A New Way of Doing Things

I realised I need to change the way I do things in order to keep this blog up to date and relevant, I've been missing alot of important and fun things to share lately too, so from now on, I'll try to keep my posts more succinct in order to keep my loyal readers up with what we're up to.

Last Friday we decided to take our chances on going to see The Book of Mormon. If you don't know it's one of the newer broadway musicals and still greatly in demand. Tickets are still at the price point of $200+ so we decided to give "standing room" tickets a shot.

Thank goodness it's not raining...

We arrived at about 5 to line up for tickets to make sure we didn't miss out, we were about 12th from the window. It helped that it was cold and dreary. This is the modest crowd that ended up forming not long after. Right of frame anyway. To the left are the people that hung around for the lottery, where about a dozen names are drawn from the barrel for the chance to buy tickets

 And the winners are...

While waiting for the tickets, we (well... I cared...) also managed to see not one but two of these on the road. Most likely dealership cars as they had no plates.

 One stopped by the side of the road,

The other honked at him while driving by,

I haven't seen a Tesla in the metal yet, letalone the two newer Model S's. I'm usually averse to American styling in cars, but these two are very elegant and swooshy. With a $7400 electric car tax credit on a circa $80,000 purchase price and $500/month leasing, you can't say they aren't doing their best to bring the electric car to the people, granted those people need to be pretty well off. For the money  you can buy a BMW 640 Gransport Coupe, but on the other hand you can barely lease a 535i for that much. The govt. is probably helping out there somewhere even after the tax crediting...

Our wallets breathe a sigh of relief, as the lottery comes and goes without our names being called, so we stand in line until 7 when the box office window opens to offer standing room seats. We're told there's about 30, so our efforts are rewarded. How much do we pay? $27!

A success here too!

 

Show starts in an hour, so a quick slice to eat at a nearby Sbarro and then we're off to (stand to) see The Book of Mormon!

The empty set, a bald man enters on the right...

 

The things you need to do just to go see a show...

So this is what a whole day of standing got us, a numbered spot behind a rail, and more standing. But we managed to get good spots to err... stand (this will be my last mention of us standing, promise). We had a good view with which to enjoy the show. Funnily enough after intermission a man started standing (I said us!) next to Deb. He wasn't there before, and he was sort of in the walkway, so I'm assuming he forewent his seat that he must have paid alot of money for... I'm sure there's a saying here about the perception of value that applies here.

 

Overall it was a good show, enjoyable, laughable, but I can't really see why it's booked out for at least a year in advance, as the musical numbers, while spectacular were not particularly memorable, we didn't find ourselves humming the tunes after we came home. Neither did they really have any meaning other than within their own context. Aveue Q songs on the other hand you we have always found ourselves coming back to. And with the writers being Matt Stone and Trey Parker, you can't help going through the whole show thinking it's not The Book of Mormon, but "South Park, The Musical Mormon Special", or should that be Mormon Musical?

Overall I'd still say that it's worth going to see, for full price though? I'll have to think about that one. Make sure you go with an open mind because otherwise you will be offended, and try not to read into it any religious subtext, or you'll probably be even more offended.

My First MOC - Lego Mad Dog/Vulture

Just a quick one today, because I'm STILL WORKING on my lengthy coverage of the New York International Auto Show.

Unfortunately my employment status still hangs in limbo, I'll save the details for another post because I might not be able to express myself without the use of expletives and lots of head banging, or possibly writing something that will get us thrown out of the country, because we're a little upset. I mention this it has ensured a need for something creative/productive/takes me to a happier place.

Like many adult fans of Lego, (AFOL) Lego was a part of your life as you were young, then you grew up and started to pursue things that are (possibly) more meaningful. Real fans will always find themselves coming back, and if it amounts to nothing more than therapy, a warm blanket on a cold day, that's more than enough.

Since I didn't have the sense to bring my Lego with me over to NYC, what better excuse to start anew! I bought the Creator Sets - 31006 Highway Speedster, and 31007 Power Mech. After the ritual construction of the actual sets, they were deconstructed and combined for this venture. My initial attempt was actually to make an ED-209 from Robocop, but it was too difficult because my selection of pieces was not complete enough. Nothing to do with my skills not being up to scratch... ahem.

 Yeah, because THAT would be easy with lego...

Delusions of grandeur before I had even picked up a piece, so naturally I turned to something a little more blocky with more flat surfaces, how about Mechwarrior? Always you turn to the iconic first, to be sure the Timber Wolf was a consideration, but the same problems as ED-209 arose, how to model the curves of the cockpit.

