Sunday, May 31, 2009

We're in!!!!

GARETH AND AMY SAY...

So far so good :)

We survived the move in up the 5 flights of stairs thanks to Dave! Thank you Dave.

We had our first bit of luck in the new place - the place we ordered some dinner from got the order wrong and gave us almost double!!!! We ate and drank like kings for $18 ;)

Yippee.

Moving day

GARETH SAYS...

Amy and I are both sick.

It's as though our bodies knew today was moving day and have gone on strike.

The flat is awash with scrunched up toilet paper. Amy is asleeep next to me with toilet paper shoved up her nose!!! It looks very funny and i am half tempted to take a picture and share it with you but i think she'd kill me.

Our clothes are all bagged up in trash bags. Or books and pots and pans are loaded up into cardboard boxes.

We're ready to leave. In fact we have been ready to leave this place since the first week.

It feels like we are coming up for air :)

The next place is a fifth floor walk up so i just hope their is enough oxygen up there. I'm not looking forward to carrying all the stuff up the stairs. Ohhhh i can feel a bad back coming on and Amy is too sick to be my Florence Nightingale.

AMY SAYS...

It feels like every-time we move I get incredibly ill - when we moved to Prospect Park, I had a horrible cold, then I caught salmonella - which had me in bed for almost 2 whole weeks. Then when we moved to the East Village and we've been cold sick and miserable ever since. Now we're moving to Bleeker street and Gareth and I both have the flu it seems.

Friday, May 29, 2009

The bounce back begins

GARETH AND AMY SAY...

The easy thing to do last night was go home, get into bed and be miserable.

But we didn't!

Instead Gareth cycled over in the rain to Amy's work with flowers, frozen yoghurt and a can of diet coke.

Big hugs were had.

We thought about booking ourselves into a hotel but decided against it - only two more sleeps until we move out and $150 is $150 :)

We cycled home together in the rain.

Cooked pasta.

Had a hot bath.

And then feel asleep.

Onwards and upwards.

Thursday, May 28, 2009

No fairy tale ending :(

OUR BROKER WROTE...

"Hi guys,

Please don't shoot the messenger...

We didn't get the apt.

The other offers were considerably higher than ours. .

I'm so sorry. It looks like we'll be drowning our sorrows in beer tomorrow. :(

But after tomorrow, let's get right back on the horse. The good news is that there ARE other apts on the market that will work for you. I know it may sound trite, but we are one step closer to finding you a home. I would even dare say that each of your selections has been progressively better than the one before. I'm confident we'll find you an apt that is superior to all the rest so far.

Hang in there and try not to get discouraged. This is a huge learning process and you're learning very quickly. You're also getting very clear about what you want. But maybe the biggest part is developing a thick emotional skin and bouncing back quickly from setbacks. You're definitely more resilient than at the outset.

So keep your chins up and prepare your bellies for lots of beer.

I'll check my searches again and email you listings tomorrow.

Hugs,
P"


Needless to say we are both gutted :(

But fear not we have a nice place to go home to tonight - oh on seconds thoughts - we hate it there :(

Bugger

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

HEADS EXPLODING

GARETH IS ABOUT TO BURST...

Our life is always a bit mixed up.

BAD STUFF: We are staying somewhere we hate. A sign went up in our lobby from the police saying the building is under 24 hour surveillance because of drug trafficking. Blimey!!!! Thank goodness we move out on Sunday to Dave's.

GOOD STUFF: We have just found somewhere we love and we have made an offer on it. It's so close to being ours i can almost taste it.

BAD STUFF: Sadly we aren't the only people who want this flat. It had 8 offers!!!!!! We made it through the first round and are down to the final three for a 'best and final' showdown. We find out tomorrow so keep your fingers crossed.

GOOD STUFF: If we get it it will be like the fairy tale ending to Operation Night Brace and over a year of extreme saving!!! But fear not it won't really be the end we still have $60k to pay off though so it isn't the end end, just the start of a different phase - a nice relaxing, comfortable phase where saving takes second place to living.

