Thursday, September 27, 2007

Thursday 27th September

I now have 1000 paper souffle cups in 4 different sizes being sent to me. Not to mention the other 125 plastic souffle cups on the same order. (Yes, I have been really really really bored in the office.) And those souffle cups will go towards fulfilling my Stepford Wife ambitions. They are going to be so perfect for turning out cute little muffins/babycakes and maybe even souffles if I get ambitious enough.

I have effectively not been working for the past 9 months. I show up in the office, look pretty, surf the internet lots, give my gimps work, plan my social life, check my gimps' work, plan my vacations and of course, write my blog. This lifestyle is great for a while, but now my brain has turned into mush and I have lost all career ambition.

As one of my bosses put it, with this job, you're only happy when you're busy, but when you're busy, you're also pissed off about being so busy.

But it worries me that I no longer want to do any work. My first thoughts whenever I am given any work is: is this going to get in the way of my social engagements? is this going to screw my weekend? I miss feeling excited about my work. I miss feeling engaged.

Not having worked in a cut-throat "male" situation for a while, I am starting to soften and feel myself becoming more stereotypically "female" in my career aspirations. I used to want to quit this to become a corporate bigwig. Now I am thinking maybe I should do something relatively easy but lucrative like say hedge fund investor relations. All I will need to do is look pretty and flirt with clients, definitely playing to my strengths there. And of course, this would give me more time to bake and cook.

Oh yes, my brain is definitely turning to mush. As a reminder, I have 1000 paper souffle cups and 125 plastic souffle cups in the mail to me. Maybe I should join Bimbos Anonymous?

******************************

Only in NYC. I was at the fruit juice stand earlier today. The lady ahead of me had ordered apple juice and when she received it, she complained. "Are you sure this is apple juice? But it doesn't look like it does in the store." If you have ever seen freshly squeezed apple juice from the juicer, you will know that it is at first murky, but slowly settles to be clear golden-coloured juice with a foamy top. But in this metropolitan city like NYC, who juices their own juice anymore? Juice comes in a bottle from the store. Just like how vegetables come pre-cut for stirfries and chicken comes as breast/thigh/drumstick rather than as a whole chicken. Convenience culture, only in NYC.

Monday, September 24, 2007

Monday 24th September

Dinner party last night went well. Headline - no weirdoes at dinner, hurray!

The guests were half friends and half strangers. Friends included Sidekick, New Gay Best Friend ("NGBF") and my collegemate K who'd just moved to NY. Strangers included K's friend, and 3 ASWers.

Some statistics:
Number of people at dinner: 8
Number of nationalities at the table: 9 (including Eyal who has passports from Turkey, Israel AND Argentina, talk about Global Soul!)
Number of bottles of wine: 3.5
Number of pounds of pork loin roasted: 4.11
Number of apples used in cooking applesauce: 6
Number of people who knew the name of the game Sacha Cohen Baron played in Israel: 1 (it's called gaga btw)
Number of times we looked up Google in the course of dinner: too many, can't remember

*****************************

I got really bored last week and signed up for E-Harmony.

Amongst all the onine dating websites out there, E-Harmony is meant to be the most serious one. It is not for the people who just want to find a shag online or for married people seeking an extramarital affair. They have a questionnaire which takes about an hour to fill out, before you can join. This is meant to weed out all the casual types and also for them to assess compatibility.

Since joining, E-Harmony has found me about 20 matches. Of which, I wasn't interested in more than half. Anyone who was under 5'8" got binned. (A girl's gotta be able to wear heels when out with her man!) Anyone whose profile sounded vaguely boring also got binned. And now I am left with a bunch of them who on the one hand survived my culling, but on the other, weren't capitivating. (It's quite difficult to be captivating in an online profile)

Because E-Harmony is above all, a business, I have to decide if I want to become a member. Wthout membership, I cannot communicate with anyone or view anyone's pictures. But membership isn't cheap. (incidentally that is another way they are filtering out people who are not serious about seeking long-term relationships)

So should I??

Sunday, September 23, 2007

Sunday September 23rd

I am thinking of putting together a Sunday morning playlist. Lazy cheery music. I'm thinking Jack Johnson...any other suggestions?

********************************

ASmallWorld - it is an invitation-only social networking site and also how I have managed to construct some semblance of a social life in NY.

I have been for random drinks because an ASWer wanted to have a West Village gathering. I have been for another random Curry Night because a transplanted Englishman missed curry. I went to a workshop on holistic wellness (?!) because an ASWer was conducting the workshop.

All rather random.

And yesterday, my sidekick and I went on a sailing boat on the Hudson for the afternoon coz some ASWer has a boat and like to up the beauty quotient by inviting some pretty girls along. We were skeptical at first because of the rain but the weather cleared up and it turned out to be a beautiful day. And the guys with the boat didn't turn out as dodgy as one would have expected. It definitely wasn't St Tropez sleaze.

Tonight, I have three ASWers whom I have never met before, coming for dinner at my place along with some friends. I am only going by their online profiles. They seem nice, but fingers crossed that they don't turn out to be weirdoes.

ASW is great in that it's invitation-only so there is some element of selection. There are obviously some weirdoes every now and then, but hey, I wll have to run into at least one of those in my efforts to makew new friends, right?

Saturday, September 15, 2007

Saturday September 16th

I cut my hair short at the start of the end in anticipation of S 2007 edition. I was looking forward to a new start in NY and a new me.

Tonight, I have proven that there is a S 2007 after all. She is tougher and a lot less tolerable of bullshit or of people who dick her around.

So, he is in NY this weekend. I met up with him and his friends for drinks last night. Within 5 mins of me sitting down, he is stroking my knee already. This after 1.5 years of radio silence.