 This photo's here just because it looks so cool...

Can you tell that I'm new to this, picking an appropriate object to model thing? Eventually I came back down to planet earth, figuratively speaking. Another Battlemech I was always very fond when playing the Mechwarrior games was the Raven, and I thought long flat slopes while being possible, would also provide a little bit of a learning curve.

We'll have to make do with this slightly less awesome photo of a Mad Dog.

So I jumped straight into it, and as any young builder of Lego will tell you, odd angles are also difficult, but I eventually figured it out and it slowly came together.

 There's a Lego creation hiding in here somewhere...

I hit a few stumbling blocks on the way, namely how to model the rocket pack casing, but I think I found a neat solution. If I'm honest with myself it doesn't really stand up to close scrutiny, but why don't I just let the photos tell the story.

Hi, I'm the new guy!

I did my best to colour co-ordinate, but I still have alot to learn, look closely and you can see a few spots that aren't so cohesive, but overall I'm quite happy wth it.

Up High!

Down Low!

As you can see it's clearly "inspired by" rather than a faithful representation of. The colour scheme reminds me a little of Lego Police and a Snowtrooper's helmet,

You know the one I'm talking about... the one with the gimpy arm?

As I said, there was a limited amount of hinge pieces, so the opposite arm became asymmetrical, sporting a bulkier, heavier, look. Overall I'm also a little mixed when it comes to the armaments, still some work to do.

All that exhaust needs to go somewhere...

You can probably see most easily here where I ran out of creativity when it came to the legs. I admit they're also a little out of proportion when compared to an "actual" example, but I'd argue they were a little too spindly to start with, so oversizing a little was probably the subconscious aim.

You have 20 seconds to comply

Surprisingly those ankle joints are quite stiff lending it some degree of poseability, I'm aware also that they would probably wear pretty quickly though so I won't throw it to the kids just yet.

I wouldn't be a Mechwarrior if I didn't describe the fantasy loadout of this 'mech, so indulge me, (skip to next paragraph for non-geeks)

2x Streak SRM-2
2x LRM err... 6
Ultra Autocannon/5 - right arm
ER PPC - left arm
2x Small Pulse Laser - nose mounted
(I've done my best to make sure this fitout is "realistic", please don't write in telling me this configuration is impossible. This is MY fantasy battle mech, I'd be happy to hear it if I could fit more armament though)

A few lessons to take away;
Don't be in too much of a rush, losing studs in the "sort of" dark while your wife is sleeping is hazardous to your lego collection.
I have lots to learn when it comes to greebling.
You may wish for more sets, and "just that piece", but another good aspect of creating with Lego is learning to make the most of what you have. Overall I used a good half to two thirds of the amalgamated set.

Overall, for my first MOC, I think it turned out far better than I was expecting. Then again I haven't picked up a Lego set with the aim of creating for a very long time, so I wasn't expecting much. I still have a lot to learn as an AFOL MOC'iser but this serves to remind me of the happiness and sense of fulfilment these little plastic bricks can bring.

The media that is not my own property came from these sources.

http://fc01.deviantart.net/fs48/f/2009/186/5/0/ED_209_by_nathy_d.jpg

http://ppc.warhawkenterprises.com/intshots/badasstimby.jpg

http://img59.imageshack.us/img59/21/26772430906236176677211.jpg

Come right in!

My apologies for such a long break in between posts, ironically having the internet at home is not conducive to blogging at all.

As promised in a few previous posts now, our apartment is now all together, and here is this post, to show you around our new home for our life in New York.

Sorry about the mess...

So coming in through the front door you have the kitchen to the right, our kitchen kart to the left for additional storage (we already have a wok!), and Deb's mirror for that final check before she leaves for the day. Most of our furniture you can thank Craigslist for, as buying brand new would be far too expensive.

A splash of red here...

A closer look at the kitchen, many bits and pieces come courtesy of Martha Stewart™ as she's pretty much taken over Macy's kitchenwares section. Otherwise, oven/stovetop and dishwasher are standard, as is the microwave hidden in the cupboard above the stovetop. A neat thing about our tap/sink is that the nose of tap is one of those detachable retractable (weighted) hose types. Pretty standard fare you say, but as anyone that has spent any amount of time in USA knows, they just love their pressure activated plumbing valving thingummies. Press a button on the nozzle and it turns into a spray. Very handy indeed for cleaning the sink and anything in it. I know, it's not really that fascinating in text, so I'll spare you the tedium and move on.

