Unbelievably, we've reached our first anniversary out here and we're amazed at how quickly we've made it through the first third of our time here. Well, I guess no one could suggest that we've not been trying to make the most of it. To celebrate, we went out with Annalie's team to a new noodle restaurant in Hartford. We'd seen it reveiwed and it is reminiscint of Wagamama in the UK, so we thought we'd give it a go. Sadly it was pretty disappointing, so we vowed to avoid it in the future. At least we can't say that it was reminiscint of our first year!
The next opportunity to eat out in Hartford came just two days later, when we had tickets to go and see the Harlem Globetrotters at the XL Center We went with Dan and Fi, and decided to go for a safe option of eating Thai, but we did risk another new restaurant. This time it paid off though as the food was amazing and there was plenty of it.
The Globetrotters themselves were great fun! Although I think we found the most hilarity from the "foam" characters that kept popping up every now and then as part of the entertainment. Annalie did get some photos which have been uploaded into our photo albums, and some of the video footage can be viewed here - although we can't upload one of the funniest videos as the file size is too big. If we can get it compressed we'll get it on there.
Just as all of this eating out has started, Annalie's team has also just started a "Biggest Loser" competition amongst themselves to try and inspire some weight loss amongst those of us that need it. So this week Annalie has managed to force herself back into her early morning gym routine, making sure that there are two 5.30s in a day On top of this there's been the diet as well so she's been staying clear of her usual non-healthy likes It seems to be working though as there does appear to have been a small drop on the scales already.
As the first weigh in was on Monday, Annalie made the most of the previous weekend to ensure a final feast was had As part of this we cooked a proper roast dinner for Dan and Fi, including real roast tatties and some lovely roast chicken, including the skin Dessert was a fab home-made crumble provided by our guests, so there were plenty of culinary skills on display all round.
There was yet more eating out for Annalie this week as she went out with her Pratt & Whitney colleagues who were hosting a media day dinner at an Italian in Hartford. She was very thankful for the "doggy bag" culture at the end of it as she only ate half, but at least it meant there was some for lunch on Friday
Ian has also been joining forces with his "workmates" from the fire house for some extra curriculur activities! This week his DIY skills have been put to the test again as he's been helping to put some stone cladding on a wall outside the fire house. Then on Saturday a few of the guys were laying some block paving to install a granite bench that has been donated to the fire department. They installed it in the front "garden" and it took them about seven hours to do a job that should have taken no more than three, thanks to all the other members stopping by to chat and see how they were doing.
As a reward for his hard work, and some of Annalie's studying too, we took a trip down to the Mohegan Sun casino for some fun respite. Every time we've been there, or to the other casino Foxwoods, there have never been any card tables with a minimum of less than $10, even during off-peak times. So when you're not betting high stakes, which we don't, you can be out very quickly and we weren't even expecting to find $10 tables on a Saturday night.
However, it seems that the economic slowdown has taken its toll - which we knew about anyway because both casinos had reported heavy earnings falls. But we weren't expecting to find a whole area where all the tables were a $5 minimum, so that was a bonus. We set about trying to find a spot at a table, but considering the cheap minimum, the tables were pretty packed. Still, in time we both managed to grab spaces, on separate tables mind, and play commenced. At the end of it all, Annalie was the only winner and decided to walk away $10 up and only because it was getting late and she wanted to get to the gym early on Sunday!
Elsewhere, we also went to see Slumdog Millionaire which, if you haven't already seen it, is well worth the admission fee. It is easy to see why it won at the Oscars and Golden Globes.
We've also finally got round to putting some of our pictures up on the walls, which considering we've been here a year, is long overdue. I would say that it's made it more like home, but I think it's a bit late for that!
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Sunday, March 15, 2009
One down, one to go
After what has seemed like forever, Annalie has handed in her penultimate Masters assignment She ended up doing a bit of a rewrite in the last week but she's reasonably satisfied with the result and is just glad to have got it out of the way. There's still the dissertation left to do and she's not really been working on that much as she's been concentrating on the first assignment, but she has got some visits to JetBlue sorted to do some research for her dissertation.
