough to make them extremely busy, especially when you factor in all the non-billable stuff that's expected of us like admin, training etc. When you think about the fact that we bill based on a 40hour work week 120% booked means a minimum 48-hours on client stuff then factor in having to do timesheets, attending status meetings, etc and you're looking at 50-60-hours minimum pretty normal for New York I suppose, but not so good for work/life balance.

It didn't take long for 2011 to stress me out did it? Do I sound like a right old moaning Minnie? I suppose I should be thankful for my job, but the expectation of the working week is already getting to me. I need to find someway to keep this in check. For now I am just thankful I've been able to resist managing my stress with wine in so far.

Attention Shoe Lovers!!

So I meant to post the photos of this sculpture that's currently on display (permanent?) on the second floor (3rd floor US) of Selfridges Department Store in London along with the pics of the sculptures on display at Marble Arch, since Miles and I saw this on the same day, but it slipped my mind, but better late than never. Can you guess what the piece is made of??

No guesses????

Does this view of the heel help at all??

Yes, it's PANS!!! Pretty cool eh!! The piece is the work of artist Joana Vasconcelos. I've never come across her work before, but I love this, although I do think it would have been more fitting to install the piece in Selfridges' new - well relatively, it opened in September 2010 - Shoe Galleries on the same floor instead of among contemporary apparel, or would that have been too obvious and corny???

Apparently Selfridges' Shoe Galleries is the world's largest shoe department with 35,000 square feet dedicated to shoes!!! Phew, be still my beating heart!!

Happy 2011 My Lovelies

Best wishes for the coming year and all that.

So how has 2011 been for you so far? Mine has been distinctly sober to date owing to a pact I've made with my old school pal Liz to give up the boozing for a full month - Liz, Kirstie and I had rather a large night over Christmas and I think my liver deserves a break. Two days down, 29 to go. Keep your fingers crossed I improve on last year's effort and make it beyond January 9th this time, I'm also hoping it will help me shed some of the holiday weight I've acquired, because quite honestly I feel like a big pudding at the moment, so I'm going to be one of those new years' resolution people clogging up the gym. I've haven't dared to step on the scale yet, but I feel uncomfortably puffed up and my jeans are on the snug side, so something needs to be done, although on the plus side some of the excess weight appears to have gone to my boobs since on my annual M&S lingerie binge over Christmas I discovered I've gone up a cup size. Silver linings!!

So tonight I am trying not to let the prospect of returning to working my fingers to the bone at the coal-face of advertising tomorrow drag me down too much after all it will be lovely to my colleagues, but I'm not looking forward to having to get through a full week after two weeks off, usually I prefer to ease myself back into it by only working 2-3 days, but I'm sure I'll pull through. That being said I'm making a second resolution to achieve more work/life balance in 2011 and not feel so guilty if I leave before everyone else, because let's face it, I start a good 2 hours earlier than most of my colleagues and as a result work longer hours even if I do leave at 6pm.

Anyway I have some ironing to do - everyone is amazed when I tell them I still iron. Very few people do apparently, but what can I say, I don't like to be creased - but here's a cheeky song from The Vaccines, who are hotly tipped to be big in 2011. Enjoy!!

Christmas Shopping In York

Good Lord, can someone roll me to the nearest gym please, I'm fit to burst. The festive over-indulgence has already taken it's toll. Forget starting afresh in the new year, it will be nothing but salad for me tomorrow I think.

It's hard to believe I've been away from New York for 9-days already. Time flies when you are laying around watching festive television and scoffing mince pies eh. I've really been a bit of a lazy arse since I've been up at my parents' place in Yorkshire, but starting tomorrow I am hoping to actually use one of the 4 fitness DVDs I brought with me. Yes FOUR, highly optimistic of me eh given I haven't so much as cracked the box on a single one of them.

Anyway no visit home would be complete without a trip into York, which is where my mother, nephew and I went on Thursday last week to do a bit of last minute Christmas shopping.

York is a walled city in the north of England, about 210 miles from London, founded by the Romans in 71AD or thereabouts as the legionary fortress of Eboracum. The city sits at the meeting point of the Foss and Ouse rivers and was a centre of world importance with the Emperor Septimius Severus governing the Roman Empire from the city between 208 and his death in 211 AD, however by 400AD the city lay abandoned owing to frequent flooding, a problem the city still deals with today as can be seen in this photo via the BBC.

The river Ouse could not be more aptly named since ooze it certainly does after heavy rainfall. Do you see what I did there? Ghosts of Roman soldiers are still said to haunt the Treasurers House in Minster Yard.

On November 1st, 866AD York, as it is now known, but Jorvik as it came to be known at the time, was captured by the Vikings when a huge armada of Danish pirates, sailed up the Ouse and seized Eorforwick - as it was then known - under the leadership of Ivar the Boneless - love the monicker. Apparently Ivar was known for his gangling frame - and his brothers Halfdan Ragnarsson (Halfdene) and Ubbe Ragnarsson (Hubba).

From Visityork.org:

In 876 the Vikings made York their capital. The conquest lasted until 954 when the last Viking ruler, the equally colourfully monikered Eric Bloodaxe, the deposed King of Norway, was driven out by the English King Eadred. In between the Vikings had doubled the size of the town and turned it into one of the greatest trading ports in Northern Europe.