AMYS SAYS........
HALLALUYAH
AMY SAYS...
I got this in an email today. I'm not the type of person that would go to something like this but WTF - ping pong, free drink!!!

Greetings!

Hi #{first_name}#,

We know it's been awhile since we saw you at our last mixer. This warm weather has inspired us and we're throwing another one for you tomorrow to celebrate the arrival of summer!

This month's Zipster Mixer is at Fat Cat (75 Christopher St @ 7th Ave in Manhattan) on Thursday, May 28 from 5:30 - 8pm. The first drink for Zipcar members is on us (we'll be dressed in Zipcar gear and easy to spot; just flash your Zipcard and select your cocktail of choice). And if you bring along a non-member friend who signs up for Zipcar, we'll slide you both $75* of driving credit. Oh, we should mention Fat Cat has ping pong and billiard tables. So bring your game, because we will!

See you tomorrow,

The team at Zipcar New York

*Offer not valid in conjunction with other offers, promotions or corporate accounts.

zipcar | wheels when you want them (TM)

---------------
Need help? Give our member help center a whirl.

Did you know your membership works in all Zipcar cities? Zip in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, London, New York, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Portland, New York, San Francisco, Seattle, Toronto, Vancouver and Washington, DC.

NOTE: This e-mail was sent from a notification-only address that does not accept replies.



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
underthehood@zipcar.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Monday, May 25, 2009

What the fuck is going on?

GARETH SAYS...

The weirdness continues with our sublet in the East Village but fear not we only have to survive until next week and then we are out of here (and out $500 in the process - arghhhhhh).

Here is a list of the weirdness (and it is growing everyday)...

It turns out the woman we are renting from hasn't paid any rent for 4 months and owes the landlord over $8000.
This is surprising because we paid her in cash to stay here for 2 months.
In turns out the rent is $1700 and she is charging us $1875
This is effectively $175 for bills of which the internet doesn't work and you can't really use the electricity because the circuit trips - so thats $175 for bugger all.

And that's not all...

Even though it is early summer the flat is freezing and infested with ants.
We have weird people ringing the buzzer at odd times (i'm guessing it's the landlord after his rent).
And the shower is going to kill us the first time we turned it on the head fired off into our faces and we got pounded by water that is either too hot or too cold

We have effectively paid up until the 15th but we want out on the 1st. We are trying to get our last weeks money back but i'm pretty certain we can kiss that goodbye.

It seems like everywhere we have lived this year people have tried to shaft us :(

Hopefully the next place will work out. It is for 3 months and we're going to be subletting from a friend from work rather than a weirdo from craigslist. What could possible go wrong? Watch this space and find out...

Sunday, May 24, 2009

"30 days on minimum wage"

GARETH AND AMY WATCHED...

The guy who made Super Size Me has a TV series in the states called 30 days where he (or someone else) gets to live in someone else's shoes for 30 days. Here is the description of the first episode...

"Morgan Spurlock and his fiancée Alex leave their fabulous New York lifestyles behind for the heart of the Midwest, Columbus, Ohio. Morgan and Alex work at multiple minimum wage jobs for 30 days earning $5.15 per hour. They get to experience first hand the struggles minimum wage earning families face as Morgan’s niece and nephew come to live with them."

It was a pretty painful experience. We saw a lot of ourselves in them - every argument them had we'd had (in principle) at some point - "Hey i walk to work so we can save money and you just wasted $1.20 on doughnuts"

But i'd like to think we have moaned less. Boy did they moan and they only did it for 30 days. ONB has now been going for 12 months! I guess there are several things that make it easy(ier) for us to cope with it all...

1. It is our choice - we are choosing to do this we could stop tomorrow if we wanted to
2. We have jobs we enjoy and find fulfilling
3. We live in NYC not Columbus, Ohio

So it is heads down and ploughing forward with the plan.
___________
Morgan: "I have seen how hard the struggle is. I have been here. And I only did it for a month, and there's people who do this their whole lives."

