Poppy Gets a Life

Etsy Business Card Book

2011-12-17T02:16:00.001+11:00

During the epic job hunt of October, I was meeting and greeting so many new people that my wallet and bags were soon overflowing with business cards. (I must admit, I also have a penchant for collecting cards associated with shops, restaurants and bars that I like the look of, and these also contributed to the growing stack beside my bed.)

To bring order to the chaos, I turned to Etsy and searched for "rolodex".

Low and behold - Custom Planners and Personalized Stationary by PriaVanda.

I selected my ribbon colour combinations, and my sturdy business card book arrived in the mail a week later.

Highly recommended.

Why I'm changing my Twitter name

2011-12-15T18:19:00.000+11:00

The US is much more progressive than Australia when it comes to integrating social media into the workplace. Or at least, the places I have been interviewing and the company I will be working are certainly much more savvy about the benefits of having a socially connected employee base and a company brand with a strong social media presence.

This could be the progressive mindset of the US, but perhaps it's more to do with the start-up community of Silicon Alley I'm joining. Employees are encouraged to have a voice online and become advocates for their company, and the Big Brother mentality of monitoring employee behaviour via their social networks seems outdated and embarrassing. Perhaps there is a greater atmosphere of trust - companies have realised that the world doesn't cave in once you give your employees a voice, as long as they are treated respectfully.

Furthermore, everyone I meet just seems to "get" Twitter and the benefits of social media - I no longer have to explain and justify their value in the way I often do at home. Everyone in the US is online, whether they are the CEO of a company or a hipster weaving friendship bracelets. (FYI, my favourite explanation to a Twitter illiterate is that it's like a radio station: you can tune it to whatever channel you wish, whether you want to listen to ABC 774 or Mix 94.5. It can simultaneously be a source of news and a source of entertainment. It curates the web exactly as you wish. Connecting with people and sharing your own newsworthy links or updates is optional, and certainly doesn't have to be like the dumb updates you often see associated with celebrity twitter feeds, which get a disproportionate amount of press and perpetuate the general public's misunderstanding of the medium.)

As a result, I'm going to be changing my Twitter handle to something that is closer to my Real Life name. Until now I've kept my online presence separate from my professional identity, but the two are starting to move closer together.

In many ways I'm relieved - I'm tired of talking enthusiastically about social media but not sharing my Twitter name is because it so clearly links back to my personal blog. Why the anonymity, you ask? The professional path I'm on doesn't really need me to supplement my career achievements with a blog. And, selfishly, I want to be able to write about stuff that won't appear in a Google search of my name.

But what to do about Poppy Gets a Life? I love my little blog, which gives me great enjoyment and a creative outlet. And you know what - I'm just going to keep going with it, but I won't link to it from my Twitter account. This whole online identity thing is fluid, and will no doubt evolve further as I work through the complexities.

A tourist in my own town

2011-12-15T02:14:00.001+11:00

Again, I've been really slack.

The cliched stresses of apartment hunting in New York nearly brought me undone, and I haven't felt in the mood to write much in the last two weeks.

The story has a happy ending though - I've found an incredible place on West 15th Street, just around the corner from the Chelsea Market. I can walk to work, and I'm near almost all of the major subway lines which is sensational. I move early January. I'm terribly sad to move out of my lovely sublet in the West Village, but it will be fabulous to settle into a place of my own.

The visa processing has taken so much longer than I expected, and with the rare opportunity to spend three or four weeks with my family over Christmas I decided late last week to fly home to Perth in Western Australia to spend the time with my family. I've decimated my Frequent Flyer points and it's going to cost me an arm and a leg to get back to NYC in early January, but it's worth it. Once I start working it will be hard to take such an extended break.

I've been hanging out with my sisters and my mum and my dad, and yesterday morning I went for a long bike ride by myself all along the coast, watching the ocean waves underneath the cloudy, stormy sky. I stopped in at one of the beach and had a quick swim, which was delightful. Unsurprisingly, after all this bonding-with-nature-type stuff, I'm feeling very zen again after the stresses of the last few weeks.

We had a huge electrical storm last night and the weather is really odd - just under 30 degrees but lots of rain, which is strange for this time of year. A friend sent me some photos of another storm that happened in Perth last week, and I've included a couple below. (If you know their provenance, please let me know).

