Well Christmas and New Year already feel like months ago. I know it's January, but in many ways it feels more like March to me. Can't really explain it but the mild weather and no snow whatsoever has probably got something to do with it. It's cold today mind but dry and sunny. Maybe the cold I've had this week is an attribute to my feelings. I'm crap with a cold, suffering from the typical bloke with a cold syndrome. I just shut down, unable to sleep and sit there with tissues stuck up my nose. Luckily Em's pulling me through it.

An interesting start to the year in the apartment. It's not every day that it starts to rain in the corridor, but that's what happened a few doors down last Sunday. A burst water pipe was to blame and not somebody in the apartment above leaving a tap running or something far more sinister. We're not just talking about a trickle of water either here. It was like a cloud burst that lasted for an hour or so. It was more entertaining than watching tv anyway.

Start a figure drawing class tomorrow which should be cool, looking forward to it. Hopefully it will get the ball rolling and inspire some new work. Em's working a couple of nights this week, she bought a map of America the other day to plan our summer holiday, tour, trip. Whatever you want to call it. Seattle, Chicago and San Fransisco are top of the list of cities with the Grand Canyon, Yosemite and Joshua Tree Park other places we would like to visit before returning home. Better earn some money then. So enough from me, time for a brew, a cough drop or two and to crack on with some work.

Cheers.

P.S. Have a look at this. Takes a minute to load but worth the wait.

New Website

I spent the last 3 months or so of 2006 re-designing my website for the New Year and launched it the other day. The grey background is gone and frankly I'm pleased to see the back of it. A fresh start for the New Year. There's a couple of new pieces of work on there too. So please click here to have a look. Feel free to let me know what you think.

Cheers.

Happy New Year

So how was 2006 for you? I guess it had it's moments like every other year. For us it was a full calendar year living on the other side of the pond, so will no doubt always be remembered for that. We did take a couple of trips back home to Blighty to celebrate Emma's 30th and Richard & Ian's civil ceremony. Which stand tall as a couple of highlights to the year. I spent the first of what I hope to be many working for myself, I did manage to do some work for other people too, and finished the year with a few freelance jobs under my belt. Em's worked her socks off, ticking off the number of shifts left to work as she goes. Sure it's not quite worked out as she expected but she's gained a whole new family of friends and seen an aggressive patient pinned to the wall by hospital police with guns at the ready. I'd never seen her so excited after a shift.

Em also fulfilled an ambition to see Madonna in concert, which I'm sure Richard & Ian wont mind me saying was the gayest thing I've seen this year next to a trip to P-Town. Another highlight was going whale watching in August which was just something else. Breakfast down by the Charles river was the best way to chill and start our days through the summer months. Picking up loads of copies of Boston's Weekly Dig, which published one of my illustrations was a huge buzz. Parents visiting, drinking and eating pizza in Woody's. The July 4th celebrations. We certainly had some of the best days of our lives last year, and some low ones too. Hey your going to have a couple no matter what.

Anyway it's 2007 a new year and there's loads to look forward to. The first things Emma said when the clock struck 12 on Monday was "We're going home this year". Which surely is one, but we've got loads more to do before then.

Cheers.

P.S. I have to give Em credit for the fireworks picture at the top, I spent most of New Years Eve sleeping and coughing at the toilet. So was concentrating on other things than taking pictures. I never really had drinking legs. I think my dad kept them for himself, Ha ha.

Happy Boxing Day

Boston's a bit of a ghost town over Christmas, everybody appears to leave the city to visit family and friends in the suburbs and across the country. Plenty of space on the park benches for an artist and a nurse.

Cheers.

Fruit/Flowers

Time has flown by as we reached our 4th anniversary the other day, and what better way to celebrate it by looking at some real human bodies minus their skin. Romantic we know. As mentioned before Em was interested from a medical stand point and me for the anatomical. To say Dr. Gunther von Hagens, Body Worlds exhibition is a little freaky would be an understatement, but interesting and compelling none the less. Sure some of the bodies looked like they had been modelled out of beef jerky, which I will not be eating again for the foreseeable future. Each of the donated bodies has it’s bodily fluids replaced with the doctors patented reactive fluid plastic which slowly hardens and preserves the bodies for exhibition. Beef jerky it isn’t. Also on exhibition was loads of individual organs highlighting how the body works and allowing you to compare between the healthy and disease riddled. The smokers lung was very pleasant, but I’m sure it wouldn’t stop my dad from smoking. We looked around for an hour or so and would have stayed longer if it wasn’t for those pesky kids on school trips. We’re getting old I know. We did manage to hold onto our appetites for a pub lunch, which was then walked off.

