I Don't 'Heart' NY

I admit, I don't really love New York the way most people do (and by 'most people', I mean the tourists and business people who come here for a few days a year and think the city is wonderful and has 'color' ; and, I mean the people who live here, or were born and raised here).

Anyway, I find the city too big, too loud, too busy. I really do not like Midtown - to me, it has no charm, no character. Midtown is all offices and shopping, I find restaurants and bars few and far between. Yes, I know you have to go uptown or down to the Village for such things, but I don't want to do that. I do not like the Metro here.

Some other random observations this week :
--New Yorkers commute in high heels (well, the women do), and most of them cannot walk gracefully in them. They are either teetering, lurching or stomping ; and, the heels themselves look like they're going to break off from such misguided walking.

--New Yorkers do not commute with iPods or other music devices - don't they need something to block out the noise?

--Why aren't museums open later in the evening (i.e. MoMA and the Met)? And why is admission for each $20?

--What happens to all the half-used bars of soap that are in hotel rooms when people check out? I cannot imagine these are rewrapped. Even if the cleaning crew took them home, they'd have pounds of them. So, where do they go? Ok, we all take the mini bottles of shampoo, but bars of soap?

--The Grand Hyatt on 42nd & Lex is tired. Compared to the Hyatt's in Madrid, London and Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, this one should be ashamed to have the Hyatt name. Fine, I understand if the decor is a bit outdated - it takes a lot of money/time/logistics to renovate - I get that. But the meeting facility services are sub-par, in my opinion. No one comes to clean away the dirty breakfast glasses/plates, instead they pile up all day - we had to put one tray of them in the empty room next door - that tray was still there the next morning. What they charge for said 'breakfast' service is absurd.

--I absolutely LOVE Pandora radio and keep hoping that all the copyright and legal issues will be fixed so it becomes available in France. Whenever I'm in the US I log in, go through my stations, and just have fun. Sure, if you are in the US and listen to it a lot, certain songs and artists repeat too often, but if you are only in the US 2-3 weeks per year, it's all new to you!

One more evening in NYC before heading back to Boston for the weekend, then back home to Paris. Not sure what I'll do tonight in the city.

Love that Dirty Water

...Boston you're my home.

Ok, not really officially anymore, although my driver's license is still Mass. And true, I was not born and raised here and have no family here, but it still is 'home' to me.

Arrived yesterday from Paris and immediately felt comfortable, as if all was 'right', while in the cab from Logan to Back Bay. Met my friend Nancy and immediately went to Cornwall's, which is as wonderful as ever!! (Landed at 3:20, at Cornwall's by 4:30!) Fun night with friends, and despite jet lag and just being exhausted in general, I stayed awake until 10 p.m.!

Was great to wake up today, open the refrigerator and see such familiar things as Hood Half & Half ; Trader Joe's brands ; Trappist preserves ; and Thomas' English muffins. Mmmmm...great breakfast!

Today is running errands (shopping, bank, Starbucks chai latte fix) and Sox game tonight!!

Ireland Day 1 : Dublin

Well, I finally made it to Ireland! And honestly, it was a bit of a let down. Probably because I’d been wanting to go for so long, and looking forward to this trip for several months. And, probably because the time I was there was spent in two cities - Dublin and Galway - and not out in the green fields and country side. But, that’s not to say I didn’t have fun and enjoy the holiday weekend!

Marissa (friend/colleague) and I decided to go to Galway the weekend of May 29/30 to see the Galway in port racing as part of the Volvo Ocean Race (formerly the Whitbread Ocean Race). We left Paris Friday afternoon and got to Dublin about 15:00. We took the bus into the city to Heuston station and thankfully our hotel was just across the river. We stayed at the Best Western Ashling Hotel which was very nice - remodeled, quiet, close to the train station, and easy to get on the tramway into the city centre. On the bus ride in, I couldn’t decide if I thought that all the construction sites in progress were signs of growth and progress or if they were abandoned and signs of the severe slow down in the Irish economy (Ireland is being hit very hard but the economic downturn).

We made it in just enough time to drop off our bags and walk down to the Jameson Distillery for the last tour of the day!!! (Even though it started about 20 min before it says it does on the website) Definitely a high point of the weekend for me. Unfortunately, whiskey is not made at this (original) location - it is all made in the south of Ireland, in Midleton. The tour guide we had wasn’t that good, i.m.o. The champagne cave tours were much better - more informative and more interesting since you were seeing actual bottles aging. But, the tour came with a tasting at the end, and thank goodness there were less women on the tour because 4 men and 4 women could volunteer for the ‘special’ tasting which meant : 1 dram Jameson, 1 of Johnnie Walker Black and 1 of Jack Daniel’s. I don’t like scotch and I don’t care much for JD, so obviously I liked the Jameson! Marissa and I both bought whiskey and souvenirs in the shop so then went back to the hotel to drop off our purchases.

