New York was a quickie trip, to collect my latest investment, a Feathercraft folding kayak. I'm now the proud owner of a lovely Khatsalano, which is a Greenland style kayak, so it looks sleek and moves fast. And is a tad twitchy in windy weather, but that just adds to the fun. While in New York, I checked out the New York kayak company and spent a really enjoyable hour there chatting with Randall the owner and his colleague about paddling and gear and how I wanted to get out and paddle on the Hudson outside their shop window. They have a fab location and run kayaking trips in summer for all abilities which has to be a top class way to view Manhattan.
The kayak had been shipped to my ever obliging aunt and uncle in Secaucus, NJ, and it was with some trepidation, not entirely unfounded, that I opened up the box that had taken up residence in their shed since before Xmas. In a nutshell, it looks like you're lugging around a dead body in a big black bag. Weighs as much too. But it's a lovely colour, very important to a girl, and it was all so shiny and smelled so new that I could not wait to put it together. But wait I did.
New York was great. Really mild for early January, no snow, sunshine every day, very few tourists and I just spent my days wandering the streets pretty much. Did none of the usual tourist stuff apart from going to the ballet at the Lincoln Centre which was lovely, even if I did lower the tone by wearing runners. Got buses up and down Manhattan and into Harlem and Broadway and hopped on and off any time I felt like a closer look. Also managed a pint or two with a classmate from college, Austin Duffy, who's living it up and managing not to work too hard. And increasing his media profile back home by appearing in the national broadsheet enthusing about the jazz scene in NYC. It was slightly surreal to be meeting up with him after a good few years at the fountain of the Lincoln Centre as opposed to on a street or a hospital corridor in Dublin. Surreal but a good laugh.
Hot on the heels of NYC was a brief foray to Devon to locate a place to live for my 7 months in the UK from April on. Sally Welsh, a friend's mum had put in some leg work for me and pointed me in the direction of a couple of places to rent in a lovely village on the banks of the River Tamar. I fell in love with the first place I saw and despite it having 3 bedrooms and being both way too big and way over my budget for my stay, nowhere else was going to come close. Check out my new abode on www.bereferrers.com. It makes the move over so painless when I'm dying to move into this lovely old Sunday school with a stream in my garden and a river outside my door.
The rest of January was spent moving all of my possessions to my parent's house. Time consuming, painful, stressful, and it rained all the time, just to make things that bit harder. My dad was a trooper and shipped up every day, did his best pack mule impression and put up with my grumpiness. But eventually it was finished and Stoneybatter resembled a minimalist pad, while the study in Athgoe resembled a warehouse. Full of bags and boxes marked 'Devon', 'Antarctica', 'April 2010'. Before I left the Batter completely, an open house was held in the hope of depleting my alcohol supplies. Unfortunately I ended up waking up the next morning with more alcohol in situ than the night before. But at least myself and Marie Kelly had managed to down a litre bottle of Baileys between us between 2am and 5am.
I abandoned Ireland, and indeed left my family with an unfurnished house to be let out - thanks all at home for getting through that shopping list. And headed straight to Japan. Which is where I am now.
Big brother Brian is demanding my attention, so the Japanese update must wait! Later....