My cycle route yesterday took me from Swanbourne to Fremantle and back again - I felt like a tourist in my own hometown, which is always kind of fun. Favourite part of the excursion: spotting the itinerant surfers in their combi van using the wing mirrors to shave their stubble into a semblance of respectability, and the old guy with the electric bike whizzing up the coast path playing Phil Collins loudly on his portable radio. Sometimes I do love this town, for all its sleepy nothingness.

A coastal Thanksgiving

2011-11-22T09:14:00.000+11:00

A friend told me the other day that every five or six weeks you need to make sure you get out of the city and take a break from the madness of New York.

It wasn't that long ago that I was in the heart of sleepy Devon in the United Kingdom. I literally spent ten days reading, sleeping, and taking some serious walks across Dartmoor with my Dad. It was divine, and helped re-charge my batteries for the hectic weeks that lay ahead.

This Thursday is Thanksgiving, and my roommate E. has generously insisted that I join her family for a traditional celebration of the national holiday. We are taking the train down to their coastal holiday house on Wednesday afternoon, and I'm told to expect lots of turkey and pumpkin pie. E. is twelfth generation American (cool, right?!), so who am I to argue?

Plus, I'm stoked to be getting out of the city for a mini-break, just as the doctor ordered.

View across the valley, Dartmoor, England

First celebrity encounter. WITH CONVERSATION.

2011-11-21T14:17:00.001+11:00

Today at the Brooklyn Flea Market:

Ed Westwick (aka Chuck Bass): “Your food is dripping everywhere.”

Me: “Oh, sorry. Did I get any on you?”

Chuck Bass: “Doesn’t matter. Is it good?”

Me: “Yeah, it’s pretty good. Could do with some cheese.” (WTF?)

Chuck Bass: “I don’t like the look of it.”

Me: “Hmm, good thing you aren’t eating it then.”

Chuck Bass, gesturing to Jessica Szohr (aka Vanessa): "SHE likes it though, she said she wanted one."

Alrighty then. First New York celebrity spotting complete.

PS: Jessica was wearing these. HOT.

PPS: I was eating a quesadilla. It was tasty, but did need some cheese.

Gossip Girl Cast, just in case.

The upsides of solitude

2011-11-15T16:54:00.000+11:00

Moving to a new city where you know fewer people can make for a surprisingly peaceful life, even if your new home is one of the more bustling metropolises in the world.

Where previously almost every hour was blocked out on the calendar and evenings booked up weeks in advance, now I find I have a significant proportion of time that is, well, free.

It's liberating. I can spend more evenings devoted to the rewarding (and previously rare) pastime of reading a book - currently Eleven Minutes and The Art of Choosing. I can spend time researching interesting industry trends and planning my ascent into the lofty heights of Sheryl Sandberg-esque greatness. There is time to dream, and time to relax into the anticipation of life in New York, especially now that I've done the hard yards and am deciding between two equally exciting job opportunities.

So although my American address book is growing thicker each day, for the time being I'm quite content to spend some time alone, settling into the city and adjusting to the newness. And for someone accustomed to a hectic social schedule, this is quite revolutionary.

View over the New Jersey skyline at sunset, seen from Hudson River Park

New York Etiquette...?

2011-11-05T14:56:00.002+11:00

The taxi driver has loaded my bags into the back if the cab and my SmartCarte trolley is causing a traffic jam on the sidewalk outside JFK airport.

I look at it anxiously, waiting for a gap in the people streaming past to try ad move it out the way.

"What are you doing?" the cabbie asks. "Just leave it - pretend it isn't yours."

Seriously, this is New York.

This is New York

2011-11-04T13:06:00.001+11:00

It's sometimes hard to not to feel overwhelmed by the current of the city, but, at the same time, if you are persistent and determined - anything seems possible.

So, even when you have a meltdown because you can't find your iPod and the laundromat washer seems to have eaten one of your tennis socks, just remember this is all going to be worth it in the end.

This is New York, after all.

THE BEAT OF NEW YORK from TOUSSAINT on Vimeo.

Video credit, via Yes and Yes.

Happy Halloween!

2011-11-02T15:07:00.000+11:00

Hand-carved pumpkins in the Abingdon Square, just around the corner from my new apartment

What do Craigslist, the author of Charlotte's Web and a Nikon camera have in common?

2011-10-21T08:12:00.000+11:00

The last ten days have been full on. American, in-your-face, loud, bright, and truly fabulous. I almost feel like I'm not able to write compellingly about my New York experience just yet because I'm still processing the sensory overload.

