Getting things done

Slowly but surely.

You know about the apartment and mattress.

We also now have mobile phones and a lamp for the main bedroom. Plus a sofa-chair-bed thing for Angelo to sleep on. And this week we get delivery of a dining table, chairs, and television. That way we can set up cable and internet at home as well.

Angelo arrived yesterday morning, after on over night flight on which he did not sleep. He took a cab from the airport to our flat. At this point we realised we had to drop off our rental car and pick up another (longer story), so we all drove back to the airport to do that. By 11AM Angelo has seen the airport twice. Once inside the airport, Giuseppe - who was driving - decided changing lanes was getting cumbersome so we just drove straight for a good 20 minutes taking us far away from Hertz.

Once complete we drove through Midtown, stopped at the social security administration, and on to Buckhead for lunch. Then we decided Angelo needed a bed, so we drove back through Midtown to Ikea. Then I remembered why I don't like Ikea. For three hours.
A quick hop to Target, and on to BestBuy. Another hour or so with our other new friend Jared to get a telly, and finally back home.

At which point it was 8PM so we actually stopped at Elbow Room for pizza, stromboli and many beers (to answer the question: Why do you want eateries in walking distance?). Turns out Elbow Room not only has sports on TV, a pool table and dart boards, but also a juke box and a smoking permit. And it was like being in high school again.

New Apartment - Day 1

Just had our first night in the new apartment.

I am a little amazed at the space. It seems normal, but then I stand in the bathroom, stretch both my arms out and I'm not touching any walls.

We don't have any furniture yet, just a bed, so we are eating off plastic plates and sitting on kitchen counters. The building has a 24 hour business centre, so this is my internet access for now. Oh, I also seem to have lost two towels somewhere, so I air dry.

The location is great, I will get some photos up soon, but we can walk to some cafe's, restaurants, a dry cleaners and even a couple of grocery stores. There's a sushi place across the street called Taka which makes me think of Elena Babbuina. G has scouted the local grocery store in detail and it has passed the test (clearly all done before we signed the lease) and there is also a Whole Foods and a Trader Joe's pretty near by. Oh, and the cafe' we stopped that first day, opened by a guy from Surrey? That's on the next block up. All in all well planned.

Social engagements have also begun, meeting Melanie and her native pals for drinks at the W yesterday. It's a 5 minute drive up the road, but it turns out that if you miss the entrance and take a wrong turn you end up on the Interstate and it takes an hour to get there. So I think next time I won't do that. But it was a great evening with a sunset view form the roof top bar.
And tomorrow is Christmas lunch chez Pandersons! With Mama Panderson, Papa Panderson and their four legged critter Rocco. Looking forward to that.

Happy Christmas Eve to all!

America - Food

A quick note about the food on our first 2 days.

Delicious!

And so much of it, but you probably expected that.

We had our first proper Southern dinner yesterday - complete with grilled jumbo shrimp, fried chicken (thinking of you,  Caroline), mash, greens and more. Our dinner the previous night I wrote about, also delicious. And we have had two ginormous and wonderful breakfasts which always included pancakes - always pancakes - and eggs, omelettes, bacon, sausage, grits, toast and rather week coffee which Giuseppe has taken to drinking like water. Yes: Saturday in a cafe he ordered an espresso and a cup of coffee. Together.

America - Day 1

The first 24 hours are done and dusted.

Not a bad start. The relocation is in full swing, we have landed in the land of the free and a certain husband is a legal alien. Hurrah.
As a side note: I know of a number of people who had some fairly depressing experiences with the US Immigration service. I have to take a moment to say this was not our experience. Everyone was friendly, everything was smooth and straightforward and no complaints at all.

So after a pretty much 24 hour day, we got to our hotel in Norcross and crashed.

Day 1
Awake at 6am. Of course. Slow getting up, prepare our itinerary for the day and head out for breakfast. Now, as it was my first breakfast as a US resident I had to get all my favourites. Well, almost all, but my breakfast did include eggs, sausage, bacon pancakes and toast. Grits were on the table, of course.

We spent the day looking at apartments, basically all over Buckhead and MidTown. So far so happy, liking what we see.

Stopping here and there we spoke with people where we could. In one cafe' we came across an owner from Surrey (!) and he and his employees gave us a brilliant 20 minute description of various Atlanta neighbourhoods.

Of course: we had to stop at Rite Aid. No, we really did, we needed cereal and milk for the next day's breakfast.

And dinner in old town Norcross, a Cuban bistro called Mojitos, with delicious food and live music.

Good start.

More later.

Still here, but not for long

Things went crazy after my last post as we plan our relocation to the US. So bear with me a little longer.

Oh and if you know of someone renting an apartment in MidTown Atlanta please let me know.

In honour of this, a conversation with Cleverbot:

I'm moving to the US next week!

What are you doing there? Expanding my business in the States. Define expand.

Getting new clients, growing our presence there.


Awesome! I'm going to a concert tomorrow.


What concert?

Guus Meeuwis!

Really? You think that's equal to relocating to another continent? Let me go! Oh. Sorry. Go on, get a biscuit. Hurry up! ... right. But you are a girl.

And that's when I hung up

Health Insurance

(not equal to Health Care)

It's not often I quote Ann Coulter, but she does perfectly sum up the problem with US Health Insurance.

It would be as if the government prohibited us from buying cars unless they were Lexus SUVs, fully loaded with every possible option.

Then, when most Americans couldn't afford to buy a car, the Democrats could demand we pass "ObamaCar." Wolf could have asked: "A healthy 30-year-old young man decides, 'I'm not going to spend $100,000 or $200,000 for a car because, you know, I don't need it.' But something terrible happens, all of a sudden he needs it. Who's going to pay if he needs a car to escape a hurricane, for example? Who pays for that?"

Why are the only two options always a behemoth government program or the guy dies?

A little bit of London Jazz Week

Saturday night at the Royal Opera House - Linbury Theatre. As part of London Jazz Week Jack Savoretti performed, opening for the Lucinda Belle Orchestra. It's a night out I shall remember for a long time to come.

Find out more about Jack Savoretti on his Facebook page. I am not often a fan of the acoustic guitar ballad, but Jack's album Between the Minds was one that forced me to open my horizons. It is song after song of beauty. A couple of examples are Dreamers and Dr. Frankenstein. Oh and also Killing Man [Grooveshark links]. Go listen to more.  His current album is Harder Than Easy and I shall keep things simple by giving you the link to the whole album.

After Jack came the Lucinda Belle Orchestra. This, by the way, is how band music should be. Creative, beautiful, consistency in image and sound, with an entertaining performance.
The set started with the harp, sounding pretty much as I expect a harp to sound. As other instruments entered the foray sounds came together to form an excellent dixie-jazz tune. Along with her harp are a piano, classical bass, clarinet, cello, trombone and more. It was one of those things that got me so excited I can't actually aptly describe it. But I do highly recommend seeing this orchestra live.

For now I leave you with Lucinda Belle's version of Lady Gaga's Telephone. She played this, although a highlight of the night for me was "Rose Marie and Bobby McGee".

Oh and if anybody can find a recording of her version of Smells Like Teen Spirit you must let me know. I have to own this track!