For finishing her assignment, she treated herself with a day off on Sunday to recuperate, but spent an hour at the gym in the morning (well, she has neglected it a bit lately!). Then both of us went out for our first round of golf for the season. We went to a local "executive" course in Portland that we use frequently. We both had pretty good rounds considering that we haven't played for four months, so it was a pleasing result all round.
We were actually surprised that the courses would be open so early. Less than 2 weeks ago we had a foot of snow appear overnight! This was just three days after a big rain storm had actually washed the previously remaining snow so we thought we'd got rid of it all, but then we were all when we woke up to a winter wonderland again. So Annalie made the most of the fresh "dump" by going to the local "mountain" after work for a couple of hours' snowboarding. Let's just say it's not Killington! Annalie had pretty much nailed the hardest slopes in two runs!
Ian has now started his FAA ground school to prepare him for learning to fly later in the year. Once his Firefighter Academy is over he wants to do more limo work so that he can pay for his flying lessons. He went out and bought a specific set of materials - everything he needs to help him qualify for his PPL. The school he's thinking of using is specially accredited with the FAA so he could potentially get qualified faster, especially if he does some more intensive flying. He's not starting from scratch either as he's done some flying in the RAF in the past. He's been getting driving jobs just on Fridays so far so it's not exactly building up the bank balance!
Outside of both our studies we've been trying to have a bit of a social life as well. Last Saturday night Ian ended up having a bit of a gamble without going anywhere near the casinos! One of his fire buddies had a boys' night in where the betting was on the dice. Ian had never played before but made the most of beginners' luck and doubling his money Before the guys had chance to win it back, they got a shout and had to head off down to the fire house.
Annalie went out on the Rolls-Royce girls' night out on Thursday to a local Mexican that wasn't very impressive. But it was nice for her to catch up with the girls anyway. There's been some new arrivals recently but only one of them made it out to the dinner. The rest of the wives do things together during the day but Ian seems to think he's not invited. Annalie was assured during the night out that he's always welcome, even to playgroup!!
Annalie also finally managed to go out with her communications colleagues at Pratt & Whitney, the other major partner at IAE. During the lunch the boss joked that they were going to hire Annalie to keep her here, so she's trying to figure out if they were really joking or not! Well, she's got two years left to figure that out
Speaking of which, we can't believe we've nearly reached our one year anniversary Today, one year ago, Annalie flew out here to do a week's handover before we both moved out for good on the 24th March. Thankfully we've already done a third of our bucket list, and considering we're a third of the way through our assignment, that's not bad!
We've got some other travels already booked for this year though. In addition to New Zealand, we're heading off to Orlando at the start of April to meet up with Annalie's sister, bro-in-law and niece and nephew while they're on holiday over here. Annalie has also tied in one of her trips to JetBlue with this so she's going to get some of her dissertation done before they arrive. And there's an air show in Beijing in September which Ian decided he wanted to tag along for. Because Annalie had done a trip with BA late last year, we had a free companion ticket which meant that Ian could travel with Annalie on any trip she makes on BA this year, and in the same class as well. So Annalie booked her flights to Beijing early to get a good price through BA and it's business class all the way. We just had to pay the taxes, which were a fair bit but a fraction of the price of Annalie's ticket! Just got to sort out the visa nearer the time.
Who knows, some day Ian might be able to take Annalie there himself!
For finishing her assignment, she treated herself with a day off on Sunday to recuperate, but spent an hour at the gym in the morning (well, she has neglected it a bit lately!). Then both of us went out for our first round of golf for the season. We went to a local "executive" course in Portland that we use frequently. We both had pretty good rounds considering that we haven't played for four months, so it was a pleasing result all round.