Evening entertainment began with cocktails at the Marriot. Well a Cosmopolitan for Em and a pint of Guinness for myself. It was then onto Boston's finest eating establishment in our opinion, Woody’s for a pizza washed down with a bottle of red wine (asked for white). All for a reasonable $40 plus change. Nice.


Christmas is of course upon us next week so it was time to put the tree up and some lights round the windows. Our tree was looking rather happy with itself with Emma’s hand made star at the top. That’s until we decided to hang some rather weighty baubles to some of his spindly arms. He’s coping with them for now but they may be on the floor one morning.

The Ipswich serial killer is topping the headlines this side of the pond. NBC News felt it necessary to add subtitles to the interview of an Ipswich local, which was slightly amusing. Maybe I need subtitles cause they don’t understand what I’m saying most of the time. I mean I asked for white they brought us red. We still drunk it though.

Cheers.

For more on the Body Worlds exhibition visit the website by clicking here.

Party.

Party nurses from the left: Em, Lindsey, Sarah and Carrie.

Last Saturday night was the BIDMC Cardiology Cardiac & Vascular Surgery Christmas Party at the Marriot hotel over the Longfellow Bridge in Cambridge. We wanted to see if Christmas parties were any different this side of the pond. Such as food, drink and music. So there we were, surrounded by some of the worlds finest cardiologists, cardiac and vascular surgeons. The main thing we noticed was the lack of free booze, no open bar, no wine on the tables. The lack of free booze aside a good time was had by all. The food was okay, Roast beef and mashed potatoes with an unusually sweet tomato flavoured gravy. A few one hit wonders that we had never heard of got most people dancing. Abba surprisingly cleared the floor apart from a couple of dancing queens. By the end of the night there was just our little gang of CCU nurses, myself, Sarah, Lindsey, Kamelia left on the dance floor. Even Mark joined in for a boogie.

Sunset through the apartment window

Bought the new camera just after Thanksgiving but not really had chance to go out and take any pictures. We're both just too busy working at the moment. Managed to take a break from my illustrations to capture tonights sunset.

Coldest day since mid March today. I guess it's only going to get colder over the next few months. Time to get those thermals back out we think.

Cheers.

Thanksgiving

Our second thanksgiving was again a fairly downbeat and quiet affair as most travel round the country to visit parents or grandparents. There was however the lingering smell of a few turkeys being slowly basted through the day. We ignored the coverage of the Macy’s parade, learning after last years sickly stage school performances. Myself and Em were truly thankful that Kevin Costner wasn’t playing catch with his dad on his field of dreams. That film broke us last year.

Sorry no pictures this time round, waiting for our new camera to be delivered. Got a great deal in the Thanksgiving sale. Today is known as ‘Black Friday’ the biggest shopping day of the year, and is named so because it brings all stores back into the black for the year, apparently. Stores opened at 5 this morning and off course people queued to get in.

We’ve not really been anywhere or done much apart from work this November, Em’s working through a batch of nightshifts and I have been busy working on some illustrations for a company I met in Portland last month. Nice little job which should allow me to treat us to some jam with our bread. Only joking. Just great to get some work in which will hopefully lead to more.

It’s our anniversary next month and we’ve a few plans on the agenda. A romantic trip to the Science museum to have a look at Gunther von Hagens’ Body Worlds which is an exhibition of real human bodies. Nice. Em’s interested in the medical side I’m going for the anatomical perspective. Boston Ballet are performing ‘The Nutcracker’ which should be fun, I think. Em says it will be and who am I to disagree. Finally of course, go out for something to eat. Original plans to go to the north end and spend a fortune in a nice posh Italian restaurant have slowly but surely been pounded on by the idea of just going to our local and favourite place to eat in Boston. Woody’s. Hopefully we will have a camera to take some pictures by then.

Cheers.

Portland pictures

Our battered and bruised camera has come through for us. Managed to download the pictures we took in Portland, below is a collection of the best from the weekend.


Cheers.

It's just round the corner...

...are the words my dad used to, and probably still says when out walking and trying to find someplace. Well like father like son I found myself muttering those fatal words as me and Em tried walking back to the Portland train station and the nearby Denny's. I've never been to a Denny's and Em was raving about her childhood experiences of the classic American breakfast. Fueled by those thoughts we found ourselves crossing a bridge which slowly turned into a freeway. Things should have clicked when a car on the other side stopped to offer us a lift. 'No we're good' we replied. Five minutes later we would be making our way back towards the B&B to get a taxi. Denny's will have to wait.

An interesting weekend full of the good the bad and the kooky. The good being Portland in general, quite a nice place and a little English. Reminded us of various places back home including Bingley and Whitby. Loads of art & craft shops, pottery and interesting souvenir shops selling local produce, jams, mustards, maple syrups and salt water taffy.