 A phrase concerning sardines comes to mind

Walking through the kitchen, you'll be greeted by this view of our little creative corner, where Deb can write her Broadway Musical, and lives a shelf where I can put all my little toys. Little blue Effie has come with us all the way from Sydney to watch Deb play. I think when we first walked in we just fell in love with the bright airiness because of the large windows. I will also take this moment to be proud of our automatic blinds, a wonderful little luxury if you're just too busy (lazy) to roll them up yourselves.

Somewhere to grow potatos?

So follow the room to your left and you can spot our couch and living area. Incidentally our TV is sitting right there on the larger coffee table, an unconventional choice for sure, but something we think is a neat solution to our general problem of lack of space. If you still don't know what it is, you'll see later. The couch of course is the nightmarish piece of furniture you've read about in a previous post.

 

Not much to explain here

Keep spinning to your left and you will see our dining area flanked by our book/media shelf and study table combination. Would you believe the dining table was free? An expandable IKEA set to cater from 4 to 6. Craiglist, oh how we love thee, we can't get over just how lucky we were to find matching furniture on craigslist. The total cost for the 4 person set was $20, because we had to buy two other chairs separately. But still, I'm sure you'd agree it was chicken feed compared to what we could have paid.

No NYC apartment is complete without Movie Star Makeup Room lighting

Shower and tub, someone must have forgotten to pay for the rest of the glass...

The bathroom is a bathroom, quite squashy in there but admirable for what it fits. I still can't get used to the fact that you change the temperature of the water rather than the flow, I try not to think about how much water you waste because of this. But I digress, did I mention the heated tiles?

And Pyjamas makes another guest appearance

Of course where do you go after the bathroom, but to bed? Perhaps the computer table instead, so it makes sense that the two are right next to each other. There's a his and hers side of course, and the inevitable tangle of wires that accompanies a study desk, but we have a solution for that too, courtesy of the Lego Shop at the Rockafeller Centre.

 Por vou?

Don't ask me why my "Not a Power Ranger" Lego Minifig is French, it just seems like an appropriate thing to say when you're holding a bunch of flowers like that, right? Really it's not a cable tidy, more a means for our cables not to fall into the all-consuming void. The little tub is your souvenir if you go to the Lego Shop and pick a bunch of bricks like you do lollies at a lolly store. If you do decide to do this, have a clear plan of what bricks you want because before you know it, you're scratching your head as to why you still only have half a tub while two hours have passed.

And that was the small tub. Whatever you do, don't listen to the salespeople telling  you to put what you want to build together before you put it into the tub. Because unless it all manages to tesselate, you won't get the most bricks. Lego is about bricks per dollar after all. Also... Truck!

See, I put a picture of us building a house up there, I poetrify good, yes?

If you didn't guess back up the top, that was a projector sitting on our big coffee table. The wonderful thing about the apartment being small is that it's only ever a few steps to control how bright it is inside. We thought long and hard about this purchase, in the end, we decided to make the leap for multiple reasons. It cost much less than the world of mediocre 40" LED TVs out there. 

It may only handle 720p, but we can't tell the difference so it's good enough for us.

It also accepts both 110V and 240V input so we can take it home with us in the case that we move back to Australia. 

Globe replacement is relatively cheap, for which you get about 5 years of life if you don't use it at it's brightest setting.  And with us being casual video media consumers, that is probably a conservative estimate still.

Really the only reason not to, is if our walls weren't freshly painted white. There is the slight omission in that it doesn't come with cables for communicating with computers, but I guess this is a less common circumstance. Where do I sign for my paycheck Epson?

So that is our humble abode here in New York. The virtual tour is done, we hope you enjoyed your stay, next week we explore Arts & Culture in New York with Randy Weston for a Listening Party, Stephen Sondheim for some reimagining, and Socrates Sculpture park for a little "what on earth?". 

See you again soon!

Being Mr. and Mrs. Smith

The main highlight of the week following our last post, was our visit to Le Cirque. Deb had formed a mild obsession with the place after seeing it featured in the tango scene of Mr. and Mrs. Smith. As budding fine dining afficionados, we both were keen to go indeed. On top of this, in the coming weeks, there were live Jazz bands playing. Jazz music is another one of our part time interests, we needed no more a reason to go.

Like a fine wine...
 