My essential items during the last week are below: my new iPad, which was a farewell gift from my old job, showing the FABULOUS Craigslist app by Lifelike (SO much better than the website itself, trust me), my Moleskin leather-bound notebook, and E. B. White's seminal 1949 essay, "This is New York", in hardcover form, to keep me inspired. My DSLR camera has also been my constant companion, capturing images of what I'm not quite able to put into words.

If you want more New York updates, I've been tweeting and uploading Instagram photos when I haven't been inspecting apartments or going to job interviews, providing snapshots from wherever I am in the city in 140 characters or less. I'm also uploading my Instagram photos to a separate Tumblr blog as a memory bank to show family and friends.

Editor's comment: When will Instagram develop their own web-view for each profile, rather than just being able to view via mobile apps? And Instagram uploading to Tumblr is pretty temperamental so there will be some time delays to the Tumblr blog.

I finally had some success on the apartment front - after five "meet and greets" with people of varying eccentricity, I've signed a sub-let on a gorgeous room in a two-bedroom apartment in the West Village, just ten minutes walk from where I'm currently staying. I move in on Sunday!

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New York millinery

2011-10-17T09:08:00.000+11:00

I bought a hat today. It's a real New York hat, the kind I'd feel somewhat affected wearing in Melbourne.

Anthropologie's Minim Rancher brimmed hat. I purchased the camel-coloured version.

It's the first thing I've bought (apart from, you know, food and AT&T sim cards) since arriving last Sunday night.

I'm not really allowed to buy anything apart from a proper, practical winter coat until: 1) I've settled into my sublet next week and stopped cluttering up V&C's studio apartment, and 2) I've got a regular source of income.

The second one could take a while though, and so to keep sane, I'll buy the odd thing here and there. I'm in New York, after all, and I'm a believer in moderation, rather than the cyclical boom and bust that you often get when trying to abstain from something to the point of ridiculousness.

And for $58, I was happy to treat myself. Besides, it has a practical purpose: the weather already has a crispness to it and it's only going to get colder, and the hat will keep my head warm!

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Welcome to the West Village

2011-10-16T15:53:00.000+11:00

I've been in New York for almost a week now. It's been exhilarating, exhausting, and a little bit unreal.

I'm based in the West Village with V&C, who are generously letting me stay while I find my feet. I'm a little spoiled - they have such a lovely apartment, and the Village has such a fabulous neighbourhood vibe!

Below are some photos I took the first night I arrived. It was warm and balmy, and so many people were out and about.

Isn't it just the cutest neighbourhood?!

Continuing the food theme: British delights

2011-10-05T08:39:00.000+11:00

Do you have memories of food you ate as a kid that somehow never taste as good as an adult?

Somehow, the food I ate on holidays in England as a child still tastes as good as I remember. It's some form of awesome time-warp.

Below, I've included three of my favourite British (ish) foods.

Hobnob Biscuits

Clotted Cream Ice Cream

Broad Beans, fresh from the vegetable patch

I was going to include Devonshire Tea, but I thought it was all getting a little unhealthy.

What food do you remember loving as a child?

What I'm reading: American fiction

2011-10-03T08:40:00.001+11:00

Given my upcoming move to the States, I've decided I need learn a little more about my soon-to-be adopted country.

I've recently finished reading The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton, a novel of manners depicting the merciless nature of high society New York during the Gilded Age (late 19th Century). Lily Bart simultaneously evokes sympathy and frustration as she falls from grace through a combination of bad luck and errors of judgement. It's a beautiful read, and the kind of classic that may have been forced upon you during Year 12 English but is definitely worth revisiting.

I'm also about half-way through American Wife, by Curtis Sittenfeld. A work of fiction "loosely inspired by the life of an American first lady", Barbara Bush emerges from the pages as a sympathetic protagonist under a different name. It's not a political novel, instead focussing on family relationships and the evolution of a marriage. A good holiday read with some substance.

And, in my usual multi-tasking approach to life, I've also just started reading American Pastoral, the Pulitzer-prize winning novel by Philip Roth. Described as "a profound and personal meditation on the changes in the American psyche over the last fifty years" (Financial Times), I'm up to page 45 and am hooked already.

Tokyo Bikes

2011-09-30T08:29:00.000+10:00

I haven't written a post about bikes in a while, and I've been feeling a little sad because I had to sell my lovely Ruby Belle. She went to a good home though, and I'll have the fun of picking out a new model when I get settled in NYC.