We were actually surprised that the courses would be open so early. Less than 2 weeks ago we had a foot of snow appear overnight! This was just three days after a big rain storm had actually washed the previously remaining snow so we thought we'd got rid of it all, but then we were all when we woke up to a winter wonderland again. So Annalie made the most of the fresh "dump" by going to the local "mountain" after work for a couple of hours' snowboarding. Let's just say it's not Killington! Annalie had pretty much nailed the hardest slopes in two runs!
Ian has now started his FAA ground school to prepare him for learning to fly later in the year. Once his Firefighter Academy is over he wants to do more limo work so that he can pay for his flying lessons. He went out and bought a specific set of materials - everything he needs to help him qualify for his PPL. The school he's thinking of using is specially accredited with the FAA so he could potentially get qualified faster, especially if he does some more intensive flying. He's not starting from scratch either as he's done some flying in the RAF in the past. He's been getting driving jobs just on Fridays so far so it's not exactly building up the bank balance!
Outside of both our studies we've been trying to have a bit of a social life as well. Last Saturday night Ian ended up having a bit of a gamble without going anywhere near the casinos! One of his fire buddies had a boys' night in where the betting was on the dice. Ian had never played before but made the most of beginners' luck and doubling his money Before the guys had chance to win it back, they got a shout and had to head off down to the fire house.
Annalie went out on the Rolls-Royce girls' night out on Thursday to a local Mexican that wasn't very impressive. But it was nice for her to catch up with the girls anyway. There's been some new arrivals recently but only one of them made it out to the dinner. The rest of the wives do things together during the day but Ian seems to think he's not invited. Annalie was assured during the night out that he's always welcome, even to playgroup!!
Annalie also finally managed to go out with her communications colleagues at Pratt & Whitney, the other major partner at IAE. During the lunch the boss joked that they were going to hire Annalie to keep her here, so she's trying to figure out if they were really joking or not! Well, she's got two years left to figure that out
Speaking of which, we can't believe we've nearly reached our one year anniversary Today, one year ago, Annalie flew out here to do a week's handover before we both moved out for good on the 24th March. Thankfully we've already done a third of our bucket list, and considering we're a third of the way through our assignment, that's not bad!
We've got some other travels already booked for this year though. In addition to New Zealand, we're heading off to Orlando at the start of April to meet up with Annalie's sister, bro-in-law and niece and nephew while they're on holiday over here. Annalie has also tied in one of her trips to JetBlue with this so she's going to get some of her dissertation done before they arrive. And there's an air show in Beijing in September which Ian decided he wanted to tag along for. Because Annalie had done a trip with BA late last year, we had a free companion ticket which meant that Ian could travel with Annalie on any trip she makes on BA this year, and in the same class as well. So Annalie booked her flights to Beijing early to get a good price through BA and it's business class all the way. We just had to pay the taxes, which were a fair bit but a fraction of the price of Annalie's ticket! Just got to sort out the visa nearer the time.
Who knows, some day Ian might be able to take Annalie there himself!
Sunday, March 1, 2009
London bus syndrome
It seems like Annalie’s trips have taken on a bit of a London Bus attitude. Not having been anywhere for a few months, she’s had three in the space of 10 days. First was a trip to Washington DC, predominantly for a magazine awards ceremony, but she also arranged a meeting with her contact from Airbus North America.
The awards ceremony ended up being a really good networking event for her, meeting up with some old journalist friends in Geoff Thomas, Perry Flint and Brian Straus (familiar names for those R-R readers out there ;)).
She also had her first introduction to the head of PR for Air New Zealand and a few of his team. They were a very good bunch and welcomed Annalie as a drinking partner ;) She made the most of it and ended up consuming plenty of wine with them and Geoff Thomas until well into the early hours. Not the brightest option when Annalie had to get up at 5.30am to catch a flight back home! Still, she made it, even if she didn’t feel like it!
Her second trip was a day out to New York to a luncheon to see an industry commentator speak. Her final excursion was to Phoenix, Arizona, for a meeting. Considering Phoenix is in the middle of the desert, Annalie felt rather overdressed with her overcoat from the North East. But she went from the 80s to 24 F in the space of a few hours, so the coat was needed in the end.
