Starbucks

Det är synd och skam att Starbucks inte finns i Sverige. Nu vet jag i och för sig anledningen, då de anser att konkurrensen på kaffekedjor är alldeles för stor på den lilla (obetydliga? ) marknaden att de inte anser det värt att försöka ta marknadsandelar där. Inte tillräckligt med profit att göra. Men det hindrar inte att man lätt blir hooked på Starbucks när man är i det här landet. Speciellt alla goda specialblandningar de gör. Men det finns en som är outstanding… och det är deras Holiday Special som innehåller Pepparmint & White Chocolate… Mums! Dessutom lite grädde på toppen för att göra den extra kaloririk.

Därför väljer jag nästan alltid en grande (mellanstorlek) Sugarfree Hazelnut Skin Milk Latte, vilket gör att jag kommer ner runt 100 kcal per latte. Sockerfri och lättmjölk – perfekt. Då kan man unna sig det lite då och då utan att känna att man är allt för onyttig, för det lyckas man så bra med i övrigt i det här landet… äta äta äta äta är ungefär det man gör här.

Thanksgiving, pre-, during- and after :-)

Thanksgiving was a big holiday here in New York (and the US for that matter haha). Everything stopped! Unfortunately we did not get to spend it as well as the Americans, we crazy Swedes worked most of the holiday. However, on Wednesday night, me and Camilla went out with Vijay and Suzanne at O’neals for some drinks and we closed that bar, and continued to move up north on Manhattan and hooked up with some friends of her friend at a bar up on 78th and Columbus Ave.

Jason, Camilla, Brett and myself

We closed that bar too, I think I was home around 3.30 – 4.00am. Fun though .

Thursday morning was a bit tougher, me, Camilla and Stefan decided to try and ”do the town” and ended up at some Christmas Fair in Bryant Park which was fun. The Christmas tree had some nice decorations we played around with .

Stefan, myself and Camilla as Christmas tree decorations!k

Don’t ask me what I am doing here…

The weather was awesome, really warm, and there were loads of people out having coffee, checking out the ice-skating rink in Bryant Park and just enjoying the holiday.

There was also a Metal Park booth in Bryant Park. What do you think of a metal Darth Vadar over 2 metres high? That must have taken a lot of work to put together!

Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade was all morning on Thanksgiving. 3.5 million people was estimated to see it live on location. That required some police work, sealing off some streets and of course.. a cleaning crew.

Me and Magnus saw some great Christmas decorations coming up along the city when out walking later that evening. New York is really gorgeous with all the Christmas decorations!
The Thanksgiving dinner we had at a 24h open place with some food and beer. Nothing fancy, and and old friend tagged along. We ended up at a pub on MacDougal St afterwards, since everything else was basically closed. Not a Turkey dinner Thanksgiving really

Cam, myself and Magnus

Vancouver B.C.

I am currently in Vancouver. I arrived Monday last week, and the first four days I basically just worked and hung around in the hotel room, which is actually a suite. Bigger than my apartment *lol*. The jetlag is usually not that big of a problem, but the time difference of nine hours is definately murder. I had dinner with the CEO of the Canadian office on Wednesday night, but that was an early dinner at 7pm and finished by 9.00pm I think, at which point I crashed on the couch.

All in all, this has been a great trip. Friday night, I hooked up with Elisha and Sammy, two old co-workers, and their friends watching the second Canucks-Ducks (Vancouver-Anaheim) in the first game in the Stanley Cup play-offs them in between. They won and it was fun watching it with approx 10 other people in an apartment, drinking beer and stuff. Went home, crashed around 11.30pm.

Mark, a colleague, and his friend Jack, picked me up in a cab at 6am on Saturday morning to go skiing in Whistler. Or actually, in Black Comb, just next to Whistler. I had chased down a pair of ski-pants for $340 (Canadian) from Peak Performance (Swedish made brand from Åre!) which looked really great. When getting to the bus terminal, the fair was $42.50 to go up there and back. Not bad. The first bus we were taking was broken. The second made it out of the bus terminal, but turned back after 15 minutes. The third we got on, worked. So we got to Black Comb about 40 min late. Rented some skis, ski-boots and poles for $50 and bought a cute brownish beanie for $20. I actually tried several on me in the store, but then a complete stranger (man) said ”brown, you should definitely go with the brown”. That was nice… So I got the brown one! And it looks really good on me. Then we got ski-passes from someone outside of the ticket booth who wanted to get rid of some he had bought, cost us only $40. So all in all, the ski-pants were the expensive thing this day. Had a wonderful day in the slopes, gorgeous weather, eating loads of snow (falling a lot), but of course, what can you do when there are freestyle pros from the Ottawa team going with us and saying ”you must do this so you can say you skied powder in Whistler!”. Hmm. I wasn’t too thrilled about it when lying face down in it . We had lunch, I got chili from the food court (good one!), and then back up. Ended the day with a cold Kilkenny down in the village which, for me, strangely enough does not have any snow. People are walking around in shorts and t-shirts. So surreal. Back home I crashed and got up at 8am Sunday to get ready for Capilano Suspension Bridge.

What a sighting! A suspension bridge over to the rain forest, and Mark tagged along. Met some Canuck fans whom I ran into later that night also. After the bridge, we went to Black Tuna for sushi, but they were closed, so we got it to go and went down to the beach and had it. Lovely! Then we walked to Mark’s favorite bar and had a good Guinness before I left for the game in GM Place. It was great seeing a live NHL hockey game, but they unfortunately lost. But I am totally a Canucks fan now, there is no going back!