Mmmmmmmm.

Hello again, apologies to the vegetarians for the above picture of the glorious pastrami sandwich I had the other day. Em opted for the artery clogging grilled cheese, very nice.

Anyway busy week, snow and ice are slowly melting as the temperature rises above freezing for the first time in what seems like a month or so. It's bright, it's sunny, it's lovely today. We've both been feeling a little down most of this week for various reasons but mainly because of work, not enough in my case and too much in Em's case. However into another weekend we head and a trip to New York City so we're perking up a little and plan to enjoy our last trip to NYC for some time.

Last night I attended a Graphic Artists Guild seminar on e-mail promotions and sending out newsletters which was all very interesting. However I was more excited by seeing the illustration I did for the event promo postcard. Which you can see by clicking here. They also printed the gorilla onto a 6 foot banner which was pretty cool to see. I got chatting with some other illustrators who also discussed a lack of work at the moment. So I guess it was nice to hear I'm not the only one, if a little disheartening with regards to my chosen career. Oh well.

Plans for the summer holiday are in full flow and frankly the credit cards taking a beating. We're planning to fly to Seattle for a couple of days then down to San Francisco, again for a couple of days. Then jump on the train to Monterey, for another couple of nights, then back on the train down the coast to Los Angeles. Em's found a delightfully kitsch hotel near the Sunset Strip, so she can find the old hang outs of Motley Crew and Poison in an attempt to relive her 80’s hair metal youth. From LA we had hoped to go to Joshua Tree National Park and possibly stay in the same hotel as U2 did, then onto San Diego for a night or two before moving on to the Grand Canyon, then fly back to Boston for the 4th July and home on the 5th. Which as I write sounds too much to do in a week. So sadly San Diego's been dropped, which is a shame but we want to enjoy this trip and not just move from hotel to hotel. The best and quickest way for us to visit the Grand Canyon looks like taking a trip from Las Vegas, flying over the canyon and being dropped off to have a walk round. So our updated plan is to take the bus from LA to Joshua Tree via Palm Springs, stay there for a couple of nights then fly to Vegas from Palm Springs to do the Grand Canyon, maybe play a slot machine or two in Vegas and finally fly from Vegas back to Boston. We're thinking of rounding off the whole thing by coming full circle and spend our last night in America in the hotel we spent our first. It sounds allot we know but we feel we deserve it, I especially think Em does.

You're only here once.

I need to go stir the chilli, have a good weekend.

Cheers.

That seal wants it's coat back

Let's get the weather out of the way. The snow or should I say some snow finally fell in Boston this week. Closely followed by a bit of rain then a little more snow. Lets not forget the sub zero temperatures too, turning Boston into a massive ice rink. It's treacherous outside. The safest way is to avoid the paths and walk across the tightly compacted snow to the side, which makes you feel like you weigh nothing, leaving the smallest imprints with each step. To walk on the paths is like walking on broken glass. Not much fun, with the wind trying to blow you over. It's been hard getting around, and so cold. So we've not ventured further than down Boylston for a brew the past few days.

Whilst walking about in our 20 layers we've noticed an older generation still opt for the fur off a seals back to keep warm. At least that's what we think it is, there may have been a racoon or two draped over a few shoulders. We counted about 10 women wearing fur coats and resisted the temptation to hit them with baseball bats. It would appear there are still people around for the fur market although as noted they are of a certain age and wealth. I'm happy with my Columbia 3 in 1 which keeps me warm enough, although the 18 layers underneath may have something to do with that.

Spring is only 32 day away and our return in the summer is drawing ever nearer. We've begun to plan things, feels like two weeks ago we we're planning to move here to Boston. Before we do come home we're hoping to explore the country a little more. Em bought a map which has been stuck to the wall and destinations for the ultimate summer holiday have been chosen. The only problem is time. There's so many places we want to go, Seattle, LA, San Francisco, San Diego and lets not forget Vegas. We have to go there. As you can probably tell from those destinations we're planning to travel down the west coast using trains, planes and automobiles. Well a bus or two, we don't fancy driving ourselves. It's going to be the holiday of a lifetime because we know we may never get the chance to do something like this again. So I think we're going to go for it. The 18th June is the provisional start date, returning home on the 6th July. It would be rude not to spend another 4th July back here in Boston, which was such a great experience last year. The only fear is we try and cram too much in and have no time to relax and enjoy the journey. However if we don't get a good tax refund we may just be flying home. Which although disappointing will be one of the best parts of the whole trip anyway.

Cheers for reading, have a good weekend and keep warm.

To be honest...

...we haven't done much this week apart from work, so this could be a short one. We watched the Colts beat the Bears in Superbowl XLI, that's 41 for those like me who are unfamiliar with the old Roman numerals. At least that's what they say it is. Of course there were loads of breaks and the game lasted for over 4 hours, but it flew by. Em bought some plastic cups to drink our beer from, cause that's what your supposed to do. It was a good game, although as I've mentioned before Em wasn't too impressed with it all. Prince was the half time entertainment and made us laugh as he was silhouetted into some phallic poses stroking his guitar. Absolute genius after all the fuss about Janet Jackson revealing her boob a couple of years back, and not many seemed to pick up on it in the news. Maybe Prince is a little disappointed by that.

