OK ... so a bit has happened since my last post!? First things first though ...

Kristi and I had an awesome "farewell" party in Sydney ... under the title of "Cans and Cocktails", and with the help of Al & Megan's apartment (thanks again guys!!), we hosted a few Bogan's and a few Princesses and a lot of cocktails!!

Cans and Cocktails Party

We followed this up with a trip to Adelaide for Christmas and then back in to Sydney for the New Year's celebration. We hadn't spent NYE in Sydney since moving there all those years ago, so thought we'd better experience it. A great night, and (for a change) not a NYE disappointment! Some pics below ...

NYE 2006 in Sydney

After NYE, Kristi and I headed up to the Hunter Valley to catch up with Anna and Goran for a few days ... had an awesome "cabin" up there, with an amazing view down in to the valley ...





It was great to just spend a few days relaxing, tasting wine, and just generally unwinding before the flight to New York. After 13 hours to LA, makign our way through immigration in LA (complete with finger print scans and photo), as well as customs (with our 110kgs over 5 bags, plus 2 carry on bags!!?) we dropped the bags off again and boarded the 5 hour flight to NY. All went fine, and we even managed to navigate the taxi in to town and find our apartment fairly easily (once we worked out how to get in to the building!!?)

The apartment here is great (more pics on our Picasa webpage) and the doorman pointed us in the right direction to get some basic supplies, as well as telling us where the nearest "wholefoods market" was ... very handy! We're here for about 2 months, so are planning to make the most of weekends to check out the different areas around the place and work out where we want to settle longer term.

To that end, we've spent the past few days trying to orient ourselves a little, and have done a HEAP of walking around. We've been as far North as about 85th St, West to the Hudson (Riverside Drive), South to just below Canal Street, but only made it as far East as about 5th Ave ... although we did take a walk last night (after a Korean dinner) to about 2nd Ave. If none of that makes sense ... check out the map here. (The arrow is where our apartment is.)

New York - First Impressions

Anyhow, better go ... still working through this jetlag thing!!?

Chat to you all soon!!

D.

PS - I should mention that's it's been unusually warm here!! About 20 degrees C here today!!? Apparently this is now a 130-odd year record for the longest amount of time NYC has been without snow!! Hopefully we get some next week to justify all of the warm clothes we bought before we left Australia!!?