April 29 [Tuesday]......Good Charlotte
Tonight I had a ticket for a concert with Good Charlotte and New Found Glory. It was at the Hammerstein Ballroom on 34th Street. It was a youthful crowd for the punk-pop acts on tonight. Good Charlotte were great as they were who I went to see. New Found Glory were surprisingly good as I didn't know them before tonight. I took plenty of photos that I will get around to putting on the website later on.

April 28 [Monday]......US Open
Tickets went on sale today for the US Open Tennis which is scheduled for the start of September. I hopped onto the Ticketmaster website and purchased some tickets to a few of the sessions. Will let you know later in the year what games we see, but I can guarantee they will be the BIG ones.

April 27 [Sunday]......NY Dragons close-up
I made my second consecutive trip out to Long Island today to go to the last home game of the NY Dragons Arena Football team. I had sprung for an expensive seat this time, right on mid field and only 4 rows from the sideline. Even better was the fact that I was sitting directly behind the Dragons bench so it was interesting to see what the players were doing after they came off the field (there were around 10 or so players on the bench at any stage).
Being that close made the game very enjoyable as you could see all the action and speed up close. Wishing I had taken the camera again but I left it home to avoid trouble getting through security. The game was exciting but with too many turnovers and being up against the top team, the Dragons went down 59 - 45. Even more disappointing was that the guy in the seat directly behind me had the lucky seat that won an autographed game ball from the team.

After the trip back to Manhattan and despite being tired and having missed the bus, I skated down to Chelsea Piers just in time for our Roller Hockey game. The hockey team I play in is called House 4 and tonight we played game 3 of the season. The game was probably my best to date and we won 4 - 3 to take our win - loss record to 2 & 1.

April 21 [Monday]......They're on Strike
It's a shocking day here in New York that many of us will not know how to deal with. Our doormen are going on strike as of midnight tonight as are all doormen and concierge's in apartment buildings in NYC. Somehow we will need to go on though and luckily they have been handing out a 6 page document to all of us of how what we need to do in our daily lives to live without them. Maybe our rent might drop to make up for it, I just hope I don't have to take my own rubbish out!

Lucky my mum didn't go on strike, I think the list would probably turn into a couple of volumes!!

April 19 [Saturday]......Arena Football & how I missed the field goal
Arena Football is a relatively new sport in the US. It is played in the NFL off-season and is basically American Football played indoors on a much smaller field with fewer players. The field is actually the same size as an ice hockey rink. The New York team is the New York Dragons who play at Nassau Coliseum over on Long Island. I have tickets to 2 games this season, the first of which was tonight.
To get there I caught the Long Island Railroad (LIRR to New Yorkers) from Penn Station (34th street) and after a transfer at Jamaica station, got off at Hempstead station. From there I went to the Hempstead Bus Terminal and got a bus out to the Coliseum. All up around 90 minutes. On the way I saw some of Queens and Nassau out the window of the train including my first sighting of real trees and lawn (outside of central park) for several months. It is not until you see suburbia (cars in driveways etc) again that you realize you can't recall seeing it for sometime.

The game tonight was NY Dragons v Detroit Fury. During the pre-game warmups, I went down sideline and took some photos. the game itself was very exciting and they create a lot of atmosphere and constant energy in the stadium. Behind the endzone they had 2 drummers who are constantly playing something during intervals in the game. The Dragons had a great game (despite an average season so far) and ended up defeating the Fury by 69-40.
After the game they had a 30 minute autograph session with the players & FireDancers cheerleaders. I lined up and got a few autographs with 3 cheerleaders, together with some photos (proof for Anh, else she wouldn't believe the story), and one of the players, Rodney Filer, who scored a touchdown that game (he was also a member of the NY Jets in 2001). Once the lines got too long, I headed over to the far end of the field where you could line up to kick a field goal. My timing was lucky as 5 minutes later they closed off the line. The wait was slow, and eventually I got to kick for a field goal. Snuck in a quick photo there too (again, proof for Anh), before launching my shot at the goal, but alas it went wide and was "no good" as they say. Still, very exciting to get a go down on the field they play on.

April 18 [Friday]......Everclear concert
Everclear were in concert tonight over at the Roseland Ballroom on 52nd. I had a ticket, although Anh piked out for this one. Support acts were a punk band "Zero Authority" and a group from California, "The Exies" who were quite good.
Everclear themselves were awesome and I took my camera in for what turned out to be some good shots and a bargaining tool. One of the highlights of the show was picking someone out of the crowd to play guitar on one of their best known songs. They picked a 13 year old girl who got up on stage. The lead singer kept asking "are you sure you know how to play the song?" to which she promised she did. It would have been a catastrophy if she blew it. To her credit and the crowds enjoyment she played it through fine, I didn't hear one mistake. I have some pictures of it that I will get around to posting sooner or probably later.

