Brrrrrrrrr !

Wow, this snow sure does linger. It's now 2 days after the snow on Friday and there's still plenty of it about - not on my path or drive though :-) It's a beautiful sunny day, but I guess the temperature is still pretty low.

Anyway, I thought you'd like to see what the view's like from our patio doors. Pretty damn cool, I'd say. And I know it's gonna be even better during the Long Island summer.

And while posting this I'm just gonna say how I'm listening to Pandora radio through the laptop. What a great site; what a great idea. Download it now and/or hook it up with your Facebook account - you'll thank me.

Snow...lots of it

Ever since I'd started at AIP I'd been hearing about snow: how terrible it was, the storms, how it wasn't possible to get to work, how you could get 6" in one fall, how 'when I was a little boy it used to snow for 412 days of the year!'

I had seen pretty much nothing since I arrived on Dec 30th. I'll admit that it was cold - very cold - at times, but the snow was conspicuous by its absence. However, on Friday 22nd it duly arrived and I'd say that about 10" fell overnight and throughout the morning. The AIP office, which was originally to be closed for the morning, was ultimately closed for the day. How very exciting.

And there were a couple of other things to note: (a) the country/area didn't grind to a halt. Unlike the UK they're geared up for this. And (b) in the complex where our house is they have people to clear & salt the roads, driveways and footpaths. How cool is that, I didn't have to go out there with my imaginary spade to clear all the snow from my drive, path, etc. What a great place! Although I guess it'll spoil us for when we move in a year's time and have to do all this ourselves :-(

A new home...temporarily

At last, I'm finally out of the hotel and have moved into what will be our home for the next year. All neat and tidy waiting for me, but very, very white. I can think of a few other colours that might be a little more practical in a rented property.

After a couple of hours of staring at white walls and unpacking my suitcases I was rescued by Wendy, who came round to take me for breakfast and to do a little shopping. So, 2 minutes after finishing my scrambled egg & bacon roll I was in WalMart picking out some loo-roll, air-freshener, toiletries, etc. I also got myself some fruit juice, Honey-Nut Cheerios & milk. With a couple of items of crockery I was good to go :-)

The week-end was frantic and not helped by the fact that the house doesn't appear on any SatNavs (they're called GPS's here) or maps (and definitely not on MapQuest or similar). This meant that on Saturday, Sunday & Monday I was fielding calls from lost delivery drivers who were expecting me to guide them in on the phone.

However, I got there in the end and the deliveries, etc. all panned out as planned:

Sat am - delivery of all the electronics (one laptop missing)
Sat pm - cable guy to hook up cable box (DVR), telephone & broadband
Sat pm - beds delivered and installed
Sat pm - missing laptop delivered

Sunday am - home theatre set-up
Sunday pm - wireless network set-up

Monday am - container delivered, assembly of furniture, etc.

All that's left is to unpack the 80 boxes of 'stuff' from the UK; job for Steph methinks. Especially since wherever I put things, she'll want to move them...

It was great to see the house slowly take shape. First with a few boxes of electronics, TV, etc. Then the beds, followed by getting all the TVs working. On Sunday everything - finally - was hooked up and I could play and watch DVDs, TV, etc. through the AV receiver (the room's too small so I have it set up as a 5.1 rather than a 7.1). And finally Monday, when I was able to unpack and have our furniture in situ, as well as a few possessions - Hannah's ornaments and cuddly toys, some of Steph's clothes...

A few small teething problems were sorted over the week: rear-left speaker didn't work, needed to buy and load Quicken and Microsoft Office. And most important need a crash course in Windows Vista - but have to say that it looks really good.

I now have something that's approaching a home and all that's required is my wife and two children :-)

Sven is Lord of Manchester

Today has started very well. For those who appreciate the homage:

"Sir Alex Ferguson, Sir Bobby Charlton, Sir Matt Busby, Ryan Giggs, David Beckham, girly Portuguese player....your boys took a hell of a beating" :-)

I truly don't care what happens for the rest of the season. Our first double over Manufacturers United since I was 9 years old and our first win at The Swamp since Denis Law's (in)famous back heel and that crowd invasion - I was 13. That's how long ago it was and that's how much it means. Joe has never known us win there, so a great day for him too. Especially since he's generally surrounded by United, Arsenal, Chelski & Liverpool fans at school. Oh, joy unbridled.

Every season I hear the same smug comments from United fans, so, in the words of the great Jim Royle, "6 points, my arse!"

Now, time to grab a coffee and do some conference work follow ups.

Paul Potts saves my day

Today has been difficult. I thought I'd got used to this, but being on my own in this hotel room has really got me down. Perhaps it's because I'm so close to the finish line.

Anyway I was feeling really low (don't know why, but not being able to drive ain't helping) and then stumbled across this on YouTube; Paul Potts' first appearance on 'Britain's Got Talent'. Talk about uplifting. I remember watching it the first time and it made the hairs on the back of my neck stand-up...

The whole clip just makes me feel a whole lot better about the world. A quiet, shy and unassuming guy from S.Wales waiting to show people he had quite a good voice.

Great to see the reaction of Piers Morgan & Simon Cowell when he first came on stage and said he was going to sing opera. They could not have been more horrified having no doubt suffered a whole day of tedious and mind-numbing auditions. Piers Morgan glances over to Simon Cowell and you just know what he's thinking. I know that I was thinking the same when I was watching the program when it first aired: "this guy is going to be some karaoke-singing wannabe who's going to murder my one favourite opera aria". I had visions of someone thinking they could sing. Just like those horror auditions on Pop/American Idol.

But then, oh boy, he starts to sing and you see them sit up and take notice. The crowd are won over and Amanda Holden is reduced to tears. I'm not a big opera fan, but obviously 'Nessun Dorma' reminds me of Italia '90, Gazza, and all that.



The clip is just uplifting and I now feel great. Still want my family here though.

And for those who might want to post comments: yes, I know, I'm a big softie. You seen my favourite movies on Facebook? 'Field of Dreams', 'The Shawshank Redemption', 'The Green Mile'. You see a trend here?