Saturday, May 23, 2009

Why wasn't this us? ;)

GARETH AND AMY READ THIS ON THE BBC...

NZ hunts accidental millionaires

Police in New Zealand are searching for a couple who disappeared after a banking blunder deposited NZ$10m (£3.9m, US$6m) in their account.

The couple had applied for a NZ$10,000 overdraft but received NZ$10m in their business account instead, part of which they withdrew, local media report.

They are said to have run a service station in Rotorua, North Island.

Police believe the couple have left the country and Interpol has been alerted for assistance.

The deposit was made by the Australian bank Westpac, which has about 10 million customers.

Police said that part of the money had been recovered, without specifying the amount.

"The individuals associated with this account are believed to have left New Zealand and police [are] working through Interpol to locate those individuals," said Detective Senior Sergeant David Harvey of New Zealand Police.

"Westpac Bank has recovered some of the money which had been inappropriately withdrawn."

Westpac media relations manager Craig Dowling said the bank was "pursuing vigorous criminal and civil action to recover a sum of money stolen".

Adding that the incident had prompted a review of how it had occurred, he said he would not comment on the specifics of the case due to the police investigation and court actions requiring confidentiality.

Friday, May 22, 2009

A (free) night out

GARETH SAYS...

Last night was a good night. It felt like the type of night we should be having more of in NYC rather than sitting at home in a cold miserable flat watching Hulu over a crap internet connection.

Here's what happened...

Amy's sister's boyfriend works in PR and has got lots of connections in the artworld so we decided to tag along with them for the evening.

First stop...

Gallery opening in Chelsea
This is my first gallery opening i have ever been to in NYC. The people who had drifted out of the woodwork with the promise of free alcohol were sadly more interesting than the work we had all gathered to see but at least the wine was white and not too warm.


Second stop...

Bubble and Bubble University (yep the hairdressers!!!)
Having checked our names off at the door we climbed into a lift the size of one of our meeting rooms at work and went up to the on of the top floors of a rather mysterious building. The lift opened into a big loft space filled with people getting drunk and enjoying free food from the event's sponsor - Wholefoods YUMMMMMMYYYYYYYYYY! The night had a few highlights - my favorite was the weird fashion show with people wearing outrageous costumes such as...

The Firing Clown - A dude in a suit with a weird clown mask made out of office equipment (post-it note skin, calculator ears, sellotape eyes, a pointy hat made out of pens). He ran round with a briefcase and when he opened it we saw it had a birthday cake in it that said: "Your fired" on it written in frosting.

The hairy woman - A rather large woman who wore nothing but a bikini made out of long dark hair which flailed out when she spun round

It was all very odd but odd in a good way.

It ended early but that was probably a good thing.

I cycled home and Amy went off to another party.

I was exhausted from work and full of meatballs, chips and dips and beer.

Thank you New York. We had a great evening.

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Huh

Amy says...
I found these quotes....and as an experiment I interchanged 'happiness' for 'money' and 'money' for 'happiness'...some of them work better then others ;)

Even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness, and the word happy would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness.
Carl Jung

Even a lot of money cannot be without measure of darkness, and the word rich would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by poverty.
Amy Globus

Money is like manure; it's not worth a thing unless it's spread around encouraging young things to grow.
Thorton Wilder

Happiness is like manure; it's not worth a thing unless it's spread around encouraging young things to grow.
Amy Globus

Happiness is not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort.
Franklin D. Roosevelt

Money is not in the mere possession of happiness; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort.
Amy Globus

Sunday, May 17, 2009

AMY PONDERS LIFE ;)

I think there's really nothing perfect about life, except maybe that it's messy :)

It's how people roll with the punches; how they get up and dust themselves off that makes them truly amazing.

So after a few crazy emotional highs and lows on this roller coaster of life, Gareth and I are dusting ourselves off and moving forward hand in hand.

Yay :)

GARETH SAYS...

And as part of this dusting off process we are ... drum roll please ... booking a weekend away to see our friends in Montreal. To hell with the budgeting!!!