After the show, I couldn't manage to find a guitar pick to my disappointment, but I did spot one of the guys from the audience who the group brought on stage for the encore (there must have been 30 people from the crowd they let up there). He had been right at the drumkit during the finale and I saw he had 2 drumsticks as souvenirs. I made a deal with him to email him some of the concert pictures in exchange for an Everclear drumstick. And the deal was done, so it is now safely in my concert collection.

April 15 [Tuesday]......Golf in NYC
Being such a fine day today, I headed down to the driving range at Chelsea Piers after work with a co-worker, Marty. The driving range is built on one of the Pier's on the Hudson River. It is a popular venue, so we had a one hour wait before we could get a stall. One of the nice features there is the golf balls that automatically popup out of the ground on the tee in position for you.
Historical fact: we were hitting golf balls on the pier that the Titanic was scheduled to have arrived at almost exactly 91 years to the day.

April 14 [Monday]......John J is in town
Our first family visitor, John Jamieson is in town, arriving on the weekend from Washington DC. Tonight we caught up with him and Ellen. They met us at our apartment, wading between half assembled cabinets that I haven't yet finished assembling. I have a couple of photos that I will eventually put on a website, but email me if you want me to send one sooner to you (snappythingy@yahoo.com).
After unloading the care package from mum (vegemite, cherry ripe, lipton tea, espresso coffee etc) which John had delivered, we took a walk down to 8th Avenue. Had a lovely dinner at the Royal Siam, a nice Thai place near 23rd Street before we headed home.

John had spent the previous day in the Queens borough, and today down around the Lower East side. Tomorrow they were booked to see a Broadway show and dine over at the United Nations.

April 13 [Sunday]......2 Stools and a Dog
Glorious day in New York today, temperature around 60F, and a good day for a stroll around Chelsea. First stop was over to Jensen-Lewis on 7th Avenue where we finally ordered a sofa / couch. Anna Nicole's designed would have called it "luxurious". Only 5 more weeks and we should have it. Maybe we should have done this 5 weeks ago....
Next stop: The Chelsea Market, which is down around 9th Avenue and a 20 minute walk from our apartment. The market is mostly some bakeries, outlets, and garden shop and is quite small. It seems to have some history in the building but not quite sure the story behind it. After some lunch we travelled back over to Spring Street and a walk through the bustling neighborhood between West Broadway & Broadway (the Village area I think). Lost of street vendors selling art / junk on the street and many tiny dogs taking their owners for walks past the sidewalk cafes.

In our effort to expand our stool collection, we bought 2 more smaller sparkly Paul Frank stools and laid down an order for another larger one. While there we met a dog called Tiffany, who just happens to have its own website, tiffanythedog.com. The owner was a 10 year old who was very proud to tell us that.

Sunday night was the first round of Roller Hockey down at the Chelsea Piers complex. I am playing on a side called "House Team 4" and in our first game at 9pm under lights we went down 5-3 in a tight game.

April 12 [Saturday]......The Vines
An indie band from Australia, The Vines, were playing in New York so we couldn't resist buying some tickets to the show. It was tonight at the Roseland Ballroom on 52nd Street. The support act was "The Music" a group I knew only a little about but they were reasonably entertaining. The Vines played well and some of the better known tracks were a hit with the mostly younger crowd. Toward the end the singer smashed his guitar and basically ran or crashed his way through into the drum kit leaving it a mess on stage. The band left the stage and somehow the roadies pieced it all back together again so the band could come back for the encore. After another couple of songs the singer smashed another guitar, knocked over a couple of amps then started using his guitar as a weapon on the drumkit trying to destroy it while the rest of the band was still finishing the song. The drummer had no more than a snare and cymbal left by then. The crowd had been moshing and even Anh had joined in by that stage. Very entertaining!

After the show, Anh went to the front of the stage and managed to get another guitar pick from the show to add to our collection. I still don't know how she managed that.

April 9 [Wednesday]......Chelsea Gym
We tried out the gym in our apartment building last night. We have it for free for the first 12 months as part of our lease. Our membership isn't strictly supposed to start until May 1 (we have the first month here for free on our lease) but our doorman / conceirge, Corey, gave us access from now. There is no key to get in, it works by your "handprint". After recording your hand in the sensor, you just enter a pin number then put your hand against the scanner and it recognises you and the door unlocks. Nice. The gym is all new, clean, new equipment, so hopefully we will get some use out of it, no excuses when it is just down the elevator!

