Rare airWell, we certainly landed okay when it came to the apartment we stayed in in New York. The pic above shows the view from our complex's roof terrace! Honest!
We had a very roomy two bedroom, two bathroom apartment with an enormous living room and fairly flash kitchen, and a balcony, in a historic building right opposite the NY Stock Exchange.
In the pic below, taken from the steps of Federal Hall, where George Washington made his inaugural address after becoming the first US President, you can see the NYSE to George's right, and our roof terrace over his left shoulder:The entire 40-odd-storey building and the building next door, which is right on the corner of Wall Street, were once upon a time the headquarters of the JP Morgan financial corporation. In 1998, they were both due to be demolished to make way for a new stock exchange building and office tower, but that all screeched to a halt after 9-11.
Instead, the two buildings were made over by Philippe Starck, converted from offices into very trendy condos and apartments. There was an Hermes shop on the ground floor, and in the lobby there was a ginormous crystal chandelier hovering just over the floor, recycled from the original Morgan Chase office building.
I don't understand why I have no pics of the inside of our apartment — but it was very groovy, and totally unlivable. A triumph of design over function. One bedroom was almost open to the living room, save for being slightly higher and having a half wall.
The main bedroom suite had no windows, and the wall between it and the front bedroom didn't go all the way up to the ceiling, to allow in a sliver of light and air.
And Will ended up sleeping on a blow-up mattress in a cupboard that was slightly bigger than his bedroom here at home!
The living room furniture was all very black, and very uncomfortable. You just can't lounge on a hard, shiny black leather couch with a low-slung back!
But we had so much fun, and were hardly there during the day anyway.
The amazing thing was the roof terrace, called Starck Park ...... with its water feature like a giant tap, and glorious view of the facade of the NYSE. It also had a ping-pong table, a huge dining table where you could hold dinner parties, and an open-air fireplace. Yum.
Security was understandably heavy in this area. The roads are all closed to cars, and there are patrol boxes and security guards everywhere. Ground Zero is only a short walk away — and it was really very spooky to consider what must have been happening in this area on that fateful day.
The location was otherwise excellent. It was a walk away from Tribeca, SoHo, Battery Park and the Hudson River ...... and a stone's throw from the out-of-this-world apartment of Nick's grandparents, who have 120-degree windows with a view of New York Harbour and across the Hudson River to the Jersey shore — this is just part of it, with the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island (click on it for a bigger image): We were also a short stroll away from the famous Wall Street Bull. How that poor beast must have suffered at the hands of our late-night revellers ...(Thanks, Iman, for your pics!)

Seven and one in a wheelchairOur five fabulous days in New York for Lily's 21st birthday (Sunday) went far too quickly, and this morning, sitting in the sunny silence of San Diego, I'm missing my girl and all the noise and excitement of being (almost) all together in that amazing place.We thought for a while that Simon would join us, and be there to buy his baby sister her first legal beer in the US, and we were so disappointed when he couldn't make it. Will made up for it, though, sticking close to his sister, sharing wheelchair pushing with Nick and Larissa for the miles and miles we walked, and helping her about.Of course, when we started planning this trip, we had no idea she'd have a broken foot and be in a wheelchair — but she didn't let that cramp her style, dampen her enthusiasm, or get in her way at all. From crowded Subway trains and tiny historic pubs, to Broadway and the top of the Empire State Building.
There were six of us to start with: Will, Lily, her boyfriend Nick, her room-mate Larissa (who turned 21 the Sunday before), David and I. Then, on Friday night we were joined by Iman, one of Lily's old school friends from Subiaco. Iman is studying in Washington DC and working until December as a Congressional intern in the office of Don Young, the sole Representative from Alaska, and a Republican to his gun-totin' boot straps.Iman (pictured above with Larissa) is staunchly un-Republican, though, and it was great fun to catch up with her and hear all her stories — especially about election night, when she was at the Democrats' sparkling celebration party in a DC ballroom.
She also really knew her way around in NY, having studied here for a while last year, so she was very handy when it came to negotiating our way through the Subway, one of the major lines of which had been closed for renovations. Chaos!On Sunday morning, early, we were joined by another old Subi mate, James, who's been in the US since August, working as a volunteer on the Obama campaign, doorknocking and 'getting out the vote' in Detroit, Ohio, Philadelphia and Virginia. More fab stories! It's a pity we couldn't have had longer with him, but at least he got there for Lily's birthday.

The big five!Happy birthday my beautiful golden boy.Nanna misses you!

Finished
Take a shiny gold-painted frame that's just the right size, and spray-paint it matt black.Finish the papercut picture I started a while ago.Et voila!And, to top it off, it rained — yay!

Twenty-odd views of my WillLike Mt Fuji, inspiration — obliquely — for this post title, Will has grown so tall in the past year that he rises above us all. Even his 1.8m (6' 2") dad.
It's his eighteenth birthday today.

Happy birthday, Will!

It's an important day for an Australian: eighteen is the age of majority. At eighteen, you can sign contracts, vote, and generally assume the legal mantle of adulthood. It's also the age at which you can drink. And if we were in Australia today, Will would be taken for his first (legal) beer by his dad and elder brother and sister — and possibly his non-drinking mum, too.

Will's my last-born. My youngest. And, like Lily and Simon, he's my favourite!

He's cool ...... and can be pretty weird sometimes ...

... and funny and smart.He's super-loaded with talent when it comes to art, with a great eye for design. And though he's often an unwilling subject for pictures ...

... it's quite another matter when he's taking them.

He's got just a couple of months left with all that tooth-straightening, jaw-correcting, bite-changing hardware in his mouth — though he hasn't once complained about it. Not once. Even when he had to have all four wisdom teeth out in one go.

He loves all animalsespecially Yoshi, his dog.And, since he's been a teenager for a few years now, he's got napping down to a fine art.

He loves living in California ... and seeing various bits of this amazing country,

but he'll always love Perth best.

Happy birthday, Lily!


Lily, our daughter, turns 20 today. So now we have a son in his thirties, a daughter in her twenties and a son who is still a teenager. The pic at the top is of Lily as Frida Kahlo, for a Halloween party last week at her house in Olympia, WA, where she's at college. This pic, though, is my favourite of the two of us, and it was taken in Chicago two years ago - when Lily was still a mere teenager ...


Happy birthday, Lil - don't get too cold up there on Mt Rainier this weekend!