Unemployed but full of bagels

Hey folks!
Time for another news bulletin from across the pond. Well, as you can guess from the title I didn't get the job I was hoping for. Ah well, at least it gave me some useful interview experience. Still SUCKS that I am unemployed though. I also think I have ruined my chances at getting a career in the hospitality industry given that our first set of guests have just left, having been mocked, marched huge distances and encouraged to park in a location that got them $87 worth of parking fine! Sorry Simon, sorry Sara! Really hope you had an ok trip back to Newcastle. Hope that driving through NJ and Manhattan wasn't too traumatic!

It was really great to see some uk friends. Can't wait for the next batch! Unfortunately, the viking chose the day we drove to a hotel in nyc (for him to go to a workshop in Princeton, then pick our guests and me up and take us all back to Ithaca the next day) to get sick. God knows how he managed it, but he still drove all the way to nyc and then to princeton and back to Ithaca the next day. It must be that Norwegian stamina which is normally used for fending off polar bears in his natural habitat, but which in this case allowed Einar to fight off illness and new york traffic at the same time. (And before I hear any heckling from my various Norwegian in-laws, I continue to believe that polar bears roam the streets of Norway with impunity at night in packs like oversized vermin. We all know it's true, there's no point trying to deny it, it is a "well known fact" about Norway.)

Anyway, we all made it back to Ithaca (Me, Einar, Gio-who stayed for 2 nights before bussing it back to NYC, Si and Sara). Einar went all pink and sweaty and was running a fever so the poor boy had to turn in early. He recovered fairly quickly, but was under the weather for a good 3 days. I did my usual "caring" routine, which I think I have inherited from my mother. Mum always says she was a bad nurse when I was little because she would worry about me when I was sick and get tense and sharp with me as a result. -I don't remember this at all, but I do it when Einar's ill all the time. I fret about him, potter about with damp flannels mopping him with them ineffectually and in general appear both flustered and mildly annoyed. I am sure Florence Nightingale was just the same....Anyway, he pulled through despite my ministrations with the cold flannel, which would have soon brought on pnemonia in a lesser mortal and was soon feeling well enough to take some light sustenance in the form of beer, pizza and muffins, all of which aided his recovery immensely.

Gio, Si and Sara proved to be wonderful guests. They cooked, tidied, even bought us some groceries (future guests please take note). I was slightly put out that they didn't see fit to do some light dusting or perhaps clean the windows while they were here, but then you can't have everything.

Anyway Einar and I loved having them. Gio couldn't stay long sadly, but we did go out (minus einar) on her 2nd night here to our local sushi place and ate like kings. Sara had a bento box (very restrained) while the other 3 of us shared "the big red boat" which was a huge collection of sushi and sashimi served up on a wooden model of a boat about 2.5ft long. It's a beautiful thing, isn't it? We did have the leftovers boxed up to take back to Einar, but to be honest we ended up with a pitiful offering, because all of us kept saying "phew, I'm stuffed.....what's that one?......really?....well maybe just one more." I did however feel a tad old in that restaurant. It's a great place to observe some of the Cornell undergrads, most of whom feel obliged when at a sushi place to order sake-bombs. These things look lethal to me but big groups of students were lapping them up while we were tacking the big red boat. A sake bomb consists of a pint of beer with two chopsticks balanced across the top. In between the chopsticks is a small paper cup which is full of sake. The idea is to slam your fist down on the table so hard that the cup falls straight downwards (and still upright) from between the chopsticks into the pint glass. The hapless drinker then consumes this beer/sake mix before filling up the beer glass and the sake cup and doing the whole thing again. The result of this lovely beverage is no doubt happy drunkeness followed by a terrible hangover for the drinker. For any fellow non-bombing diners however, eating becomes a matter of bracing yourself for the next batch of sake-bombs; when all of the 15 people at the next table hit the table so hard and so loudly that you jump and poke yourself in the eye with your own chopstick. In any event it was a great night out people watching and sushi-eating.

Well more anon, but have done enough blogging for one night....back soon folks!