Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Rain is back...

Well, a bit of a miserable day in Manhattan today. Dreary, humid and
rainy. It has been a good couple of days.

The highlight for me was getting accepted into the Masters of
Financial Economics at the University of London. I have been a closet
economist for years, reading tons of academic papers and books on
incentives and behaviour - so it is excellent to be able to get some
solid economic theory grounding as well. It will be tough to start
studying again after quite a few years away from it, but my PhD should
stand me in good stead for it.

Last night we went to Alliance France for the second ofour winetasting
events. Last night was Bordeaux, and there were some fantastic Clarets
on display. They give a lecture on the region and the wines and the
terrior etc., but then it is into the serious business of wine
tasting. It is lots of fun and very informative.

Over the weekend, Matt and Hillary sprung a surprise visit on us. They
were in town for kevin Rudd's visit. They dined on Saturday night with
Kev and Rupert Murdoch among other lluminary Aussie expats in the US.

Vesna went out for a drink with them on Friday night. I was working
over the weekend, but I caught up with them late on Friday night for a
nightcap or two.

On Sunday we decided to do a touristy thing and go to the top of the
Rockefeller center. It was here that on of my friends (David Mews)
proposed to his fiancee Ange. It is a very romantic setting. The whole
of Manhattan laid out below you. Very impressive. I still find the
perfectly rectangular shape of central park with the highrise on each
side to be an amazing sight. It was fun to do, and the empire state
building looked very cool.

Work is getting very busy now. Lots of moving parts and things going
everywhere. I am staying on top of it all, and it is a lot of fun.
Without a dedicate Project Manager supporting me, it is a bit
different to when I was in Sydney. But, it didn't take me long to get
back into the old groove of project management and it is going really
well.

Some exciting upcoming events which will be great. Mum, Dad and Nan
are coming to visit in under a month now. Very exciting. Vesna and I
can't wait. Also, Tim Ward and Pheobe will be visiting from London in
a few weeks time. Melissa will be visitng from Turkey to stay with us
for a week or so, and Tom will be visiting from Melbourne. It is going
to be a great fun and busy few weeks.

On the holiday front - Vesna and I are booking our trip to Vegas, San
Francisco and the Grand Canyon over my birthday week. Also, I am going
to be at a conference in Floridy in a couple of months or so, so Vesna
is going to come down for the weekend and we will go to DisneyWorld.
More updates soon (or as I get around to them). Miss you all lots!!

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