a new start in america

We arrived in New York on the 6th of February 2012, to start our new lives in the city that never sleeps, the greatest most loved city in the world, the city of musicians, filmstars, beautiful people and the city where you can make it big if you work your ass off.

Even though we have only been here for 1.5 weeks, so much has happened and to be honest, its been going pretty smoothly. i know when i first got to Dubai it sucked ! i was getting lost in my car for hours everyday, most of the people couldnt help me with what i really wanted... from mobiles, to bank accounts to directions. I couldnt get prints or retouching done, couldnt buy the equipment i needed and the light sucked and i found it very difficult to work in it as i came straight from Cape Town, the city with the most beautiful light. Not to say that i didnt have problems in Cape Town,  Besides the rates being pocket change, it's dangerous and being a photographer and working on the streets of cape town is scary and risky for yourself and your gear. Even Paris had its problems, no car, very little taxi's , no parking, the language, heavy tax, very little takeaway coffee and shops closing really early etc

But besides the cons of all 3 cities, i learnt to love them. Cape Town because it was my first home and the light/locations are the best in the world , Dubai because of the easy money, and my awesome car and Paris because of the locations, food, light , models, coffee shops and crazy, beautiful people.

I know moving to another city is not always a greener pasture. But fortunately for us NY seems to really be. Everything has been pretty much easy, from sorting out mobile service/3G, renting an apartment, getting equipment for shoots, buying groceries, catching taxi's, communicating with people, getting my portfolio printed, finding your way around, ordering babysitters  and coffee can be purchased on every street corner.  Findng a daycare for Cash has proved a little difficult, as all schools are booked solid but we have managed to get him into a nursery and are on a waiting list for another for September this year.
New York is very expensive, luckily we have money saved to keep us going for a while, but as soon as we start working more often and earning $$$ then living expenses wont be so expensive.

We havent done much exploring of the city, we pretty much work at home, go out for meetings and then head home, been pretty boring but to run around the city with a pram and baby is pretty difficult so as soon as cash is in Daycare 1st of march, we'll start the exploring .

I recently went to the annual dogshow at Madison Square Gardens, with my agent Donna
who is in love with cockerspanial's and has 2 of her own. The point of going was to find New Yorkers and there dogs that would feature in my new book im working on.  Unfortunately out of all the crazy dog owners, none were from New York ! Only Canada, Las Vegas, Florida etc so my NYC street search for dogs continues.

Besides dog shows, we have had a hotdog from Timesquare, bought booze from a liquer store
(coming from Dubai this was quite a treat seeing we never had alcholics licenses) experienced snow falling on our faces and just bought an original coca cola style old diner set for our new dining room .
we've had fun and looking forward to every new day we spend in our new home... New York City

 In New York when you draw Cash out the ATM. Firstly it only gives you 20$ notes secondly it only gives you 500$ at a time. So when we had to draw 6000 $ for rent and deposit, we had to draw 12 times and fill our bags with the cash!

 I partically loved this dog ! I love big strong dogs and I thought the above dog was a Pitbull but its actually a Bull Mastif. Its quite scary looking and I saw the kid bouncing on the back of it, and the dog didnt seem to care. Clearly a family dog

 They were giving free Makeovers on 7th avenue, with one of Cosmo girl's cover girls. There was a queue of around 20 people !