Sadly whenever I meet new people in New York they always ask me which part of London I am from. Eyeroll. Seriously that's like asking your average American which part of New York they're from. The last time I looked the UK has a population of almost 62-million while London has a population of just over 7.5-million. Imagine that, a whole 54.5-million Brits do not live in London. Gasp!!

Sarcasm aside I am amused by the reaction I receive from New Yorkers when I start to list cities they may have heard of that are close to where I am from: Wakefield is probably the closest, then Leeds - "oh yes, the who live from Leeds" is the reaction I get from people of a certain age - and finally York, which is some 30 miles north east of where I grew up.

"York???" they always respond completely puzzled, "what a weird name."

"Um...yes York, you know, like New York, but without the 'new' bit. York is the city that this city, NEW YORK, is named after. York!!"

"York???"

I give up!!

Among other things York is well known for its Minster, built in 1154 AD and is one of the largest gothic cathedrals in Northern Europe alongside Cologne Cathedral in Germany and also The Shambles, a historic street lined with timber framed buildings dating as far back as the Fourteenth Century and voted the most picturesque street in Britain in 2010.

It was freezing when we drove up the A1 to York on Thursday, cold enough for the Foss river to have developed a layer of ice.

Queuing up to shop for 'fine fodder' at The Hairy Fig, a fabulous delicatessen located at 39 Fossgate.

Many of the street names in York end with gate - Coppergate, Jubbergate, Stonegate etc etc - which is the Viking word for street - I'm not entirely sure what a 'jubber' is - and is further evidence of York as a Viking settlement, however I'd never in my life - and I've been visiting York for some 30-some years now - come across Whip-ma-whop-ma-gate until this visit and I had my suspicions that it was a made up name, but apparently not. According to this 49 second BBC video it was where people were punished by being whipped.

Looking along Low Petersgate from Kings Square. York Minster can be seen in the background and in the foreground there are remnants of the UK's recent snowfall.

For me no visit to York would be complete without a hot mocha - not very British I know - and a Fat Rascal at the renowned Betty's Tea Rooms on St Helen's Square. Mmmmmmmmm!!!!

Shape up Britain!!!

Good Lord it's travel chaos in England at the moment. I was really lucky to fly in when I did, arriving at Heathrow at 9.30am on Friday morning, since as of Friday night the vast majority of flights out were cancelled and people have been sleeping overnight in the terminals. The Eurostar train service from St Pancras has also been affected with people waiting in freezing conditions for trains delayed for up to 8hours. People are understandably miserable!!

Tomorrow I am supposed to take the train north to Yorkshire to be with my family for the festive season, but I've just learned that severe damage to overhead power lines as a result of temperatures dropping to -15C has caused 'havoc' on the East Coast train line with 100s of passengers stuck on trains and no service north of Peterborough. Ugh!!

Chances are Miles and B may well have a guest for Christmas this year :-)

Checking Out The Jelly Babies

Much as I love lounging around Miles' flat drinking copious cups of tea while watching cinematic gems such as Kindergarten Cop and the snow flurries outside I feel like I am missing an opportunity to see how the city's changed since I was here last year and should be out and about exploring, so earlier today Miles and I forced ourselves to go out and took a walk up Kensington High Street, through Hyde Park and along Bayswater Rd to see the Jelly Baby sculpture at Marble Arch at the top end of Oxford St.

On the way we walked through the Kensington Palace Gardens at the west side of Hyde Park and designed by Henry Wise and Charles Bridgeman. The Round Pond at was almost completely frozen over except for a small area at one side where the swans paddled and pigeons pottered about seemingly unconcerned with the cold, unlike myself who was absolutely freezing. Seriously my hands were so cold inside my thick shearling gloves that I thought they were in danger of falling off. I need some of those gel hand warmer sachet things that you pop in the microwave to heat and then inside your gloves. I wonder where I can get some of those.

We continued along the carriage way past the Italian Gardens stand at the northwestern end of the Serpentine Lake. Miles took a great photo of this building with all the pigeons you can see squatting on the roof suddenly flew off in our direction. I'll post it if I remember to get it from him, it's a great shot, he was very proud.

Picturesque trees along Bayswater Road, or the A40 as it's less romantically known

Ta da Jelly Babies!!!

The details are vague, but as far as I can tell, in the run up to the 2012 olympics, Westminster Council is hosting the City Of Sculpture Festival from....well I am not sure, there are very few details online, which I feel is a huge mistake if it's actually happening now, because if the festival is up and running I would have loved to see a map of all the participating exhibits so I could walk around and check them out, but can I find one, no!! However what I definitely do know is that Mauro Perucchetti's Jelly Baby family is part of the shennanigans. Apparently Lorenzo Quinn's Vroom Vroom will also be part of the festival and will be exhibited along Park Lane somewhere, although as far as I can tell from the Halcyon Gallery website it's currently installed in Valencia.

Fun though the jelly babies are I thought this 30 feet high 6-tonne bronze horse head sculpture - Horse At Water I believe it's called - by Nic Fiddian-Green, which is directly across the street was absolutely stunning and definitely worth the walk in the freezing cold.