I'd like to think you can tell a lot about a place by looking at the cars parked outside, but that's only because I'm an enthusiast. On the other hand though, I do believe they can help characterise a place. This little gem was parked right outside the door so I assume it's owners were dining inside. As a matter of fact, a more modern 7 series was also parked across the courtyard, it would have made a nice photo, but I didn't want to look like too much of a tourist, trying to arrange the photo, as I was dressed up for fine dining. That and it was a public roadway I should probably not be in the way of.

Ah yes, the restaurant...

We actually went to Le Cirque cafe that night, as that was where the Jazz was being played. It had a more casual atmosphere which fit in more with the music. The decor was quite quaint, with a dimly lit and romantic atmosphere, did I mention we brought our parents? With the hope that we could share what we enjoy with them anyway, as they were only here for another week or so more, and we were staying.

Enter... stage, uh, cafe right?

The Avalon Jazz band was playing that night, we'd only heard of them from picking out which night we wanted to attend, we sampled their music on YouTube and thought we would enjoy it. Their music was sweet, playful, cheeky, just very french. The only thing missing was an accordian and a mime, I didn't look in the kitchen for rats cooking. They seemed to have a large support group in tow though, as that took up most of the casual seating area with acquaintances drifting in through the whole night. It leads you to wonder how many people actually turned up on a whim like us, not invited, but that's the challenge really, getting a leg up in this densely populated city.

Being french of course they place a great emphasis on their wine, as is apparent by the backdrop of the last photo. Which neatly brings us to...

The wine tower, as opposed to the cellar.

This was at the centre of the cafe floor, a wonderfully eyecatching wine tower, with traditional library style revolving ladder. A few times that night the head waiter would climb up and select a bottle for their customers. A beautiful feature. Deb was so inspired that she immediately placed one in the dreamspace of our future dream home, but for books of course. One wonders how much the net contents of the tower is worth.

Ok, so with the scenery firmly set, I can finally tell you about the food we ate. To be honest we are at such a surplus for good food here that we've been a little spoilt. Mainstream food is just at a better quality than back in Sydney. So unfortunately we were not blown away by the food, but then again, this was only the cafe, so maybe Le Cirque just doesn't splash out on it's lower class demographic. Flavours were strong, but dishes were a little one-note at prices, but I guess I might be expecting too much of a two course dinner at $35+tax. The best illustration of this was the Lobster Bisque which, although smoky, and containing actual chunks of Lobster, ends up being quite rich, and heavy. We resolve to find out whether or not the restaurant is better, but that we can save for a date night.

 Monkeying around.

Aside from the front of the menu, and this specific piece of crockery, there is little else to create the atmosphere of whimsy that they would suggest. It's a little out of place to me, in what otherwise is a place that seems to pride itself on the finer things.

What did leave a sour taste in our mouth however, happened as the night drew itself to an end. Although the band was still playing, our adventures the previous day (the shopping trip to Woodbery) was just too draining, we were still tired, so we resigned ourselves to paying the bill, and retiring early. One of the nicer details about New York is that in restaurants you can (pretty much) throw a bunch of credit cards at the waiter taking your bill, give them some general instruction, and they will work out the rest. I think this has something to do with their compulsary tipping culture, a generally higher quality of service is expected of the waiters. Unfortunately the two dealing with us were asleep during that lesson. Everywhere else we have tried this at, this does not faze the waiters. I will forgive the first waiter we first addressed, as he looked young, and was probably new. Our directions were along the lines of, split the bill on these two cards, please, (ours, and our parents) and put the glass of wine on this one (our card)". You could see on his face that it didn't compute, but he assured us he knew what to do anyway.

It was abit of  wait, and then a more senior waiter came along. I think you know how the rest goes.

"So you want the drink on this card?" as he points to our card.

We confirm that yes, this is what we want, and he goes on his way.

This was the waiter that already insisted on giving us dessert menus, instead of asking, and didn't really seem on the ball when we told him we already had ordered one at the beginning of the meal.

This waiter then comes back with the bill indeed split. But with the drink only on our card, stiffing our parents with the rest of the bill, when we tried to tell him this was not what we wanted, he passed the buck telling us that he merely did what the junior waiter asked. No offer to fix it.

I feel like I need to mention this because otherwise, the service was very courteous, and friendly. So it is even starker the contrast, the level of service offered at the end of the night.

But I digress, there really are more important things in the world to worry about. Here's another photo showing the wonderfully diverse atmosphere present around this neighbourhood. I wouldn't have been surprised if one of the band members owned this.

You'd think there were more songs about little red Vespas

Life is a Highway/Let's Go Shopping!