This weekend we’ve ventured back up to Killington, but found ourselves a relatively cheap motel to stay at. We got up bright and early on Saturday to drive the three hours to the resort, only to find much of it shut because they’d actually had rain on Friday, making many of the slopes very icy. They were doing their best to groom the ice up to make the slopes skiable, and other parts of the mountain were open so we headed over to Pico to spend a few hours on the smaller slopes there.
After a hearty lunch, we made our way over to Killington again where it was all opened by now. The snow conditions weren’t at all great and you had to play “dodge the ice patch” all over the place, but we managed to stay in one piece.
The hotel we chose had a good games room that included a shuffleboard table. We were very competitive at this when we went to Banff in Canada so we were pleased to find a table here. Annalie was a bit of a shark at it in Canada but her form has deserted her over the last couple of years so Ian beat her royally. She kept the darts close though ;)
Although there was no new snow by Sunday morning, the conditions were 100% better than Saturday because they’d been making tonnes of snow overnight in the cold temperatures. It was still very hard packed underneath, which made for unpredictable runs, but it was still better than before.
One of the most notorious runs at Killington, a double black diamond called Outer Limits, is usually a complete mogul field, not the best when you’re on a snowboard so we’ve always avoided it. But with the major snowmaking operation and some skilled grooming, it had become pretty flat. So we decided to give it a go. We both had reasonable runs with Annalie only having a “sit down” and no other major tumbles to report.
The rest of the day was spent messing about on the same mountain, but mainly sticking to blues, with the odd black thrown in. We did manage to accidentally find a mogul field but luckily the edge was pretty flat so we could stick to that, although it was a bit tight. And on one deserted green run, we managed to run into (not literally!) a cute little chipmunk sat in the middle of the piste! When Ian went in for a closer look, the little mite got a bit scared and scrambled back down his hole.
All in all it was a very enjoyable weekend that was relaxing and gave us both some deserved rest from our individual studies.
Ian has been busy with his Fire Academy and had his first practical session last Saturday. It was teaching them how to use the breathing apparatus properly so they were running around the yard, mock houses and confined spaces with air tanks and masks. He managed to impress his instructors with his ability to consume half the air everyone else needed on one exercise!
There’s also been a few days’ work for Ian. He had his first pick-up from Newark, which is a nightmare to get back from, especially during Friday night rush hour. Not only that but there was a torrential downpour at the time and Americans have an even greater inability to drive in the wet! So that meant his journey home took twice as long as normal, making a total of fours hours instead of two.
This week ahead Ian starts his FAA ground school, which is part of the training required for his pilot licence. Now he’s earning his own pennies, he wants to start taking flying lessons to get qualified, just so he can take Annalie for lunch to Cape Cod, or somewhere similar ;) or so he says!
The awards ceremony ended up being a really good networking event for her, meeting up with some old journalist friends in Geoff Thomas, Perry Flint and Brian Straus (familiar names for those R-R readers out there ;)).
She also had her first introduction to the head of PR for Air New Zealand and a few of his team. They were a very good bunch and welcomed Annalie as a drinking partner ;) She made the most of it and ended up consuming plenty of wine with them and Geoff Thomas until well into the early hours. Not the brightest option when Annalie had to get up at 5.30am to catch a flight back home! Still, she made it, even if she didn’t feel like it!
Her second trip was a day out to New York to a luncheon to see an industry commentator speak. Her final excursion was to Phoenix, Arizona, for a meeting. Considering Phoenix is in the middle of the desert, Annalie felt rather overdressed with her overcoat from the North East. But she went from the 80s to 24 F in the space of a few hours, so the coat was needed in the end.
This weekend we’ve ventured back up to Killington, but found ourselves a relatively cheap motel to stay at. We got up bright and early on Saturday to drive the three hours to the resort, only to find much of it shut because they’d actually had rain on Friday, making many of the slopes very icy. They were doing their best to groom the ice up to make the slopes skiable, and other parts of the mountain were open so we headed over to Pico to spend a few hours on the smaller slopes there.
