Ha ha ha ... only one more work day until vacation time! And New York is cold and drizzly today, to prove me right in going (not that that needed doing!). Zoe turns up sometime this afternoon, and we're going to do a full-on shopping day tomorrow for girlie clothes. We're off to see Stomp in the evening and then up early Sunday morning (too early!) to catch our flights. Can a week be any longer than this one!!!?

I wish I had an enormous wall calendar and a thick black magic marker so I could cross off the days to this weekend. I know I say this every time, but rarely have I looked forward to a holiday so much. Can't wait to get out of this freezing, dark city (and what is currently the dullest office in the world) to relax on a yacht in the Caribbean. Seems that Don and Bern are off to Hawaii over Christmas - doing a house swap with some guy in Honolulu. Great idea but I've turned into a big fat green-eyed monster, Hawaii being one of my big dreams, so I'm hoping the BVI's will banish my envy a little.

The weekend was lovely. Weather-wise it couldn't have been worse, and we barely did anything on Saturday morning apart from minor exercise stuff, and lingering in the apartment watching bad TV. We went to see 8 Mile in the afternoon, which we all thought was pretty good, and then in the evening I embarked on the pizza-making experience. Course it wouldn't have been so bad if I'd have put the dough straight on the stone, but cleverly I'd decided the stone would lose it's heat too quickly if I did that, so I'd been building the pizza on a piece of silver foil. During transferral, the pizza base stuck like glue to the foil, so I managed to gouge a huge hole in the base and get the toppings everywhere. Lost my rag a bit (how dare the pizza process not be perfect?!!), but the second one wasn't so bad, and I ended up being pretty pleased to have bought the stone thing.

Sunday was miserable weather again, and Roj had to go to work. Sam and I were originally going to head down to the Chocolate Show, but ended up spending so much time over pastry cutters (don't ask!), and sketch books (ditto), that we decided it'd be altogether better to go to our local diner for a fabulous omelette, and take a coffee and pastry back to the apartment to chill out. Turned out to be a very pleasant day. Sam had to leave at around 5 to get her flight back home, so I walked her to the subway and Roj and I spent the rest of the evening in front of takeaway noodles and the utterly crappy 40 Days and 40 Nights.

So back to the countdown to the BVI's ... only 4 working days to go, 2 of which Roj is in Salt Lake City for (good time for me to catch up on correspondence etc). Zoe turns up sometime on Friday (after a week-long - and fortunately successful - hunt for her passport!), and our plane departs Sunday morning. Whoopeee!!

Good day yesterday. The rain was magnanimous enough to let the sun have a play for 24 hours, so Sam and I had gorgeous weather for our foray up Bear Mountain. The coach was perfectly acceptable - a mere $23 for a 1.5hour journey each way - not exactly stylish but totally adequate and a good excuse for a nap! I can't remember seeing such a phenomenal Fall last year either - perhaps we didn't go out of town on the right weekend - but this time the colours were absolutely amazing - really vivid reds and translucent pinks and flame oranges. At more than one point we were walking on bright yellow newly fallen leaves several layers thick like a carpet. Beautiful. Couldn't think of anywhere better to be at that point than hiking up good ol' Bear Mountain on a work day in the brilliant autumn sunshine. Mmmm.

Still wondering what to do at the weekend. The weather is not looking quite so amenable, so after the usual morning in the gym (Sam knows that this is essential to my sanity!), the Chocolate Show looks like a reasonable bet, followed by a movie. I am tentatively planning to make real live pizza tomorrow evening as opposed to the usually disappointing take-out. That is, unless we venture to John's Pizzeria tonight, in which case I will have to consult Delia for an alternative plan. Roll on the weekend, I say.

Rather boring week so far, saved only by the fact that Sam is staying at the moment. Haven't seen much of her to be honest - took Monday morning off work and we went walking around the Park and then for some delicious smoothies, but otherwise we've just been catching up in the evenings (after she has exhausted herself seeing more of Manhattan in a single day than I have in two years here!). It's been absolutely pissing down all week as well - I don't think I've seen such hideous weather in NYC since we got here. Tomorrow's looking a bit more promising though, so we're planning on a trip to Bear Mountain for some fresh air and good views.

The Chocolate Show might be a tempting option for this weekend (providing there's a complete lack of Hersheys), and we may also see 8 Mile if the urge takes us and the queues aren't too long (chocolate and popcorn - what health addicts!), but otherwise it's going to be reasonably quiet, just like the rest of the week. Roj is suffering with a streaming cold, and I'm just tired and uninclined to party. Luckily Sam seems totally up for a reasonably relaxed week just revisiting old haunts and chilling out in NYC, so I'm not feeling too pressured to take her out clubbing or anything. Not that I'd know where to start with that one!!

Everything's going a bit pear shaped! The site we've been working on for nearly two years at work has postponed launch *again* - just taunting us with promises of 'next week, next week'. It's all fine - we can accommodate pushed deadlines - but the busy phase currently stands to hit us just as I'm sunning myself in the Caribbean on a yacht. Clearly nothing will stop me doing the latter, but I was hoping for peace of mind while I was doing it.

Bluewave UK is also going a bit pear shaped. A rather large handful of people were made redundant ealier this week as part of a decision to change the product offering. Although we have been pretty unconnected to our UK counterparts for the last year or so, it's not nice to hear that good friends are being let go, and that the familiar face of Bluewave - for which I still feel some affection - is going to disappear forever.

Met up with Greg & Sally last night for a farewell dinner before they jet off to Europe on holiday. Seems like they may also be doing a stint in Lebanon for some UN work before they finally disappear to Australia for the foreseeable future - talk of jet-setting (not that I'm particularly jealous about Lebanon but it must be a great experience!). In fab other news of the week, it seems that Rose has got a job at the V&A in London, in the multimedia department. It's an absolutely amazing fit for her - and what a brilliant place to work. I am both proud and enormously jealous! You go girl!

Meanwhile Sam's still due out here on Sunday for a week. I'll probably spend the weekend in the gym and catching up with domestic rubbish, but am very much looking forward to an entertaining week of girlie gossip and traipsing round NYC with a camera. The next 6 weeks are really going to fly by (thankfully!)

Gah. A whole week since I last posted. This isn't supposed to happen!

The week was pretty boring though - lots of work and not much play. Been going running and to the gym in the mornings to keep fitness ticking over. Been watching bad telly in the evenings because it's cold and dark and I'm uninclined to do anything else! Roj worked late all week too, so I barely saw anything of him.

We did altogether too much shopping on Saturday after a well-deserved lie-in. Everything went just fine until we went round virtually the whole of Manhattan in search of a jumper I'd seen last week. Didn't even end up buying it in the end - more because we were fed up and tired and hungry than because it was crap. Went to Cristina & Robert's on Saturday evening to celebrate their engagement. It was a nice evening - good to see very happy people! - even though we only stayed for an hour or so.

Spent Sunday morning in the gym watching the elite NY marathoners doing their stuff (and being lazy about doing mine!). Spent Sunday afternoon making roast chicken for dinner - bread sauce, roast potatoes, gravy, stuffing ... yummmmmmm!! Wish I had a food-processor though ... took me an hour to make the stuffing without!!

So generally a tired and low-key weekend, which is probably the face of the whole week - dinner with Greg and Sally tonight (who are shortly and sadly buggering off to his native Australia for a few years), but otherwise unmomentous until the weekend at which point I'm meeting up with Sophie from Flowers East (the gallery I used to work at in London), who's over for the New York Print Fair, and then Samski, who's over for a week from Sunday. No excuse for boredom then! Hooray!