Saturday, May 16, 2009

TRAIN TIMES

AMY SAYS...

Since we moved into our new apartment in the East Village I no longer have to rely on the train, I can almost walk to work in under and hour!

So I fixed up my bike an bought one of those heavy duty chains and now I cycle every morning and evening!!

It's AWESOME - a total life changer!!

No more wrestling for a seat, no more getting elbowed by 'suits'...

I'll be saving $81 a month and it only takes me 10 minutes to get to work!!!

It's amazing, I highly recommend it!

Friday, May 15, 2009

Random thoughts about love and money

AMY SAYS...

Martin Luther King Jr. Said
"There can be no deep disappointment without deep love"

So last week when Gareth and I went to make hyman's with pita bread an laughed our asses off all eve--the stress just melted away and it felt like we fixed what was starting to break from all the stress!

Also, for the first time in about 1.5 years I have a project that I am jumping outta my skin to make!! It will involve some pretty heavy duty 3D animation work though. I told Gareth that I found someone who was interested in helping me build the project, I was worried that he'd freak about how much money it would cost to make BUT instead he said,

"If this is something you really want to do and it will make you happy, WE will find a way."

I think that line will go down in my top 10 favorite things Gareth has ever said to me.

:)

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Do you want dog shit with that?

GARETH SAYS…

Last Sunday was Mothering Sunday in the US so Amy and her sister volunteered to cook their mum her favourite meal – clams and spaghetti, followed by roast leg of lamb with artichokes and roast potatoes, finished off by chocolate cake. Yummy!

The food was ordered and the meal was cooked perfectly!

One of the funniest moments (but also the most disgusting) happened while we were eating the lamb.

I’m not the greatest carver so I was making a bit of a mess. Amy’s mum saw a piece of lamb on the floor and picked it and put into next to the plate of lamb I’d carved (thankfully not on the plate as you will soon see).

While we were cleaning up afterwards I had a closer look at the dropped piece of lamb – it turned out that was no piece of lamb!!!!!! It was a rather hard piece of dog poo courtesy of either Teddy of Kiki – we’ll never know which ☺. It is amazing how similar a tasty little bit of roast lamb looks like a piece of shit.

Oh my god – that was a close one!

Someone could have been given that to eat.

We cried and cried with laughter.

Amy’s mum is still convinced it was a piece of lamb – I bet her $30 to eat it.

Needless to say – she threw it in the bin.

THANK YOU WORLD!!!

I just wanted to say that this has been a wild crazy adventure, and whenever I read a "Comment" from someone it warms my heart to no end. (I NEVER thought I would say shit like that) but it's true.

Every comment that I've read, when I've posted something heartbreaking or painful, has been thoughtful, insightful and kind!!

I would mention names but YOU KNOW who you are...so THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!!!!!

Love Amy

Pitart bread

GARETH SAYS...

As you may have noticed - Amy and I were in need of a date night to cheer us up!

Last night we went to our local bar and ordered a pitcher of sangria and drank it all - all 2 liters of it!

With every glass the worries got less and the laughter got more.

One of the highlights was when we ordered humus and started nibbling shapes out of pita bread and getting Marty the barman to guess what we had tried to create.

Here are some of the things we nibbled for Marty to guess.

Amy nibbled.... a Jet plane - Marty guessed this correctly
Gareth nibbled .... a cherry - Marty thought it was a hymen (the fold of mucous membrane which surrounds or partially covers the external vaginal opening)
Amy nibbled ... a hymen - Marty had no idea what it was
Gareth nibbled ... a slice of pizza - with a bit of mime Marty guessed correctly

Marty then did one for us. I can't remember what it was - it was some sort of Mexican snack which i'd never heard of so Amy walked away the winner.

I don't know what he really thought of us but he did say it was the funniest night of bartending he'd had in 4 years.

Somehow our bill only came to $30 - i guess he liked us.

We are both hungover this morning and feeling sorry for ourselves.

