V.D. - No, not that - Valentines Day.

My parents, my happily married friends who have or are tying to have kids - you all inspire me. I know it's not easy to choose that special someone to annoy for the rest of your life - I know you can never be certain what life holds and that their are no guarantees. I am so, so happy for you all. If you would mind not posting what they love of your life gave you this V.D. - it would lessen the blow for us single folks who continue to search (or have given up completely). Thanks ever so much. For all the single ladies, the images below are my valentine for you.

28 reasons I miss hearting New York

One very long month ago I left a city I love to return to the country I came from. I am happy to be back in the best country in the world but I miss hearting the city that never sleeps...

1. Taxi horns and dumpster trucks have been replaced by a local rooster, a bunch of Tui's and other noisy critters (no, I am not staying on a farm).

2. Fuck is no longer an acceptable short sentence.

3. Road trip is no longer defined by a trip to Ikea but an 8 hour drive with my parents from Wellington to Auckland.

4. I am yet to find any naked people running around my local park.

5. My neighbours keep trying to interact with me and I don't know what to do.

6. Everyone in New York knows Sex in the City is a croc.

7. Smoking is socially acceptable.

8. Bars are open until 4.

9. There is such a thing as a free drink.

10. Jews.

11. I can no longer give tourists the wrong directions.

12. People can actually tell if you are on a walk of shame.

13. Real Bagels.

14. Bodega bacon, egg and cheese on a roll at 4 in the morning.

15. $300 sushi.

16. Taxi cab confessions.

17. Cell phone reception and prices.

18. Stealing wi-fi.

19. Hulu.

20. Netflix.

21. I can no longer give random people the finger (I never did this, but it was available and acceptable if I had the balls to).

22. Paying someone to do my laundry.

23. Buskers on the Subway who can actually carry a tune.

24. The Subway.

25. Pre-war 5 story walk-up's were my exercise.

26. Because no matter how crazy you are - you will run into someone crazier (usually within 5 minutes).

27. True blue hipsters (while annoying, also very entertaining) have been replaced by mullets.

28. Because very few people are 'from' New York and there is an unspoken understanding that everyone is just trying to survive the rat race, not hop on the subway car with the smelly homeless person and to reach their next New York moment.

The profile of a serial job hunter

Hello Job, is it me you are looking for?

The old adage goes "If I had a penny....".
People are so curious to know how I survive in one of the most expensive cities in the world (actually, according to the Economist, it is sitting at 23rd = with LA). Well, lets say if I had a dollar for every time I was asked, I wouldn't be broke, that's for sure!

The answer: pretty bloody badly!


Since being blessed with ample time to ponder the meaning of life, I have made a couple of discoveries some of you might like to learn. I have had to dig through the lightest and darkest parts of my soul to find these... or perhaps it all just came shooting out like a 13 month pimple... Either way, it may save you the trouble of finding out for yourselves.

ZEN moments:
It is only when you truly have nothing do you discover the riches that lay within yourself. What did Saint-Exupery say? “It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye”. I suspect he’d never been unemployed!

Money is only really working for you when it buys you time with people you love and peace of mind. Living so far from home has made this a hard lesson for me.

Unemployment could be the only true blank slate I get: the opportunity to remember the dreams I held when I was 20 and then sold out to 'survival'.

It'll be alright in the end. If it's not alright, it's not the end.


Not-so-ZEN moments:
When you have nothing, when you can't socialize like you use to, when you're having a "screw you" day - money helps (if only temporarily).

Money will never make me happy - but it would give me a much better standard of misery!

When you find yourself in a living hell - keep walking.


Can I have my dollar now?

Stuff my Mum told me

I have lived away from NZ for 10 years and away from my parents for longer but a little girl still needs her Mum on occasion. While some people have caring, nurturing Mum's who see them through rose color glasses mine - well, she is my best friend, the first person I turn to for a hug and I can always trust she will give me the uncensored truth (wanted, or not). I love you MAX!

ON MY APPEARANCE
"Honey when you look good, you look amazing. When you look bad, you look bloody awful"

"That dress doesn't need to see any more of you in it. When is the ball? I suggest you try not eating for a week."

After trying on my bridesmaid dress for my sisters wedding:
Me: " Mum, I look like a grape!"
Mum "I am sure you look lovely. Besides, as long as you are a Pinot you'll be very classy."


When I called for a cry:
“It's okay to be sad, you have a lot to be depressed about. Maybe you need see a therapist and get some anti-depressants? Oh, that's right, you don't have health insurance.”

ON HAVING CHILDREN
“Don't get me wrong, I am glad I had you but, if I could do it all again, I am not sure I would.”

“I have called you Lisa from birth, but I named you Elizabeth because I thought that if you became someone important you would need a more formal name. Fat lot of use that was!”


ON MEN & SEX
A card after a particularly bad break up: "Better to have loved and lost than to have spent the rest of your life with the psycho."

After a relationship break-up, Mum took my sister and me to Cobb & Co for a girls dinner. As I mixed the colors of my traffic light drink together, Mum offered this piece of advice:

“Girls, remmeber that a woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle.”

After a very long pause, my sister said thoughtfully,“but Mum, a fish doesn't need a bicycle.”

“Lisa, honey, just because you date them doesn't mean you have to sleep with them.”

This gem was passed down from Mena, my grandma,
“If you don't trust yourself to not sleep with them, don't shave your legs, that ought to stop you.”

“If it don't fit, don't force it.”

This gem was passed down from Mena, my grandma, “If you don't trust yourself to not sleep with them, don't shave your legs, that ought to stop you.”

Every New Beginning Comes From Some Other Beginnings End

A new year, new beginnings and all that guff. Time for a new blog.
Instead of inner ramblings which previously graced these pages, I plan to write about my experiences in this fine city without baring my soul to all and sundry. While I cannot promise that I will not go 'off message' on occasion, I do hope that you will let me know if you think I should take another route.

Onwards!

I hate to admit that I did not partake in the NYE festivities here in NY. I decided that I would ring in the new year as I intended it to go on. No, not alone - but with myself, being kind, nurturing my own wants and needs. I must confess that as the time ticked by I entertained thoughts of a solo adventure but thought better of it.

Truth is I have always thought of New Years as 'novice night' and I tend to steer clear of the crowds. I do this to honor my early 20's when I have been known to awaken on a beach with a mouth of sand and no idea where I was staying - asking a cop to drive me around some small beach town in New Zealand... I like to think I have graduated from those footloose and fancy free times, though I fear they still find me from time to time and usually when I am least expecting it. My friends find husbands when they are not looking, I find a wild ruckus night - something else I will add to the growing list of self analysis for 2010.

So, I wonder, did I do myself a disservice by not going into the wet cold New York night to watch the entertainment, which is tourists drunk and lost in the city I currently call home? I think not. I am not one for looking into the rear view mirror too frequently, but I fulfilled a life-long wish of mine last year when I was at home for New Year and took off into the forest and pitched a tent. I think anything I attempted to tackle this year would have paled by comparison. Instead, I chose to climb onto my roof in Brooklyn and stare lovingly at the Empire State Building and wonder about where I will be this time next year.


2009 was not one of my better years! I remain unemployed, or is it under-employed? I swear I don't know how I ever had time for a real job. I am busy working with friends on projects I love - I am thankful for that. Money is becoming a worry and I scoff when I think of what and who I wasted money on when I did see a positive bank balance. All good learning though and I have faith that 2010 will deliver... then again I thought that of 2009. I never have been one for odd numbers perhaps I was just sticking it out for the magic of 10.

Here's to hope... a little bit of faith and lots of love.