Karl New York City, United States of America.

Hello!

Well I’ve been working in NYC for a week and a half. Monday was President’s Day, which is a day America celebrates George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. Not bad for the rest of us as we get a 4 day working week. Woop!

I had a great weekend. I walked across the Brooklyn Bridge to Brooklyn, and back to Manhattan over the Manhattan Bridge (and yes, the penny did just drop), and also pounded the pavement of downtown Manhattan. Make sure you check all the photos over on my Flickr stream.

Saturday was the Australian’s in NYC benefit for the Red Cross at the Australian Hotel on W38th. I met up with a friend from Melbourne who is in town and we drank Cooper’s, Boags and more Cooper’s whilst watching the latest NAB Cub AFL match and signing Australian rock anthems. Very traditional indeed. The place was absolutely packed with ex-pats and lots of conversations were going on about how people came to be in New York, how bad the fires were and how we haven’t heard much about it since being here. The pub played lots of photo slideshows of the disaster and it was touching to see the Australian’s dig deep when the time came.

Apart from these two stories of high importance, I’ve been working very hard, coming home and crashing. Well, except for the few nights where I’ve been cooking. I could be working on the moon and it wouldn’t matter. I long for the weekends so I can explore the metropolis. This weekend I will be heading over to Chelsea and the gallery district to cop some culture, as well as trying to rest up from the week that’s been. My friend Stu (the guy who designed NiceProduce.com) is here in the city and we’ll be hooking up and heading to Harlem on Saturday night to hit a jazz bar in Sugarhill. Rad. Another friend of mine, this time from Stockholm, Filip, lands on Friday, so there’s plenty of people to run around with over the course of the week.

Also, good news for those who don’t already know, I’ll be returning to Australia in April for 2 weeks, let’s catch up.

Until then, it’s back to work!

Peace!

Today was my first day at FI New York. It was so nice to finally put some faces to names of people whom I’ve been working with since December. The office is warm and carries a great vibe. It’s amazing being here, it’s definitely a dream come true.

My spot is second row from the front, and first left. Here is the development floor where all the super nerds to super amazing things. Downstairs is the designers dungeon, and I’m taking this from the mezzanine. You can see the kitchen and the long table where we all gather for breakfast each day.

So, I hit the ground running, picking up where I left off from my work in Stockholm, there’s definitely no time for tourist nonsense. It looks like every morning I will be joining the march down Broadway with the rest of the suits, cops, hotdog and coffee vendors, and lost puppies. My apartment is right on Wall St, and the gloom of a global recession reeks on our street! I haven’t seen a smiling face apart from those in my office!

This is a shot from Franklin St where our office is. We were heading out to get some Pho today, how good! I have been acclimatised to the weak selection of Asian cuisine in Stockholm that I’ve forgotten that the rest of the world loves Pho, also that New York City has absolutely anything and everything awaiting at your disposal. Yay!

Mmmm. Pho with the Fi Developers. US$5, probably the only thing I’m going to eat from now on, considering on Saturday I had a $15 cheeseburger, which, after tip and tax was US$20 converted becomes AUD$29! Ouch!!

I’ve started to feel a bit crook so sorry for the lame post, but I should be in bed. I’ll let you all know how my week unfolds.

I’m here! This is from the rooftop of our building. Lovely weather we’re having, too! Sorry about the expression. The sun is in my eye and I’m severely jet lagged / hungover / both.

This Saturday I’m flying to New York City. It’s funny because I’m not as excited as I was the first time. I’m too damn busy to even think about the whole experience. Work has been going crazy, and not just for me, the whole office is on overtime at the moment. At least the days are flying by. I can’t believe it’s Thursday already. I promise to update the blog more when I’m in New York, there’s obviously more to photograph, therefore more to blog!

This last week has been crazy. I got word from my shipping crew that my boxes are in Hamburg awaiting departure to Göteborg. Apparently I need to pay for a courier to get it from Göteborg to Stockholm, even though I’ve paid it all the way. I’ve spoken with my stupid people in Melbourne who seem to not know much about the logistic business at all. Needless to say I’m pretty stressed. In those boxes are some photographic equipment I’ve always dreamed of having in New York, now they’ll probably get to Stockholm the Monday I start work. It was supposed to arrive today.

Argh.

(Clockwise: Hanna, David (my housemate), Thérèse, Bernado, Gustav)

Apart from this nightmare, last night I cooked my biggest meal yet. I had 4 friends over and managed to cook for them, my housemate and myself, 6 in total. Because we don’t have a wok, I was using 2 frying pans at once, pretty happy with the result if you ask me (and my guinea pigs!). Vegetarian green curry! Yummmmmmmmm.

I’ve also been riding my bike all week. I’ve noticed that due to the lack of exercise that I’ve started to gain weight, crap. I used to ride around 20km’s a day, or on average 120km’s per week. Now I don’t ride a single kilometer because of the snow and my diet hasn’t changed. Beer is a killer. It’s been great to get back on the bike again now that the weather has been forgiving, though this morning I woke up to a full blanket of snow and shunned myself back to the depths of T-Bana. Boo. I won’t be taking my ride to NYC as I doubt it’ll be much good given the temperature at the moment (a balmy -11ºc), let alone not having any time.

So, the next update will be from the frosted streets of New York’s downtown district. I’m just off Wall St, where the tourists and businessmen roam by day, and Matteo, Tom, Priscilla and I stumble around drunk by night.
Until then, one love! Don’t forget to write!

… so are our moods. Here’s the beginning of our Monday morning Spotify playlist. Songs about the sun, or have ‘sun’ in the title. It’s been over 2 weeks since we’ve had a proper sunny day, so what better way to get over the fact that you’re inside, than to play sunshine tunes.