Thanks to Deb's corporate discounts, Avis had the best deal for us, it's clearly culture shock when the lady behind the counter makes sure that you want a "compact" for four people. I guess if we were American sized, we would have conceded. Their idea of compact was a Mazda 3 Skyactiv sedan, which back home is a perfectly adequate means of transportation for four average to below sized adults.

Squee~~~!!!

Within the city, it's as good as everyone makes it out to be, nippy, nimble, compact even, but as it reached the highways, it was out of it's element. This is most likely down to it's Skyactiv namesake. Being engineered with fuel efficiency as paramount, doughy throttle response, and reluctant kickdown are par for course. The moment you want to overtake, or go up a hill and keep that car you just overtook from catching up embarrassingly, you need an excessive amount of throttle travel before the electronics give in and finally give you forward thrust. Because of that, you labour the engine, and end up consuming more fuel. Really it's a case of square peg round hole.

Anyway, my small car review over, back to the road trip. We started the trip mid morning, about 9:30 after all the paperwork was signed, so the voyage out of New York was relatively uneventful. Relaxing even. We wound along the landscape and were greeted by beautiful vistas of small cottages covered in snow, quaint suburban towns that you only see on TV as an Australian. Pedalling our way up a slight hillside, I finally experienced pea soup, a term I've only ever come across in literal terms.

I... can't... see!

It was only a brief point where visibility dropped to this level, maybe less than a kilometre, half a mile or so. It was funny as there was no sign that we would have this heading out of an otherwise clear New York.

Where am I???

After that brief spot there was no need for any more trepidation. It was very clear (cold) sailing ahead. Hovering around 40 degres fahrenheit the whole way (that's about freezing, sydneysiders). We reached Woodbery Commons shortly after they had opened, so it was still relatively quiet. It was a very oddly arranged complex, if you're used to shopping centres in Sydney anyway. More akin to a small scale village, where each shop is a house, large numbers of shops were arranged into "towns" with the Information stand and Food Courts being the quasi town centres.

Today we visit the state of Shopping, New Jersey

Because of this, the place has it's own map that they hand out at the information centre, shopping here requires military co-ordination, so see below the destinations I wanted to visit circled in black (see if you can spot 8). The shops circled in red are the ones Deb wanted to see/we ended up wandering into (find 16 + 1 for lunch).

They're all there, just take my word for it...

After a brief morning of shopping, it was time to stop in for lunch. I saw Philly Cheese Steak and my mouth started watering. Deb would never say no to something like that, especially because we hadn't been eating that badly up until that point.

Yes, that is my normal sized hand in the background... why do you ask?

It wasn't actually that big, blame perspective. They were roughly smaller than a Subway Foot long / 6 inch respectively. The "regular" drink is considered "large" in Australia though. What was beneath the wrapping however was a revelation, Philly Cheese Steak is actually more akin to our kebab meat back home, how this came to be described as such I don't know. I guess "Philly Shredded Beef" doesn't sound that appetising... not to say that it wasn't, it's just a misnomer, so adjust your expectations accordingly.

With our calorie reserve sufficiently brimmed, we continued to conquer the shopping outlet. As Deb would often put it she was "in a happy place".

 

$7.50 Jeans? How can I lose!

Conquer we did for the rest of the day, we eventually left at about 6pm as daylight was slowly leaving us. What started out as a relatively empty parking lot as customers slowly filtered in, ended up full of cars sleepily waiting until their owners had their fill of shopping.

Warning: Children left in car may be middle aged when you lose you them

The drive back home was relatively peaceful, so much so that Deb would occassionally nod off into a light sleep. And as soon as I was getting anxious about upcoming road directions, surely enough the GPS would chime in as it was needed.

What we came back to however was quite a spectacle. 6:30, everyone squashing into Manhattan.

Everyone in this photo is in the way

Next stop, the mines of Moria... I mean Manhattan

Gas, brake, honk. Gas, brake, honk. Honk, honk, punch. Gas, gas gas!

Needless to say it was very slow going from then on. I think it took us about half an hour of the one and a half hour trip to cover the last few miles. We had wanted to keep the car for the night for dinner, but quickly resolved that going anywhere in this mess would take us far longer than what was sensible. Who knows if this had cleared itself by the time we finished dinner too. So we dropped the car off early, as it didn't matter being daily rental. It had done it's duty for us, and we were thankful.