The bad would be me, being a butter fingers and dropping my camera, then seeing a car run over it. It's not looking too good. Will have a go at download the pictures soon. I'll post up the best if I can get anything from the slightly crumpled piece of metal and plastic that is our digital camera. May it rest in peace. Also bad was the weather. 50 mile an hour winds and torrential rain on the Saturday. The wind hung around for the rest of the weekend, thankfully the rain moved on.

The Kooky would be the B&B, the oldest running bed and breakfast in Portland. 4 foot high bed and loads of old fashioned European fixtures and fittings added to its charm and character. A little different from your typical Holiday Inn.

Cheers.

Hopefully post some pictures up soon.

2 hours 13 minutes

That was Em's time to cover the 13.1 miles of the Boston Half Marathon at the weekend. A respectable time indeed. She was fairly nervous at the start, fearing she'd be the last home. Not a chance. While Em ran to the zoo and back along the Emerald Necklace. I was left to wander round our neighborhood and take a few pictures. Not done that for a while.


The trees are getting pretty colourful round here and we're planning to go up to Maine in a couple of weeks to see a little more of the New England Fall. We saw Jon Stewart last Friday and laughed along as he ripped into America, their foreign policies and kiddy fiddling politicians. He also talked a little about Americas gun culture and the recent school shootings. It's certainly been a little crazy and constantly on the news. They don't know how to handle it because they won't give up their right to bare arms.

Gig wise we should have seen Keane but they cancelled due to a boozy lead singer. But all is not lost we've the Red Hot Chili Peppers on the horizon which should be good. So I've waffled on enough. Until the next time, take it easy.

Cheers.

A week and a half back

and we're settling back into Boston life. Still missing family and friends of course but getting back to being a 'gang of two'. Em's back on the night shifts this week and easing herself back into work. The day after we got back I spoke to the art director of 'Boston's Weekly Dig' and sold him the rights to publish an illustration. More of which you can find on the sketchblog. The fall TV season has started so we're finding it hard to pull ourselves away from the TV between 8 and 11 most nights. ER, Studio 60, Heroes, Standoff, Smith, Bones, Jerico, CSI, My Name Is Earl and The Office. Not to mention Lost starts next week.


Em's training for the Boston half marathon is going well. I think. The run takes place a week on Sunday. She ran twice round part of the Charles River today, about six miles and plans to go out another 2 or 3 times before next Sunday. Em's hoping to complete it in around 2 hours, so check back in a couple of weeks to see how she got on.

Not been to Harvard for a while so that's our plan for the weekend, well Saturday afternoon, evening. Get some food at Grafton Street and a few drinks on the way back at Bukowskis. Probably just going to chill on Sunday and watch the leaves change and fall to the ground or maybe Spurs v Portsmouth.

Cheers.

Back to Boston

We have arrived back in Boston safe and sound after our little jaunt across the pond. It was really good to see and catch up with everybody again. Don't be afraid to send us e-mails, postcards, letters or Double Deckers. Keep in touch.

Cheers.

One year later...

It’s one year one week since we arrived in Boston and endured the first week where we thought we had made the biggest mistake possible. Leaving good jobs, a nice little house, cars and more heartbreaking, our familys and friends. Once that first week was out of the way and we were free from our misguided guide things quickly picked up for the better.

Today I’m sat on the sofa writing this and watching Watership Down of all things. It’s raining, showers from hurricane 'Ernesto'. Em’s working, doing an extra shift, which leaves me with this and the housework to do. Last Thursday we finally managed to go see the Red Sox. Tickets for the games are hard to come by. Em won a raffle at work which gave us a chance to buy a few. So down to the ball park we went, meeting up with some of Em’s work friends. We had seats in the right field with a pretty good view of the bases. The game finished 6-4 to the Sox and ended their loosing streak, which has hit their chances of making the play-offs. Still the atmosphere was great, the crowd was up for it and Em didn’t get hit by the ball as she had feared. Or flying peanuts, coke bottles and crackerjacks. We did our bit handing down money from other people to the vendors and singing during the 7th inning stretch.

Friday 1st September.
We took the fast ferry to Provincetown, or P-Town as it’s affectionately known. Not the greatest trip over Em was a little sea sick so we were relieved to reach dry land. P-Towns a strange little place you might say queer. It is known as the gay resort town at the end of Cape Cod. There’s a lot of love here, beautiful beach side houses and quirky little shops. We walked along the main street and sat on the beach with an ice cream and a bag of salt water taffy. Great to see a little town that’s holding onto it’s character, not a McDonalds or Starbucks in sight which was kinda nice.


Anyway thanks for reading, I’ll write some more soon, but I better do the ironing.

Cheers.