I'm off to the airport to fly to Texas for work.

Amy is still in bed.

AMY SAYS...
It was a Chimmychanga!!!

Monday, May 11, 2009

WHAT WENT WRONG

AMY SAYS...

Gareth and I have become obbbbssseeessseddd with money.

Everything we seem to do or say revolves around that nasty green stuff.

Our lives are, seemingly, on permanent hold because of that crappy paper.

Our relationship is crumbling because of that shit we stick in our wallet.

We don't know how to fix it.

I know I love him.

I know he loves me.

But right now, it all seems:

Thursday, May 7, 2009

CURSED

AMY SAYS....

I feel like someone has put a curse on me...

I have broken a giant mirror
I have broken a clothing stand
I came home last night to NO electricity in the pouring rain
We didn't get the apartment we loved
I was almost killed by many truck drivers cycling to work
My new computer system at work crashed and died....
I have no heat, no internet, no kitchen, no TV, no Gareth at home...

It seems like every which way I turn I should duck...

Cause recently, I aint got no luck!! :(

Will work for popcorn


GARETH SAYS...

I recently met the owner of a popcorn company in a bar while away on a business trip.

He was having a problems with a particular area.

Being a loud mouth i jumped in to help.

"Oh you could do this ... or this ... or this ..."

My suggestions went down pretty well.

We swapped cards and disappeared into the night.

One week later a massive box arrived at work.

In the box was more popcorn than i could possible eat.

6 giant bags and all of it delicious.

Thank you Doc Popcorn!!!

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Odd questions

GARETH SAYS...

Living Operation Night Brace throws up many interesting questions.

Here's a classic from Sunday morning...

Amy: How much would you charge someone for sex?

Gareth: Er ... um ... $500 i guess.


Looking back on this two worrying things emerge:

1) Why was Amy thinking about this?
2) Was $500 selling myself too cheap?

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

There is always someone worse off than you

GARETH SAYS...

... cheer up!

No matter how gloomy things are for you there is always someone out there worse off than you and here is a website to prove it. It is soooooo addictive.

It's called FML as in 'f@£k my life' and is designed to be a place to share your every day life unfortunate moments.

It is cheaper than going to a shrink and it's good to know that no matter what happens someone in the world will be able to have a good laugh at your expense.

Here's the link

Here are some highlights...

Today, I ran for my school's elections for President. I thought I was popular enough to win. I lost, by 61 votes, my grade is only 62 people. I was the only one to vote for myself. FML

Today, I had my first real meeting with my girlfriend's parents. We had dinner at a pretty upscale restaurant and everything was going great. When the check came, I offered to pay and I stood up to take out my wallet. When I opened it, 3 condoms fell out on the table in front of them. FML

Today, I went downtown to pay my speeding ticket. After standing in line and arguing with a rude woman behind the desk, I get back to my car only to find an expired meter and a parking ticket. I got a ticket while paying my ticket. FML

Monday, May 4, 2009

Refurbished Phone

GARETH SAYS...

After my costly accident with my phone and an apple pie i had no choice but to buy a new handset this weekend.

I went along to the local AT&T store and had a look at what was on offer.

Ohhhhh how sexy the iPhones looked but they weren't cheap.

A salesman saw me drooling and came over.

I think he must have seen the state of my sneakers and said that they offered refurbished models for half the price.

Half price??? Now that's a word i love.

But hang on a minute doesn't refurbished mean - 'owned by someone else who broke it?'

The sales dude told me that the phone had been fixed by apple and was offered with a 90 day guarantee just like a brand new iPhone.

It was a no brainer.

With a quick swipe of a debit card i was the proud owner of a new(ish) iPhone.

Happy days.

Saturday, May 2, 2009

Mark Twain

AMY SAYS...

I'm a dork but I have a 'love quote of the day on my phone...here's the one i got today:

"Love seems the swiftest, but it is the slowest of all growths. No man or woman really knows what perfect love is until they have been married a quarter of a century."

Damn!! 23.5 more years and $60,000 to go ;)