As we hadn't shopped that crazily, we caught the train back up to the apartment before heading back to dinner. Below are the spoils from our voyage that day. I don't think we spent much more than $150 on all this either, disregarding the set of boots that were ordered for home delivery as they weren't in stock at the outlet.
Final count,
1 Corningware,
2 sets of boots,
1 pair of jeans, 1 hat,
1 fancy yet sensible dress,
1 jacket,
1 pair of khakis.

Taking up too many seats on the subway

Everyone was starving from the walking around in the cold, so we quickly decided on a place to eat. Never mind the fact that it was back where we had rented the car, just an avenue over. Since we had dropped it back so early it was just past normal dinner time when we sat down.

We settled on a place called Citrus, a funky little place full of cuisine described as Asian/Latin fusion. Interesting I know, but it worked. The clientele was an interesting mix of young and old, so it was hard to peg the demographic. But generally the food took on an asian shape, with sushi, and seafood. The Latin part was usually the sauce or other such trimming giving it a spicy kick. We all thoroughly enjoyed our food, of particular note was Deb's Sushi combo, with 4 different variations. Two were the normal sushi and sashimi staple of kingfish, salmon, tuna and exceptionally tasty scallops, another was a seaweed roll that somehow unified spicy tuna and a slice of mango, another was a very french spicy tuna tartare with a layer of refreshing guacamole with added cucumber to combat the spice.

An Asian and a Latino enter a bar...

A special mention for the dessert I had, which was an evolution of the humble Apple Pie/Crumble. Inside along with the baked apple, instead of the sugary syrup was a cinnamon cream/mousse like filling (in texture anyway), this added a soft, sweet and creamy complement to the toasty apples. The cinnamon vanilla ice cream on the side was one of those flavours you could happily nurse a tub of on a wintery night, while curled up in a blanket on the couch.

I won't refuse a slice of this humble pie. (Yes that is a vial standing in for a teapot)

So all in all, that day was the closest thing we've had to a real holiday this trip, with shopping, a brief culture clash, a road trip, family and delicious food all in one. So that's it for us from this decidedly mass market post. Next week you see what our largely finished apartment looks like, and we visit Le Cirque for Dinner and French Jazz!

Yay, No blink!

And now we resume normal programming

Hopefully that little break has served you well, as it's time to go back to what I've been doing all along, that is filling you in about our daily life in this city.

We never got anything like this in Sydney

So a major even has occurred in that Deb and I have moved into our new apartment. Over the course of the last week the dream of having our own living space in New York has been realised. Thanks to alot of hard work put in by our friends (thanks especially to Dewi, Dawen and Andy) and family, (mum and dad) we've been able to do so quite quickly.

Three trips up and down 24th street to 93rd street later, this is what our apartment looks like. 

We had slowly accumulated little bits and pieces at our temporary apartment, ones that we thought we'd be able to manage with Dawen's minivan move, and obviously, big ticket items had to wait until we had the keys to the new place.

 Box sweet box?

Deb and I have now formed an unfailing tradition of not having mealspaces when we move into new places. It happened at her first apartment, it happened at mine. And as the photos of those memories look on on the shelf nearby, we couldn't break tradition by having furniture to eat on. Don't worry, we have since procured a dining table through the wonders of craigslist. One stressful subway trip later with our mum and dad, we finally have space to eat. Updated photos will come soon.

Next up was a couch, well this actually came a few nights before. But in order of importance a couch is arguably further down the scale. The impending visit of Deb's parents however made sure the couch forced it's way up the list.

NOW you stop to think about it...

We knew we weren't staying for long so there wasn't much use in getting furniture that we could lose out alot on when it came time to go back to Australia. The unfortunate by product of purchasing cheap furniture is of course, production methods having corners cut. Because of this, a leg wouldn't screw in properly as it was covered by a particularly thick layer of paint. So I waved my mechanic's wand over it, threw it at the gas burner cooktop, and manhandled it into place with my manly manliness. After that ordeal, we finally had a sofa bed.

Something that you would expect, and not expect at the same time of cheap furniture makers, was a little inventiveness on their behalf. I'll leave it to you to figure out what this is about.

The little tag says "leg inside"

As we lifted the couch out and discovered no extra pieces, we did wonder for a minute. At least there were no embarrassing phone calls to suppliers to figure out that the legs were hiding in that neatly hidden zip up pouch.

No trip to America is complete without a day dedicated to Outlet Shopping. Those of you that know me best know that in my happier moments I am behind the steering wheel of a car, so the past month being stuck on trains and on foot would of course, leave a longing. With outlet shopping it's just too difficult being at the mercy of public transport. So we rented a car!

Next post, come along with us for a road trip to Woodbery Commons!