In the interim, I thought I'd share some photos I took of bikes in Tokyo when I visited in March this year. It was an exciting trip (including the earthquake), and most of these photos were taken on the same intersection in Ginza within the space of twenty minutes. Just shows how popular cycling is in Tokyo.

Dashing through London

2011-09-29T07:37:00.000+10:00

After landing in London I jumped on the Piccadilly Line tube and headed over to Earl's Court to visit an old friend from Melbourne who has worked at a fancy-pants law firm near Fleet Street for the last three years.

Earl's Court in the late afternoon sunshine

Then, after not-quite-enough gossip time, I caught a taxi down to West Norwood to stay the night with my cousin C, in her plant-friendly apartment. Seriously, I was really impressed with her ability to keep living things alive. Perhaps that's a skill that will come to me with time.

She took me on a tour of the neighbourhood the next day, including a visit to Blackbird Bakery in Crystal Palace.

Where I bought this. Seriously. Yummy.

This holiday is going to be somewhat food-centric, I fear...

Meanwhile - I hear that Melbourne suffered from another epic storm last night. I hope everyone kept nice and dry and got home from work safely!

Blackbird Bakery
71 Westow St
Crystal Palace
London SE19 3RW
Area: Norwood (West & Upper)
+44 (0) 20 8768 0357

Hours:
Mon-Fri 7:00 - 19:00
Sat 7:00 - 18:00
Sun 9:30 - 16:30

Last minute breakfast at St Ali

2011-09-23T07:26:00.001+10:00

On Saturday morning before I flew out to London* I dropped into Melbourne institution St. Ali for breakfast with my housemate J. We were on our way to buy boxes to pack up my stuff to put into storage - my flight to New York is six days after I get back from England. (Cue deep breathing...)

St. Ali is incredibly popular with the South Melbourne breakfast crowd, and if you aren't a regular patron wait times on a Saturday morning can tip past the almost-bearable fifteen minutes. But, it's all worth the wait for their award-winning coffee. And the "Regina Fungi" - slow-baked swiss brown mushrooms, toasted fetta and poached eggs with balsamic reduction, is just to die for.

The laneway leading towards the cafe is quintessentially Melbourne: mix in an artesianal workshop with some graffiti-artwork and we are good to go.

St. Ali
12/18 Yarra Pl
South Melbourne, 3205

(03) 9686 2990

Update: A reader has pointed out that there is now a St. Ali in London that I could have visited the next day as a comparison! Has anyone been? I'd love to hear whether it retains the same feel as the Melbourne version.

St. Ali London
27 Clerkenwell Road
EC1M 5RN

*I'm currently on holiday in Devon, which is in the south-west of England. More on that later.

Hmm...

2011-09-14T21:46:00.001+10:00

Do you think if I live in New York until I'm old, I'll look like this?!

(Don't worry mum, I will come home eventually, I promise!)

Image credit.

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Four week countdown!

2011-09-12T22:53:00.000+10:00

This time in a month, I'll be in New York! The countdown begins! I'm actually kind of excited about the fact that I haven't gotten a job or an apartment yet - it will make my first few weeks all the more of an open-ended adventure. I've also reassessed my list of target companies recently, which has actually been really fun. When nothing is set in stone, anything seems possible!

On the weekend I had some farewell drinks at the Newmarket Hotel (which I reviewed in more detail here), which proved to be a perfect venue. New York is going to have some über-trendy restaurants obviously, but Melbourne holds its own more than admirably. Plus, the pork roast was AH-MAY-ZING. Seriously. You MUST try it. Our waiter was up-selling us left, right, and centre, and we couldn't have cared less.

Newmarket Hotel

Open Daily noon-3pm & 6pm-10pm. Bar food noon-11pm.

(03) 9537 1777
34 Inkerman St, St Kilda, 3182
www.newmarketstkilda.com.au

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Oops... It's been a while.

2011-09-05T00:25:00.001+10:00

Hello, my lovelies!

I know, I know, it has been far too long. And this time, I'm not going to make false promises that regular programming will resume soon - but I am thrilled to be able to give you an update.

My room is filled with bags as I sort through my possessions, because I have just three weeks left in Melbourne before I move to New York. I'm not actually flying out until early October, but I'm heading over to the UK for two weeks of rest and relaxation with family, before returning to Melbourne to wrap up at work and do my final farewells.

I'm taking somewhat of a gamble - I don't have a job, I don't have a place to live, and I've got three months until my holiday visa requires me to skedaddle quick-smart out of the country with my tail between my legs.