April 8 [Tuesday]......Alan Bond Story
Attended a Six Sigma training session today at work run by a JPMorgan guy, Bruce, with an interesting history. After the session I stayed to talk to him and he had worked in Sydney for several years in the late 80's. He told me a story about his claim to fame. Basically he headed up the bank that leased some of the paintings to Bond Corp that Alan Bond tried to take out of the company to profit on, and the very paintings that were one of the reasons he got caught and went to jail. Bond had tried to get the paintings but Bruce had decided not to and that led to all kinds of pressure from Bond's heavies. Bruce had spent many years heading various South American operations, including a stint in Columbia, but said the first time he felt for his safety was around some of the characters that Bond had employed at the time. In the end, he sold the painting leases to Macquarie Bank who then sold it to Bond who took the profit out of the company for himself leading to one of the charges against him. Bruce spent time giving evidence by tape from Hawaii as well as attending the court case in Perth as a witness. Fascinating story hearing it.

April 7 [Monday]......Snow in April
Today was a rare day indeed for New York as we had a snowstorm. This is very uncommon in New York as the snow season should be over by now. There was around 5 inches of snow and it was coming down quite heavy for a large part of the day. During the day we went out for lunch for Collin's last day with us at work, and we ventured over to the famous "Junior's" in Brooklyn. Junior's is famous for some of the best New York cheesecake in the tri-state area (i.e. the greater NY area). I had heard quite a lot about Junior's so was eager to try it for myself. It has an old fashioned diner feel to it and serves up big. I started with just the plain traditional cheesecake (they have a large number of options) and it was very good. I would say it does live up to the reputation, so if you ever want to try New York cheesecake.... go to Junior's. Never try a deli off the street, as you will certainly be disappointed. It had to be worth it as we didn't mind so much the walk back in the flurry of snow which made walking a tricky proposition.

April 6 [Sunday]......Room Divider Project
Our Chelsea apartment is a studio alcove, which means one main room and an alcove space for the bedroom but no wall or door for it. So a common thing is to get a room divider or use some furniture to divide the rooms and section it off. After looking over the last month for a room divider and being unsatisfied with the options (either the standard $100 chinese paper screen or $2000 overpriced versions) I decided to make my own creation. Today I went looking for materials to make a very strong frame for a unique design and material I have in mind. Should take another 2 months before I can source all the materials and then start assembling.

April 5 [Saturday]......Rice to Riches
One of the hippest new food venues is called Rice to Riches. It opened only this week down at Spring Street (downtown) and we headed down to check it out. After only a few days in business it has had a ton of media coverage like articles in the New York Times and tv coverage on Fox 5 news. Read an article here...
The store is quite unique in that all it sells is Rice Cream. About 20 or more flavours. The owner had been working on the recipes for 3 years and designed and built a lot of the store himself. It is a little futuristic looking and very well done. The rice was delightful (Anh not in complete agreement, she still thinks rice is a savoury meal and should not be a dessert) - I went back on Sunday for more and had to wait in a line of 30 people for my mango & lemon rice cream

The other thing we did was to finally pick up our Paul Frank bar stool which we had made them keep in the store for us the last 2 months. We also purchased a tv cabinet from The Wiz who had some great prices as they are going out of business. Continued our light shopping, and also stopped over at 48th street where there are a bunch of music stores. I sat on the electronic drums for awhile having a go at them.

April 4 [Friday]......Cable is in
Today the Cable Guy arrived to hook us up. We now have cable tv as well as cable broadband internet. Both cost more than in Australia on comparable basis but with broadband here you have no download limits. I tested that out by downloading the latest couple of South Park episodes.

April 2 [Wednesday]......TV arrives
Last night our phone was installed and today the new tv arrived. I didn't want anything too big as our apartment is small so I had settled on a 36 inch model (that's over 91cm) and it's a monster. Tested it out on some DVD's and it looks good. Cable won't be hooked up until Friday unfortunately.

March 31 [Monday]......Move to Chelsea
This evening we packed our suitcases and moved everything out of Midtown and down to Chelsea. This is now the end of 9 weeks of living out of suitcases and finally get access to our boxes that had been in storage. A quick goodbye to the doorman and hopefully also to the all night garbage trucks. Down at Chelsea we are now on West 26th Street at 6th Avenue in our new building. We are on the 17th floor, so it is away from some of the street noise also. Slight problem, we have no furniture whatsoever.

March 28 [Friday]......Kelly Osbourne in person
Irving Plaza was the venue tonight for a concert by Kelly Osbourne which we had decided to buy tickets to see. Kelly of course is the daughter of Ozzy Osbourne and one of the stars of The Osbournes tv show. The crowd was mostly younger than us and the venue was where a lot of punk and alternative bands play. We also bought a cd which gave Anh a wristband to be able to stay after the show to get it signed.
The concert itself was average and many times you couldn't hear Kelly singing terribly well.
After the show we wandered closer to the stage and Anh's eagle eye spotted 2 guitar picks with Kelly printed on them, than they had thrown from the stage so we quickly grabbed them. Then after another wait, lineup and bouncers shouting at you, we finally got to meet Kelly Osbourne and get the cd signed. She was very nice in person and seemed to have lost weight. She picked up the accent immediately and asked if we were Australian. I then told her (politely) that her singing needed some practice which she seemed to take graciously.