Nice shirt, will you be my friend...

September is round the corner and a new batch of students are arriving to the city. The Berkeley School of Music students are standing out the most. Groups of them being led round the streets, guitars on their backs or drumsticks in hand. All wearing t-shirts with their favorite bands logos adorning their chests. No doubt an attempt to communicate their musical taste and attract like minded souls.

Trains, Whales & Poisoning

Don't panic, neither of us has been poisoned. We took a little trip down to Mansfield, Rhode Island on the train. A double decker train too which was a little different from our usual. We were heading down to Rhode Island because Em had tickets to see 80's spandex cock glam rockers 'Poison'. I was just tagging along for the trip. Em was going to the concert with some friends from work, bit of a girls night out. So while Em was re-living her teenage years. I was in the hotel watching Chelsea get beat by the MLS All-stars.


The next day we took the train to Providence to go look round the Rhode Island School of Designs Museum which was pretty cool and featured an exhibition on the changing face of art and what defines something as Art. The exhibition featured works by some of my favourites, 'Pollock', 'Riley', 'Rothko', 'Lichenstein', and 'Jasper Johns'. Really great to see one of his American Flag paintings.

Finally took a trip out to sea on the 1st August and luckily for us it wasn't a wasted trip. The Humpback whales were out in numbers. The boat takes you about an hour out to sea, 40 miles or so. To a well known area the whales populate to feed through the summer. We could have stayed and watched them all day. The sea was calm and the sun wasn't too hot, to say it was one of the hottest days of the year. Really felt the heat when we returned to Boston and we both had a lovely red lobster glow to our faces.


Cheers.

Gravestones

From the 'Old Granary Burying Ground'. I just love the look, feel and design of them.

Trying to enjoy the sun...

... but it's not easy for us fair haired, pale skin coloured folk. It's been humid as hell lately, pretty unbearable. Bring back the snow and freezing winter. Things are going okay this side of the pond, saw Madonna last week which was great and after 21 years of waiting Emma was well pleased. Especially when we were able to swap our tickets at the back for some near the front. Madonna doesn't want to see empty seats at the front, so we gladly obliged and help fill the gaps. Speaking of gaps we were so close we could see the gap between here front two teeth.

Work wise it's a little slow if I'm honest, Em's working nights most of the time. I've had a couple of enquiries but nothings developed yet. So I've been sending out cards and samples to some more magazines. I've also signed up to the portfolios.com network. Hopefully this should get my work out to a wider audience. Time will tell. Feel free to have a look and let me know what you think.

Also opened a little store at cafepress.com to sell some prints of my illustrations. The plan is to sell each design for a limited time of three months to keep it fresh and ticking over. Only got the one print available at the moment, but it's a little cracker even if I do say so myself. So please have a look, hope to have a couple more available soon. I guess that's my little sales pitch. Buy one, your walls will thank you for it. As will I.

That's all for now, so thanks for reading.

4th July

The celebrations were a little crazy, over half a million people on the banks of the Charles River. We couldn't get anywhere near the 'hatch' shell to see the concert by the Boston Symphony. People had been queing the night before to get the good spots. The fireworks went on for about 25 minutes, hard to believe but they were better than New Years.


Over in the North End they were celebrating for a different reason. The Italian quarter went nuts after they beat Germany in the World Cup Semis. We're off to the pub later to watch the France, Portugal match. Should be good.

Hair today...

...gone tomorrow. Well actually last Thursday I think. I'm referring to my loosing battle on the receding hairline front. So it's all gone, well apart from a little bit.


Need to buckle down with this blogging lark, not written again for ages. I guess the excuse is we've been home to England and seen you all anyway so no need to write. Not that anybody's reading it. Well apart from Jackie. Thanks for your support Jackie. Returned to Boston safely, watched England play better but still get knocked out of the World Cup. Think we're going to the pub to watch the French run all over and stamp on the knackers of the Portuguese. Only joking if your from Portugal and have stumbled across my ramblings on the world wide web.

Well after what she says is 21 years of waiting Em's going to go see Madonna on Thursday, I'm going too but wont be buying a t-shirt. Hope she lives up to Em's expectations. Surely she'll be better than Take That, which at the moment stands as the best concert she's been to. Shouldn't be too difficult Madge.

Nothing more to say at the moment than it's the 4th July so lots going on today leading to a 25 minutes fireworks spectacular and Aerosmith playing a couple of tunes with the Boston Symphony. So we'll try and take some pictures, but don't be surprised if there just of the backs of peoples heads. They started queuing to get to the 'hatch' yesterday. There expecting about 700,000 people to attend. Anyway until then here's some pictures of some cows which are part of the cow parade.


More you say, okay then here you go.

Cheers.