I've been doing a lot of thinking lately about whether I'm asking too much of life - I'm already happy, healthy, have a great job and a fabulous set of friends and a loving family. Why am I making everything more complicated by upsetting the apple cart and wanting MORE?

Something deep inside me worries that karma / god / an omnipotent life force is going to re-balance the scales at some point, and reprimand me for demanding too much when I'm already so fortunate. Is that weird? Yet at the same time, I can't NOT give this a shot. I know New York will be an incredible challenge, but I'll die wondering otherwise.

I'm going to miss Melbourne terribly (especially because the weather has been so good lately!) and I've started getting nostalgic whenever I run out along Beaconsfield Parade and look back towards the city skyline. Plus, Middle Park is so beautiful, and my apartment is palatial compared to the shoe-box I'll be able to afford in the sky-high rents of New York.

But, hey, at least I'll have lots of stories to tell my kids, right?!

Jasmine blossoms in Middle Park

Melbourne city towers

My (enormous) room. There is a walk-in wardrobe on the right. I'm standing on my (double) bed to take this photo.

PS: Lady Smaggle is in New York at the moment, and her (hilarious) posts remind me why I'm doing this. Although one of the comments has made me somewhat anxious about winter!

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La Belle Miette Macarons

2011-07-03T13:08:00.000+10:00

Yesterday, a new friend gave me these colourful macarons from La Belle Miette as a gift.

They are a "thank you" for helping to organise some meetings at my Real Life job.

I have them sitting next to me, with a pot of Japanese green tea and Dolly Parton's 9 - 5 blasting through the speakers. I'm building up the energy to do some work on this dreary Sunday afternoon. I'm hoping their combined power will carry me through.

I hope wherever you are, you're having a lovely weekend!

La Belle Miette
30 Hardware Lane
Melbourne 3000
Ph. 03 9024 4528

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Another whirlwind trip to the US

2011-06-30T07:23:00.000+10:00

Sorry for the absence my dears!

Here is a brief synopsis of my last three weeks:

Week 1
Decide I need to take a spontaneous trip to New York to follow up on some job leads. Cue a crazy week prior where I'm trying to organise as many meetings as possible, and also keep my Real Life (RL) work moving along smoothly.

Week 2
Fly to New York. It's all so sudden hardly anyone even knows I'm away. Get incredibly lucky and have V's West Village apartment all to myself while she and hubby C are in Poland for a wedding. (You can check out her blog here.)

V and C's delightful West Village apartment

Spend most of the week looking at the inside of flurescent-lit meeting rooms, staring out at sunny Manhattan from inside a taxi, or sitting at this desk trying to keep up with emails and RL work.

At least the view from my desk was tree-filled. Gotta love the West Village.

Week 3
Return to Melbourne. Back in the office, working hard to try and catch up lost time from being away. Find out I need to have some weird eye tests done, which leave my pupils dilated like Puss in Boots from Shrek below.

I felt as pathetic as he looked, and couldn't do any work for the rest of the day. Usually my approach to life is more embodied by this posture:

Now I'm just trying to catch up on everything that happened while I was out of town (including my very best girlfriend getting engaged!)

Thank you for your patience, regular programming should resume this week - including a post with some tips and tricks about how to manage overseas job interviews. And some slightly sexier photos of New York, which won't include Pixar animation characters.

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Miru Kim: Reclaiming New York's urban underbelly

2011-06-08T22:59:00.000+10:00

My little sister N recommended I check out this TED talk a week or so ago, from the TED Under 30 Series.

We were on the phone chatting about New York, and somehow got onto Miru Kim, a photographer who takes self-portraits of herself in deserted urban environments. Kim lives in New York, and after moving to the city to attend Colombia University, she began exploring and photographing the abandoned aqueducts, factories, hospitals and subway tunnels that exist in the underbelly of New York City.

The images she was producing felt lacking of some human element, and so she started taking self-portraits, with herself as part of the environment. She decided to photograph herself naked, so that the images would be "without cultural implications or time-specific elements".

I've included some of my favourites below. They are haunting.

Old Croton Aqueduct, the Bronx, New York

Freedom Railroad Tunnel, New York

Glenwood Power Plant, Yonkers, New York

Coney Island Nursing Home, Brooklyn, New York

Revere Sugar Factory, Brooklyn, New York

If you visit the series, called Naked City Spleen, at Kim's website, each image is accompanied by a short essay on the history of the location the photograph was taken. It makes you realise how quickly everything around us could fall into disrepair.

