back to work

monday morning... so it's back to work! i arrived at the office to see everyone and meet the new people. search & care has grown since i was last here and the office has been refurbished too - more offices for the new people and a slightly different layout... but things are much the same! robin introduced me to everyone and then we sat down and went through my client list, lots of new ones and a couple of old ones too!

back in 2010 i remember robin giving me my list and me being utterly terrified to go and call these people i've never met before. this year i was slightly less terrified, but speaking on the phone is still not my favourite thing to do. but, i just got on with it and before i knew it i had 3 appointments for monday and the rest of week pretty much full up too.

i walked uptown to my first appointment; ruth is blind, but also one of the most busy people around! she's a practicing pastor, so she lives next door to her church, but she constantly has people coming and going, all helping her out in their way. i managed to chat with her briefly, between her other visitors and many phone calls! then it was off to do some shopping for someone who lives in a particular building that has the worst elevators i've ever witnessed, basically there are only 2 in a huge building, and one of them is broken and has been for some time... and apparently is going to take another 3 months to get fixed... so it took 15 minutes to get to the 22nd floor - which is ridiculous when there are old and sick people living there... more about this later! this appointment took so long that i had to cancel my final appointment that day - which i hate to do, especially on my first day... feeling completely exhausted i headed back to the office as they were having a party to celebrate the office refurb. i struggled here if i'm honest, i was really tired, there was yummy bad food everywhere and lots of new people to meet and chat too. as i was escorting my other lovely host home, i stayed until she was ready to leave, but she was one of the guests of honour so we didn't manage to leave until 9ish - so i saw her home before heading back to my new home and falling into bed.

tuesday was crazy-busy! in my keeness i had arranged 5 appointments so there was really no time to do anything else... and it all came back to me about always knowing where the nearest bathroom is! as i wrote about in 2010, it can be awkward to ask to use a client's loo - so i always need to know where the nearest one is after i leave! starbucks are still the best places, as there are so many of them in the city... but, unlike in 2010, you now need to get a code to get in the locked doors...

on a different note, today i met the two little doggies that i'll be walking while i'm here. tiny is a tiny little white dog - a mini poodle maybe? but really small, hence the name! her owner is deborah, who's life has changed so much since having a stroke. she has a great apartment right next to the top of central park and that is where we took tiny for a lovely walk in the sunshine. the other little pooch i'm walking is called gizmo and he does look like the little gremlin! his owner is quite sick and although she does take him out, it's nice for her to have a little break while i take him for an hour. we walked over to my favourite nyc park, carl schurz park which is next to the east river. in the evening i headed back to pure yoga and joined until the end of july - yes, it was expensive, but i gotta keep cool, stretched and sane... and yoga really helps me with that!

wednesday was a little quieter, with just 3 appointments, a shopping trip, an escort to and from a physical therapy appointment and a visit to the most lovely man, mario and his kitty-kat alejandro. mario is a joy to visit, he's funny, interesting, arty, intellectual and just really nice to be around. it will never be a chore to spend time with him!

thursday was even quieter, i spent the morning in the office and the afternoon at 2 appointments. these were a step back in time, as both visits were to old clients of mine from 2010. elona is still looking amazing and her mind is sharp, i just wish she was happier... and then off to see lovely matty and her wonderful carer judith - these two gals are real sweeties! it was great to catch up with them all. but i have to say that this day was marred by the EU referendum result... i'm not going to dwell on it here, but what a disappointment! i'm glad i voted before i left london, but it didn't go the way i expected. amazingly, it's been quite big news here, although i'm not sure everyone quite understands the intricacies of the whole thing, i think we're already considered a part of europe by most new yorkers anyway!

after work i headed to midtown as there was a free screening of 'the secret life of pets'... which involved queuing for about an hour with a load of kids and their parents and me... grrrr! but the film was sweet and funny which made up for the wait

yeay - made it to friday! which started with another visit to mario, then to another new client, a lady who is blind but she reads so much! she has this great machine that uses digital tapes which contain the whole book - no faffing about with multiple cassettes or cds. she told me all about the great library they have and that they send the tapes and the machine free of charge to blind people so they can keep reading if they want to. i've worked in publishing for around 10 years and have never heard of this! we talked about it a lot... i think she thought i was a bit obsessed by it - but i just thought it was a great idea! my day ended with a walk to carl schurz park with gizmo, then i headed to yoga after i dropped him off.

first days

ok - so it's saturday night and it's pouring with rain... time to sit down and write something. sorry i made such a big deal telling everyone to keep checking the blog and then not bothering to post anything!

my trip over to new york was about as uneventful as you want a trip to be! unusually for me, there was no drama and i arrived at JFK and made my way by subway uptown to the new place i'll be staying at at 96th street between 3rd and lexington avenue. i'm always so happy to come back to new york! arrived and met my lovely host, patsy who showed me to my lovely room which has become my new home here - and it has an en suite bathroom - so i feel like i'm staying in a hotel!

my first weekend is all a bit of a blur now that i'm thinking back... and of course i didn't remember to write anything in my diary about what i did! i think i took a stroll around the neighbourhood, seeing what was new and what has disappeared. but not a huge amount of change really, probably the most noticeable thing is the amount of new apartment blocks going up... so a lot of noisy, disruptive building work going on. also, if you can believe it, the 'new' 2nd avenue subway is still under construction! that had already started when i came over in 2010 and it looks no nearer being finished! the crossrail in london has pretty much all happened in that time and i'm sure it will open before the new subway here! it's crazy!

so, i think i mainly mooched around and shopped and ate bad food...

but i had made a date to see robin on saturday night and oh! what joy to see her again. i called for her at her apartment and we had a lovely catch-up over a glass of wine, before going out for italian food at a place nearby. she always makes me feel soooo welcome! it's weird how we can just pick up again after a couple of years!

hey all

yes, finally getting round to posting on the blog... back in nyc for 5 weeks from mid june until the end of july 2016... sorry for not posting sooner, but i have been a) too busy, b) too hot, c) too sick, d) too busy! oh, and i couldn't get this blogging website to work... answer - try a different browser!

so, i suppose i better fill in what i've been doing for the past couple of weeks that i've been here and not been blogging - bad me!

right... let's go back to the beginning...