We've been getting asked for id at some new pubs and bars we've been to lately. You also need to prove your identity when you buy booze from the supermarkets and liquor stores. Most of the time our federal issued resident card is good enough but lately places have been rejecting them and asking us to show our passports. We don't carry those around with us and don't plan to in future so reluctantly have signed up for 'Liquor id's.' I find it crazy that a federal issued identification is not accepted in the Bay State. Not to mention I'm 32. I may not look it, but I do look older than 21. My dad had to show his id, which caught him a little off guard. You don't want to come between my dad and his bottle of whisky Massachusetts. What did my dad have to prove? he's obviously over 21 years of age, and what does a state issued id card do that our federal one doesn't? Apart from cost $25. I don't know the answers but we can hopefully buy a bottle of wine for our Sunday tea with a little less hassle now.

Still no snow in Boston, only had 1.8" so far this year. The average is about 25" or something. It has however been extremely cold. I don't think it's been above freezing this week. We're getting a little tired of wearing all the layers to keep warm. I guess it will soon be Spring, March is approaching fast. I think the colds the reason we haven't been out anywhere this week. Sadly keeping warm in front of the TV has been far more attractive proposition than venturing out. We'll try and do better next week. Hopefully England will too when they play again.

Cheers.

Calm down.

Up until Wednesday I didn't really have much to write about this week, Then the shit hit the fan sort of speak. Suspicious devices were found around the city, near T stations and bridges setting off a full scale terrorist alert shutting down the city. You may have heard about it back home in England, The BBC and Guardian covered it on their websites. So you no doubt know it was all a hoax and the 'supposed' suspicious devices were no more than electronic boards featuring a character from a Cartoon Network series. All part of a 'guerrilla marketing' campaign for the show and a future movie version. The campaign also happened in about 9 other cities including New York, Philadelphia and Seattle, but only Boston fell into what I saw as total paranoia and fear from a cartoon character giving passers by the finger. Maybe I'm a little naive but if I had seen one of the alleged suspicious devices I don't think I would have thought anything of it. Apparently some of the devices had been there for up to two weeks without any cause for concern. The news stations went to work, feeding the frenzy and in my opinion spreading fear through the city while many teens and fans of the show found the whole thing hilarious. Two guys have been arrested for placing the devices and continue not to take the whole matter seriously to the annoyance of Boston's older generations. I myself couldn't believe how it was blown out of all proportion, I mean I'm no bomb squad but you just have to look at the devices. Anyway we still love you Boston even if you’re probably the most paranoid city in America, still at least we know your prepared if somebody leaves a suspicious 'Elmo' rucksack lying around.

Have a good weekend.

So cold.

I don't really want to waffle on about the weather, but I mentioned it was frickin' freezing last week. Well last week was a lovely cool breeze compared to today. It's insanely cold, minus 10 degree C but with the wind chill, feels more like minus 20. Frankly when the weatherman says you could experience a little frost bite if your outside for more than half an hour you decide to stay in and have a cuppa instead of venturing out to the local Starbucks and returning with black fingers.


I ventured down to the Charles River earlier in the week to take a couple of pictures. The river is completely frozen and is one of the most beautiful things I've seen. That's until you see somebody has tried to smash the ice with a dustbin. It has snowed a little this week but only an inch or so. Nothing major. Also out on my walk I came across the local eagle or hawk nibbling on a little rat. We've seen it a few times lately but managed to get pretty close this time to take a picture. It didn't seem to mind the attention. There was even a professional photographer there with his massive lens taking pictures too. Not something you see every day.


We're planning to have a tourist type day once a week before we head home in the summer. This week we went to the JFK museum and library. Which was pretty interesting. As you get older you obviously get more interested in politics and world events. So me and Em found it all pretty fascinating especially the parts of the museum covering the Cuban missile crisis and the Space race. Loads of stuff about how he used television to help get his messages across to the people. So recommend a visit if your in Boston.

The Patriots lost last weekend, didn't have a good Sunday really, Watched Man Utd throw away the lead against Arsenal then the Patriots did the same thing. Leading 21-6 at half time they lost to the Indianapolis Colts 34-38. So it's going to be the Colts against the Chicago Bears in Superbowl 41 a week on Sunday. Still going to watch it, Em’s going to make a chilli which is apparently the thing to do.

Cheers till next Friday, have a good weekend.

Long johns on

Yep it's frickin' freezing, well not so much today but for most of the week it's just been so cold, minus something or other all day long. Em's worked four straight days this week so we've both been up at 5:20 and walking to work with 18 layers of clothing on to try and keep warm. I even had two hats on one day. At least we didn't have the 70 mph winds that have been hitting England and other parts of Europe. No real snow fall yet, sure there will be some soon.

Started a life drawing class the other week, takes place every Friday for the next 10 weeks. I'm posting the drawings to the sketchblog, so feel free to click on the yellow pencil to the left which should take you straight there. Em's well into here yoga classes, attending at least one class a week and getting as flexible as a rubber band. Not quite to Stings standard mind.

My cold's slowly clearing, still got an irritating cough but feeling much better than a week ago. Working off the Christmas belly too due to us not eating and drinking as much, so feeling good. Need to start jogging again, Em's planning to run the Great North Run again, this will be about the 6th or 7th time if she gets in.

The New England Patriots are in the AFC Final this weekend which is like the semi-finals for the Superbowl. Em's not much of a fan but it's bringing back memories when I was a kid and watched it all the time on Channel 4. Should be a great experience if they can win on Sunday and get to the Superbowl while we're here. 'Come on Pats' as they say.

Cheerio till next week.

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.