As Kim laconically described her encounters with homeless men in deserted subway tunnels and her wanderings through the off-limits areas of the catacombs in Paris, I began to reflect on the courage that must be required when putting together a photographic shoot such as those above. I'm so pleased she does, because I love the photographs, but goodness knows I wouldn't be brave enough.

I wonder if these are the ten steps Kim goes through each time she takes a photo:

Find abandoned urban location.
Navigate through the dangerous wasteland, trying not to catch tetanus from metal scraps.
Don't freak out when a rat or bat or fierce-looking stray dog appears.
Does it smell awful, perhaps from the open sewage pipes nearby? Not a worry, just wear a face mask.
Select a suitably impressive and artistic setting for your photo shoot.
Are you sure it's not too easy to get to? Maybe you should climb up higher onto that precarious-looking ledge?
Okay, time to get naked. Don't worry, at least you are all alone. Or are you?
Say cheese for the camera!
Pack up and wrap up - it's cold in the urban wastelands.
Your work here is done. Hightail it home to a hot bath.

It both amazes and awes me that there are artists willing to put themselves through such experiences so we can benefit from the end result. We are forever grateful.

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Pre-emptive nostalgia

2011-06-05T23:05:00.000+10:00

Now that my relocation to New York is becoming more and more real, I'm starting to get sentimental about Melbourne.

I've only been living in Middle Park for just over four months, but I'm completely taken with this little suburb that I used to refer to as part of "Melbourne's public transport black hole." I suppose when you live in South Yarra it's a pain to get to Port Melbourne / South Melbourne / Middle Park, but when you actually live here you can get to the rest of the city just fine. Apart from South Yarra, which is still hard to get to, but I don't need to go there much anymore, anyway.

Yesterday morning I dropped down to the Armstrong Street shops to pick up my dry cleaning and some milk, and snapped some shots of the houses along the way. How incredible was the weather this weekend?!

Middle Park is full of gorgeous terraced homes with wrought iron facades, and apparently is one of the most expensive suburbs per square meter in Melbourne. (I rent here, so it's still affordable. Everyone else who lives around here falls into the category of I'm-a-lawyer-with-two-kids-under-the-age-of-five-and-I-buy-organic.)

Terraced houses and picket fences

Wrought iron frontages

Super posh - check out the angels above the arches.

Some places have cobwebs around the edges, but it doesn't seem to detract from their charm.

Australian date palm taking over the front yard... We have a couple of these in my family home. They are HUGE.

The corner of Canterbury Road and Armstrong Street, with Penny Farthing Cycles and the Middle Park Hotel in the background. This place is just too cute, seriously.

I think I'd like to live here again when I come back from my overseas adventure. Perhaps by then I'll be ready to join the ranks of the shiny-married-couples-with-children-so-adorable-you-could-eat-them. Perhaps.

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New York... My new home?

2011-05-31T23:23:00.000+10:00

My trip to New York over Easter was more than just an exciting city-break tacked onto a business trip.

I went there to figure out whether I could live there.

Doing my due diligence: driving down Fifth Avenue in a convertible, scoping out the vibe...

I've been obsessed (yes, really quite OBSESSED) with the idea of moving to New York for some time now, despite never having actually visited before. Not only is the city glamourous, dynamic, diverse and constantly changing, but I'm excited by the idea of launching myself into the unknown and rising to the challenges of a new environment.

I've relocated my life twice before: firstly in 2001, when I moved to Berlin for a year as part of a language exchange for my Gap Year, and then again in 2002 when I moved to Melbourne to start my degree. I've been settled in Melbourne for almost ten years now (my god, that sounds like FOREVER!) and I'm itching for a change.

New York will be an immense challenge. I've realised the economy is still pretty dire, and so getting work won't be as easy as I'd blithely imagined. Americans are different - they speak with an American accent (it's crazy, but this reality came as a bizarre surprise), and they behave strangely when it comes to politics. The dating scene will operate with a strange new set of expectations and rules. The weather will be depressing. The food will be different.

Hot Dogs for sale outside MoMA

But despite these challenges, I'm going to give it a shot. The timeline will stay under wraps for now - partly because I'm still working it out myself, but stay tuned. This is going to be an adventure!

Grand Central Station and the Empire State Building at night.

(At least, I hope it's the Empire State Building. No-one has actually confirmed this for me.)

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