To cut a long story short, he said he would call today. And I waited. And waited. And realized that was exactly what I went through with him the past few times as well.

So I broke the pattern. When he finally called, I told him that we shouldn't stay in touch because he would go MIA again. And that I as most pissed off about him not treating me as a friend.

He protested, saying that he thought it would be a shame not to stay in touch.

And I told him that I was happy to be proven wrong and I'd believe it when I see it.

At this point, I am glad I finally had the guts to tell him outright to stop dicking me around. This is S 2007.

And so to bed.

Monday, September 10, 2007

Monday 10th September

Does anyone actually read this blog? I hope so.

*********************

The seasons have definitely started to change. Even though it's still bloody hot and humid this evening. I hate it that it got dark before 8 today. And it's even more depressing to think that it will get dark progressively earlier from now onwards. And soon it will be cold. Why a tropical-born-and-bred girl like me chooses to live in a place which gets so cold for part of the year, I do not know.

But we should think positive.

And one positive thing about this weather is that S does not want to go out and play all the time. S will focus a little more on her work. S will spend more time on her wonderful sofa and watch her huge-ass TV more often. S will come home more evenings and cook healthy dinners for herself. S will have people over every Sunday for good food, good booze and cheerful company.

4 home-cooked meals in a row! And there's shrimp, tomato and basil pasta salad in the fridge for tomorrow's lunch too. Yeay me!

*********************

This is why he is The One Who Got Away.

Will call this week. NY plans are changing some, but will be here.

Cool, you have my cell right? 212-XXX-XXXX

I do now =)
I see you have really got right into the American lingo...cell? Mobile sounds way more sexy, S.

Friday, September 7, 2007

Friday September 7th

Labor Day is over, the summer is over. It's time to buckle down and start doing some real work now.

The French have a term for this - "la rentrée". It's the time when everyone gets back from their summer vacations and go back to school or get back to work. And this is also the time to spring clean and make new year's resolutions.

So far, the change over here has been subtle but perceptible. Work has picked up a little as my MDs get back from Nantucket. I've watched keenly for the air to turn a little more chilly. I'm starting to think about all the goodies that fall will bring - chesnuts, butternut squash, savoy cabbage. And I've even shed my sun-bleached blonde highlights for warmer red highlights.

I'm ready for fall now.

And I also have my new year's resolutions:

1) Cook at home more often
2) Spend less
3) Have people over for Sunday Suppers
4) Work harder, prove myself and make sure I get paid as well as I can be
5) Pick up a hobby
6) Read more
7) Figure out what I want to do after i-wanking

Tuesday, September 4, 2007

Labor Day Weekend II

Being back in London for the weekend was good. Familiar and comforting. It felt as though I'd had a really good holiday away and then returned home. There are many reasons to consider London home. All my friends. My flat. My ability to walk around most parts of London without getting too lost. Borough Market. Fresco juice. Steamed egg. Crisp white sheets from The White Company. My London work environment. Did I mention all my friends?

Being back in NY was weird initially. Everything looked familiar but so strange.

I got thinkin about whether I would move back to London, and if so, when? I have no answers yet, but this quote does sum up my thoughts quite well.

”I yearn to settle now, to exchange the departure lounge for the drawing room, to stay somewhere where customs means no more than habits, to forget the tempting scents of Heathrow jet fuel and Punjabi wood smoke and settle instead for my own rose garden……But can I settle? And if I can – if kerosene and cooking fires and Kenyan mud are scents that will never lure me again – then where on earth, do I settle? I like it all in truth. Not Equatorial Guinea, perhaps, where once this newspaper sent me to write a profile of the World’s Worst Country; but elsewhere. I could live and die, quite happily in 100 places or more._
Am I doomed, like Buridan’s Ass, to hesitate ceaselessly between the equally alluring temptations of the myriad places I know, and in the end perish of place-starvation and location-thirst, unable to make up my mind?…………..Will this one (place) be right? Will this one be home? Might this, at last, be the Great Good Place? Or will the siren call of somewhere else sound once again and make this place, and the person I am going there with, be just as temporary as all before? ” - Simon Winchester

Labor Day Weekend

Habits. You don't realise how much of a routine you have until you break it. I was in London over Labor Day weekend and stayed with a friend in Bayswater where I'd spent the most time in London.

I got my usual Fresco juice almost everyday I was in town. "Number 18, no honey but with with apple." I totally swear by this carrot-apple-lemon-ginger combo, especially on a Saturday morning when you've been out late the night before.

My kind host was the friend with whom I had breakfast with every Saturday morning (of course only after we got our juice from Fresco) when I lived in Bayswater. Him in a hungover state most of the time, with confessions of misbehaviour from hard Friday night drinking. Me sometimes feeling rough around the edges. Sometimes we would read the weekend papers together too, almost like an old married couple. We revived our time-honoured tradition again this weekend.

And while we're on Bayswater habits, I also made it to Gold Mine for the sam sek cheng sui tan (steamed century egg, salted duck's egg and normal egg). This is one of the dishes which is on my death-row foods list. (This and Fresco's aubergine in tomato sauce). Let's not forget dimsum at Royal China, twice! It is difficult to believe but Chinese food in London is simply unbeatable.

I also made it to Borough Market which was an important part of my new Saturday routine for my last three months in London. I was late though and only managed to get some Monmouth Coffee, of which I was been dreaming about for the longest time. Trust me, you have not tasted better coffee than Monmouth.

The market was closing up so I sat on the curb opposite Monmouth to drink my coffee and soak in the atmosphere. I ended up having a totally random conversation with some hippie about having and not having it. I knew at that point, I had it and how blessed I was to have it.