We went back into the city using the new tramway system and wandered around a little - we walked into the courtyard of Trinity College (reminded me of the inner courtyards at Yale) and along Temple Bar. This is definitely a capital city, a tourist city, and a university city. It was very crowded and to me, it just didn’t have much of a ‘feel’ to it. I feel like the Liffey River that runs through the city really cuts it in half and doesn’t make it feel like it has a united city centre. 

We had dinner at an Italian place then ventured along Temple Bar until we found a pub that wasn’t obscenely crowded - we got seats at the window and enjoyed our Jameson while people watching - which was definitely in top form due to the number of stag and hen party groups out and about!

We made it a semi early night because we had a 07:05 train the next morning to Galway.

Giverny, Monet and Vernon

Yesterday (Saturday) I went to Vernon and Giverny with friend/colleague Julia. It was a great day with great weather and an easy 45 minute train ride from Paris to Vernon. 

If only Julia and I were both feeling better than 50% the day would have been perfect. Of course, it was all due to the two of us going out after work Friday and not calling it a night until 1 a.m. However, the many glasses of wine were warranted since we went directly from work to Forum des Halles to Go Sport to buy a tent and sleeping bags. Okay, pick yourself up off the floor - yes, I wrote that I bought a tent and sleeping bag. This is for the Springsteen concert Julia and I are going to in July at the outdoor music festival Vieilles Charrues in Carhaix, Brest (France) (caution - music plays when you open that website!). Of course, I have only been camping once before and it rained so hard that we packed it up and went to a local motel! Fingers crossed for July!

Anyway, we left work at 17:30 and after walking through the underground maze that is the Chatelet Metro stop, fighting through the crowds of people at des Halles (and there are A LOT of people there), and buying a tent, we stopped at Cafe Pont Neuf on Quai de Louvre and enjoyed some white wine and a charcuterie plate. We then had enough motivation to walk over into the 6eme arrondisement, closer to Julia’s place, with the tent and sleeping bags, and stopped at a local cafe that Julia loves. Somehow it went from 20:00 to 01:00 before we knew it!

So, Saturday morning and a 10:20 train departure came earlier than I preferred. We met and left from Gare Saint Lazare and were in Vernon by 11:10. We wandered around the town trying to find a place for lunch - of course, nothing that we wanted (i.e. pizza) was open until Noon. But, we stumbled upon Our Lady Collegiate Church and went inside - very nice, typical town church, and the organist was rehearsing. Begun in 1072 in Norman Romanesque style, the final structure was finished in 1610 (I think). It was damaged during air raids in WWII, which shattered all the stained glass. But, what was very nice was that instead of replacing the windows with clear glass, they put in more modern, colored stained glass windows. The rest of the town is nice with some very old buildings that are severely slanted. And, the town is on the Seine which is quite nice and wide here - picturesque and refreshing.

We decided to follow the advice of the Giverny website and walk to Giverny from Vernon. It is a lovely walk - you are definitely out in nature and away from the city - all you can hear is the rustling of trees and the birds. 

Thanks to the advice of another colleague, we bought our entrance tickets online beforehand which meant we did not have to wait in the obscenely long line and just went in through a side door. And walking to this side door was cool because you walked under a bridge of ivy/flowers/greenery and you could hear the hum of bees above you.

The gardens are stunning, especially now in June with all the rose bushes in full bloom. Of course, I have no idea what the flowers are besides ‘purple ball’ and ‘tall blue thing’. One problem with the gardens is that the walkways are so narrow and you are allowed to walk in any path you want (i.e. not on a conveyor belt tour from point A to B) that it gets very congested.

You have to go on a pathway under the street (what used to be the railway line) and walk up to the water lilies (les nympheas) and that surrounding garden. The restoration team has certainly done a good job because you really feel like you’re looking out on the same landscape that Monet himself saw.

I say restoration because when Monet died in 1926, he left the house and gardens to his son, but he did not live there. The grounds eventually became neglected and upon his son’s death in the 1960s, they were bequeathed to the Academie des Beaux-Arts. Renovation began in the late 70s and took 10 years - as the website says, trees were growing in the big studio in the house and a stairwell had collapsed.