After a hearty lunch, we made our way over to Killington again where it was all opened by now. The snow conditions weren’t at all great and you had to play “dodge the ice patch” all over the place, but we managed to stay in one piece.
The hotel we chose had a good games room that included a shuffleboard table. We were very competitive at this when we went to Banff in Canada so we were pleased to find a table here. Annalie was a bit of a shark at it in Canada but her form has deserted her over the last couple of years so Ian beat her royally. She kept the darts close though ;)
Although there was no new snow by Sunday morning, the conditions were 100% better than Saturday because they’d been making tonnes of snow overnight in the cold temperatures. It was still very hard packed underneath, which made for unpredictable runs, but it was still better than before.
One of the most notorious runs at Killington, a double black diamond called Outer Limits, is usually a complete mogul field, not the best when you’re on a snowboard so we’ve always avoided it. But with the major snowmaking operation and some skilled grooming, it had become pretty flat. So we decided to give it a go. We both had reasonable runs with Annalie only having a “sit down” and no other major tumbles to report.
The rest of the day was spent messing about on the same mountain, but mainly sticking to blues, with the odd black thrown in. We did manage to accidentally find a mogul field but luckily the edge was pretty flat so we could stick to that, although it was a bit tight. And on one deserted green run, we managed to run into (not literally!) a cute little chipmunk sat in the middle of the piste! When Ian went in for a closer look, the little mite got a bit scared and scrambled back down his hole.
All in all it was a very enjoyable weekend that was relaxing and gave us both some deserved rest from our individual studies.
Ian has been busy with his Fire Academy and had his first practical session last Saturday. It was teaching them how to use the breathing apparatus properly so they were running around the yard, mock houses and confined spaces with air tanks and masks. He managed to impress his instructors with his ability to consume half the air everyone else needed on one exercise!
There’s also been a few days’ work for Ian. He had his first pick-up from Newark, which is a nightmare to get back from, especially during Friday night rush hour. Not only that but there was a torrential downpour at the time and Americans have an even greater inability to drive in the wet! So that meant his journey home took twice as long as normal, making a total of fours hours instead of two.
This week ahead Ian starts his FAA ground school, which is part of the training required for his pilot licence. Now he’s earning his own pennies, he wants to start taking flying lessons to get qualified, just so he can take Annalie for lunch to Cape Cod, or somewhere similar ;) or so he says!
Sunday, February 15, 2009
A pretty boring couple of weeks
Well, it seems that life is settling into a steady pace while we're both studying hard.
Ian has been attending the Firefighter Academy religously on Tuesday and Thursday evenings, but he's already studied way beyond his current lessons. He has also been getting into some "proper" work though as he's been getting some jobs with the limo company. His first two trips have both been Friday afternoon pick-ups from Boston Airport. We're taking bets on when he'll pick up his first IAE customer But today he was in the yard for some training when they got a call from someone just wanting a ride to his friend's house, to sit around and wait for him while he watched the Daytona 500, then take him home. Ian was right place, right time! It's the easiest job going and Ian even got invited into the house to watch the race. Then an hour or so later, the client got driven home. A $400 cab ride but he was still a good tipper .
We've been spending a bit more time socially with some of Ian's firefighter friends. Last Saturday night we went out for a meal with Matt and Kristi (who's housewarming was a couple of weeks' ago) before Ian went round to theirs early on Sunday to watch the Aresnal game. Matt is about the only American we know who knows anything about football (soccer). This Saturday night Tony and Robyn were having a "burn" where old Christmas trees are, well, erm, set on fire. Good job there were a bunch of firemen present then It was supposed to take place a few weeks ago but it was too cold. It was hardly toasty now but it was at least bearable (with a nice fire to warm the cockles!).
Elsewhere there has been a baby shower for our neighbour Suzy who is due to give birth in a month. The girls all had to submit baby photos for a competition so Annalie put in the one of her at around 18 months with a black eye! Suzy was the only one who actually guessed it and a few people thought that Fi's photo was of Annalie.
