Hello Beantown

Hello Australia,

Due to the overwhelming requests, just Mum actually, I thought that I had better keep everyone abreast on our adventures since my last installment.


We have moved from the West Village as our generous hosts have become property owners in Brooklyn. We leave behind a suburb where being an urban hipster is at an elite level. Beards, flannel, fixed wheel bikes, displaying your Dostoevsky novel at all times and never removing your sunglasses regardless of weather conditions are a badge of honor. We will miss certain aspects of the Village. It never failed to amuse me with space at such a premium that New Yorkers kept dogs indoors and had two size options for their dogs, enormous or tiny. Great Danes that you could saddle or chihuahuas that can be transported in your purse are common sightings. Natalie will miss access to cable television to indulge her passion for rubbish reality television. How such an obvious intellect can devote three consecutive hours to the Real Housewives or the narrative arc of the Karadashian sisters remains a mystery to me.


We have entertained various friends from Australia, notably having dinner with my former boss Deni and his wife Lena. Never burn your bridges. I have been corresponding with a K.Rudd from Queensland on the topic but he seems a reluctant student.


We journeyed to Boston for a few days to see Natalie's college, Boston College, and also toured Harvard where we soaked up some reflected glory from the intelligentsia. We attended a Boston Celtics NBA game which was a revelation as I was significantly smaller that every single player on both rosters and seeing them up close made reinforced that. The sheer size of these athletes is breathtaking. Upon settling into our seats and once my nose had stopped bleeding, we were treated to an amazing game of basketball that culminated in a home victory with two seconds to go. However the two highlights stood out and they were not from the court. The national anthem was sung with such passion and fervor by 28,000 people, well maybe 27,998 with two Aussies humming along, that it will remain a moment to remember for some time. The true highlight for me was a half time having the 1962 Celtics championship winning team honored for the fiftieth anniversary of their win. The last player introduced was Bill Russell, 10 NBA championships and generally the only older player regarded in the same echelon as Jordan etc. Quite simply the place went apeshit and the ovation lasted for almost ten minutes. Words cannot do the moment justice.

Yesterday we went to the TriBeCa Film Festival to the premiere of Booker's Place. I would urge everyone to see this movie about a man's courage in the face of institutionalized racism. At the conclusion we were loitering near the exit as the rain was falling quite heavily and Kellan Lutz of Twighlight fame walked past and smiled at Natalie. I did not get the chance to ask for the two hours of my life back after watching his movie Love.Wedding.Marriage. However as he stepped into his blacked out SUV after waving to the screaming hordes and we trudged off in the rain to find the subway, the appeal of vampires has not diminished.

Connors


PS It would be remiss of me not to acknowledge my good friend Ronnie Taib. We decided to run the Canberra Marathon together and while one of us chased fortune and glory in the USA, the other kept his word and completed the run in 3 hrs 33mins. You are a better man than me Ronnie. Well done!