We opted to take the bus back from Giverny to the Vernon train station because we were so tired by this point and the thought of walking 6+ km again was not pleasant. We went to a cafe and rehydrated while we waited for the train back to Paris - definitely plan your trip accordingly because the trains are NOT frequent in either direction - i.e. 2 to 3 hours between each.

Oh, and don’t get too accustomed to me posting about something so soon after it happens! 

(more photos posted on Flickr via link on sidebar)

Newspapers

So this annoyed (annoys) me....

Last week in the office, one colleague from the London office was in town and had brought in the International Herald Tribune from the hotel. He then commenced to rave about this newspaper and how every.single.article was superb. I tried to say that yes, I agreed and have been reading it online the past year. That affirmation fell on deaf ears as he continued to say how much he loves to read it. Me being a bit annoyed, I said, well, it's nothing new, after all, it is the New York Times and that is a paper known for its journalism. He wouldn't hear any of it - the fact that I was trying to associate the IHT with the NYT was beyond him, that the IHT was leaps and bounds above it. I even said that if you go to the old IHT website (IHT.com), you are directed to the NYT's Global Edition.

Of course, this took me on a tangent of how I'm peeved with the NYT gobbling up newspapers (i.e. threat against Boston Globe) and how this will not bode well for local investigative journalism and will lead to the power in the hands of the few (where, I realise it has been for decades, but now they're not trying to hide it because the populace is too lazy to care). Of course, said colleague had no comment on this and instead just made some other comment about the IHT.

Anyway, just a little venting. Enjoy.

Mac setback

Well, I don't know if I'd call it a 'set back' so much with my MacBook, rather than just frustration and lack of time and energy to figure it all out. Sure, I have the simple things like iTunes and Safari (internet) figured out, but besides that (i.e. the other 99% of the machine), I'm clueless.

For example : 

--I want to upload photos to Flickr, but the whole organisation scheme in iPhoto is taking some getting used to.

--I have discovered the dashboard, but then when I go to Apple's website (which btw with the new software upgrades, the link no longer works) and search for more widgets, I am bombarded with a plethora of choices (something which, if you know me, you know paralyzes me). I'm sure 99% of those choices are not essential and probably would actually degrade my quality of life (in terms of providing useless information, being a time sink, etc.)

--I bought iWork, and I KNOW it is different from MS Office, but for someone who has spent the past 12 years using MS Office and becoming quite good at Excel, and with keyboard shortcuts and menu functions, this is more than different. When I open one of my Excel files in Numbers and work on it and then save it, why must it save it as a new Numbers file - thus giving me TWO files on my computer, taking up space? It's little things like that that bother me.

So, as I figure out this here new fangled machine, I will upload photos and post more. And yes, I know that there is this thing called the Internet and I can 'do the google' and find all sorts of information. However, that takes time, which I seem to keep losing. Until then, grumble grumble.

14

That's how many hours of sleep I got yesterday / last night, between a 2 hour nap in the afternoon and 12 hours at night, only waking up twice. I don't feel 100% due to this cold, but at least I'm not the walking zombie I was yesterday!

Two big news items : 

1) I got my Carte de Sejour yesterday, which is basically my residency permit card allowing me to live here for longer than they allow tourists. Now, due to a mix-up with UK Immigration at Gare du Nord in Paris, I have to go have a meeting or two with them so the UK can reinstate my work permit (long story and not that interesting).

2) I got 2 tickets to see Jimmy Buffett in London on Sunday, July 5th!!!!!!!!! Any takers?

This summer will be great : 

July : Buffett in London, Bruce in Brest (France), holiday in Canada

August : Belfast for Tall Ships

September : Boston / Maine for friends' wedding ; Buffett in Paris 

October : Patriots at Wembley (UK)

Now, I just need to find time to actually do and see things in Paris and in France.

3 things

1st) I am sitting here having a hot toddy out of my new Jameson coffee mug. This means two things (a) I am getting a cold ; and, (b) I made it to the Jameson distillery tour when I was in Dublin for a brief stopover on my way to Galway last weekend for the Volvo Ocean Race.

2nd) I just bought 4 tickets to the Jimmy Buffett show in Paris this September!!!!! !!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!! (of course, me being megative me, I won't be 100% confident until I receive the tickets in the mail)

3rd) This is my first weekend in 7 weeks I will be in Paris all weekend. I am so excited to just stay home, finally transfer all my music, photos and files to my Mac ; clean ; put all the mail and papers and stuff away that has been accumulating the past 7+ weeks ; and relax!