Annalie's Masters assignments are slowly progressing. She is getting incredibly frustrated with JetBlue though, who still continually promise to get back to her to set up some time to go in and see them and take part in their new employee orientation, but she's still not had anything from them. She'd already decided that her last assignment before the dissertation would have to be switched onto IAE instead, which is a little frustrating.
The one ray of light though is that her university tutor has told her that deadlines are "flexible" enabling her to focus on getting the right results rather than trying to make do with what she can get in time. She doesn't really want to take the end deadline beyond the end of May though as she'd like to get it over and done with as soon as possible. And boy, does she want it over with?! By the time the end of May comes she'll probably be just about dead as the biggest air show of the year is during the second week of June in Paris and then there's a huge event in China that she's likely to be at soon after. So there's no way she wants to drag out the dissertation any more than she has to!
Seeing as Ian finishes at the end of May too, we're thinking that a weekend away is in order around that time. We'll have deserved it don't you think?
Work is incredibly frustrating for Annalie as well though as she's got an awful lot of meetings to go to and there's no one in her team that can do her work for her while she's not there. So she's trying not to work late to enable her to come home and study, but sometimes it doesn't work out like that.
Ian has been attending the Firefighter Academy religously on Tuesday and Thursday evenings, but he's already studied way beyond his current lessons. He has also been getting into some "proper" work though as he's been getting some jobs with the limo company. His first two trips have both been Friday afternoon pick-ups from Boston Airport. We're taking bets on when he'll pick up his first IAE customer But today he was in the yard for some training when they got a call from someone just wanting a ride to his friend's house, to sit around and wait for him while he watched the Daytona 500, then take him home. Ian was right place, right time! It's the easiest job going and Ian even got invited into the house to watch the race. Then an hour or so later, the client got driven home. A $400 cab ride but he was still a good tipper .
We've been spending a bit more time socially with some of Ian's firefighter friends. Last Saturday night we went out for a meal with Matt and Kristi (who's housewarming was a couple of weeks' ago) before Ian went round to theirs early on Sunday to watch the Aresnal game. Matt is about the only American we know who knows anything about football (soccer). This Saturday night Tony and Robyn were having a "burn" where old Christmas trees are, well, erm, set on fire. Good job there were a bunch of firemen present then It was supposed to take place a few weeks ago but it was too cold. It was hardly toasty now but it was at least bearable (with a nice fire to warm the cockles!).
Elsewhere there has been a baby shower for our neighbour Suzy who is due to give birth in a month. The girls all had to submit baby photos for a competition so Annalie put in the one of her at around 18 months with a black eye! Suzy was the only one who actually guessed it and a few people thought that Fi's photo was of Annalie.
Annalie's Masters assignments are slowly progressing. She is getting incredibly frustrated with JetBlue though, who still continually promise to get back to her to set up some time to go in and see them and take part in their new employee orientation, but she's still not had anything from them. She'd already decided that her last assignment before the dissertation would have to be switched onto IAE instead, which is a little frustrating.
The one ray of light though is that her university tutor has told her that deadlines are "flexible" enabling her to focus on getting the right results rather than trying to make do with what she can get in time. She doesn't really want to take the end deadline beyond the end of May though as she'd like to get it over and done with as soon as possible. And boy, does she want it over with?! By the time the end of May comes she'll probably be just about dead as the biggest air show of the year is during the second week of June in Paris and then there's a huge event in China that she's likely to be at soon after. So there's no way she wants to drag out the dissertation any more than she has to!
Seeing as Ian finishes at the end of May too, we're thinking that a weekend away is in order around that time. We'll have deserved it don't you think?
Work is incredibly frustrating for Annalie as well though as she's got an awful lot of meetings to go to and there's no one in her team that can do her work for her while she's not there. So she's trying not to work late to enable her to come home and study, but sometimes it doesn't work out like that.
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