One of the great things about moving to New York has been watching the dogs try to get their heads around squirrels.

From using Sprocket as a climbing post to try and get a better view, to the sheer excitment of seeing one up close….

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The guys from Pixar nailed it in UP!

Spotted on our way to dinner – a fantastic mashup of Christmas and Halloween decorations. I only wish I knew whether the spider had been sans hat before the Christmas period.

Polly sees a squirrel in Madison Square Park.

Daytime view from our apartment. One onf the things I love about this city is that while it can be *freezing* during winter. (seriously, yesterday reached a top of -7C!) The days are crystal clear with sparkling blue skies; somehow that makes the cold much easier to deal with.

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A couple of night shots from the evening walk with the dogs. It’s a seriously pretty city in the evening.

I knew the rats in this city could be impressive – but that’s ridiculous. 

I wasn’t too concerned about the lack of outside space of our own, as our dogs are pretty lazy, left to their own devices they’ll sleep pretty much all day.

The result of today’s 4.5km walk…

Labradoodles, it turns out are pretty much the perfect appartment dog. They don’t want much execise, they don’t bark much, they’re very trainable, and they’re big enough to be able to ‘hold on’ through the night. 

Except, if you have the brilliant idea of combining a 5km jog with their morning walk you’d better be prepared to carry them part of the way home, or lure them with treats.

We’ve been spending most of our time here so far looking for somewhere to live long term. The place that we’re being put up at the moment is fine, but it’s really just a glorified hotel.

After looking at a bunch of places we’ve settled on a place in Chelsea, on West 26th with views of the Empire State’s and Chrysler buildings. It doesn’t have a terrace or balcony, but after these two weeks, it really seems that we don’t actually need it.  We’ve got the lease and it all looks good, so with luck (and IKEA!) we’ll move in on December 23.

Which means I’ll have to move the Christmas tree I cobbled together from stuff I got from the tacky store around the corner. 

But it’s surprising how Christmassy a cheap tree, tinsel, plastic baubles and truckload of lights can look.

And it will be easier to make Christmas lunch in an actual kitchen – rather than the ‘kitchenette’ we have here.

Over the last few years Australia has been a very prosperous country. (Seriously, when families on incomes of over $150,000 a year are complaining about having their welfare payments reduced you know the country has cash)

Sydney – where we lived - is actually a more expensive place to live (ranking 14th on the Mercer Cost of living survey) than New York (number 32). Which gives Grant and I a slightly warped perspective on this city.

Rents are comparable (compare this place in George Street with this place in Manhattan’s financial district.) Other things are more expensive (Olive Oil for example, the exact same brand we bought in Australia is 50% more expensive here) but beer is much cheaper. Since we drink more beer than olive oil this represents a net benefit to our wallets – although arguably not to our health

The other thing that seems less expensive to us is eating out. Last Night we went to Print a reasonably ritzy restaurant a couple of blocks from where we’re staying. The review we read on Yelp suggested that it was going to be a great meal – but really expensive.

It was a really great meal (I’ll link to Grant’s review when he’s written it) and the bill came to a total of $175 (that includes the tip) for three courses, a bottle of wine and a glass of dessert wine. (a really nice moscato). If we’d forgone the booze* it would have been a grand total of $130 (including the tip)

Maybe its the Sydney factor, or the fact that Grant and I eat out a lot – but that seemed like an incredibly good price for the quality we got. It’s going to be good living here.

*Obviously we wouldn’t – a meal without wine is like a day without sunshine.

With views of the New Jersey skyline

And there’s an aircraft carrier.

We certainly never walked past anything like that in Sydney

GEESE!!!

I wouldn’t let her chase them though. Mainly ’cause I didn’t fancy fishing her out of the Hudson River.

The rainfall shower in the ensuite is wonderful

And my amazing sink is indeed amazing

Now we get to enjoy it for 6 weeks before we move to New York…

Oh well – it’ll be here when we get back in a couple of years…