So I have been at work, and spending a lot of time with the HeartsRevolution family in cafes with free wifi and yummy salads. I joined the gym on Bowery, I regret it already. I had an induction with what looked to be New York’s answer for a Gladiator – and he even named like one. Imagine Fiddy in purple silk shorts and shades (indoors) and that is my personal trainer. He trained me on all machines in the larger gym room, this was some serious muscle popping action, bicep curls, incline bench press, pull ups, pretty much and exercise for every muscle in your body. He kept on telling me how strong I was already.
I was feeling a little out of my depth as I hadn’t use any of these machines, and I got to thinking that America just had a different way of doing things. Only after I had learnt every detail of every weight, press, and pole, he showed me the circuit training room, which he called “The Easy Room” here I found my familiar friends, safe, ergonomic machines for wusses. Never mind, I think I am going to stick to the serious stuff, the leg press was like holding up a car but I think I can handle it. I had a swim decided to try a triathlon so jumped on my bike straight out of the pool and cycled home.
That evening I was content with my major work out. This morning I was not. I cannot walk, I cannot type. My quads are seriously unhappy after all the squat thrusts (ps. who decided on calling them squat thrusts? i mean seriously! not the greatest word pairing) I am walking like Tina Turner in splints, and every part of me aches. So instead of training again today, I just cycled 8 miles, which seems to be easier nowadays than anything else. Soon I will just look like the kid is Belleville Rendezvous – calf muscles and nothing else.
I am looking forward to 4th of July – I am going to join in with the HeartsChallenger ice cream truck selling blue white and red popsicles all around the city. I can’t wait. I just tidied the apartment, and I found a cute coat stand in the street, which you can see in my picture with this post.
What’s happening in London?
I am going to meet with Cool Hunter tomorrow. Finished off my illustrations for Virtue a couple hours ago. Everything goes so fast in this city. After all the minutes are faster here.
Filed under: catching up, nyc, things to do | Tags: apartments, coffee, heartsrevolution, pizza, social, work
Yes I am still alive mum. I just haven’t had much time to blog of late. So this week saw me getting back to work. The daily grind welcomes you Kate. It missed you very much. The feeling was semi mutual. Aside from work this week has also seen some highlights in my social calendar, catching up with friends from London in NYC seems a little odd but hey, its 2008. Firstly I met up with Kesh, as we never really end up in the same place for longer than about 5 minutes in London, it was actually really nice to spend a good few hours in the city, running amok. We slunk about the lower east side, I went to grab pizza at Rosario’s- (which Ben and Leyla introduced me to last time I was here the day I met them – thats heartsrevolution history for you! – and to my surprise, I found them eating in there! It was amazing to catch up, it has been a long time since we finished the tour, and we haven’t been that great at keeping in touch these last few months. Most of my summer will be spent with them I am sure, as they finish working on the new record. I can’t wait to man the ice cream trucks all over the city. I have a knack for selling ice cream and popsicles.
In other news, I have finally found great coffee. Rebecca introduced me to an amazing coffee shop called Ninth Street Espresso, and I had the best cappuccino since moving to the city (and in a long time). We met to talk about a collaboration between myself and her fashion label “Safe“. We should be making 100 screen printed jackets together, if all goes well.
Alex, Sara, Phil, Mo, Ezra and myself managed to get through 50 bucks worth of karaoke at Sing Sing last night – and came home to watch “A Different World”. Highlight of the evening was singing “Get It Shawty”. Powerful.
Today, I started working on my new website which will be unveiled in a few weeks. Its about time I got a new one, and its going to be really nice to see my work in a different context. Leyla and I went to look around apartments in the East Village, its like a fucking rat race in this city, realtors sit at door stoops like drug dealers, and there seems to be a queue outside every free space, with people battling to get in the door to take a look. Everywhere is tiny and expensive, makes me appreciate how lucky I got with this space, and how nice it is that my friend let me stay here. I owe her big time, so I have bought a dining table and lots of other home treats, like a broom, toilet brush, plus other major house hold essentials.
Also – I have a new room mate now, Lucy turned up from London with nowhere else to stay, so I am having to get used to sharing living space again, 1 year of being on my own has made me a little prickly I think. I better grow out of it really. I won’t be living on my own forever. Its great actually, we are mostly watching back to back episodes of Law and Order : Special Victims Unit, and staring at laptops. How it should be really.
Now that I mention flat mates, I had a three way video ichat with Hans and George, it was just like old times, Hey Kids!.
I made the Independent on Sunday Pink List!
Ok kind of odd as I’m quite dormant in the scene, but I guess someone took notice. Made me quite proud I guess. My dad found it and emailed it to me. Go Future!
“Finally, and with the help of Stonewall, we highlight people who you might not have heard of – unsung heroes who through their work promote equality and understanding. We thank all of those whom we celebrate here.
Kate Moross, illustrator and graphic designer
The 21-year-old started her career three years ago designing fliers for hip bands such as the Klaxons and Gossip. Recently, Moross’s work has moved into a more commercial area, with clients including Cadbury, Lynx and Pepsi. She has a Topshop range in the pipeline.”
Some body sent me surprise cupcakes…
Filed under: cycling, nyc, sight seeing, things to do | Tags: bootleg, cycling, google maps, traffic
Ok so my new bike arrived – its super sweet. To be honest I was kind of terrified about cycling in the city, especially after a hand full of break neck cab rides. I was sure I would in danger the minute I mounted a bicycle on Manhattans streets. HOWEVER, I figured I am an experienced cyclist, and riding around London has taught me many lessons, and I should give it a go. Turns out the one way system works incredibly well, and the most important thing here, is paying attention at the traffic lights. The lights are hung overhead which isn’t cyclist friendly, but if you bend your neck back enough its not too bad. The biggest dangers in Manhattan are not the cars but the other cyclists. Jeez… they are mental, lots of riders drive up the left hand side of one way roads, so if you are coming down it the correct way you meet them head on, with very little space to maneuver and there are so many gormless delivery boys completely disregarding any road sense. On a good note there are very few motorbikes (which normally scare me the most when I am weaving through traffic) so all in all its very safe. I vow to stick to the highway code, I have only been honked at once, I think thats pretty good going seeing the system is pretty new to me.
I got my bike in a smaller frame size, my last frame felt like a bit of a stretch, and now can’t stop riding it everywhere. I spent zillions of dollars on locks too, as theft is mad here. Yesterday I saw a guy hammering D-locks to smithereens outside the apartment. At about 3 in the afternoon he was smashing at a bike lock with a rusty hammer, I wasn’t sure what to do, I just stood there with my bike in my hand and stared him down. I wasn’t about to call 911 but they do have 311 here which is for reporting smaller community problems, which is a pretty good idea if you ask me. Next time I see someone doing it, i’ll make sure to ring it.
Yesterday I cycled to the Hudson river to try my first Pretzel Dog at the Rusty Knot, I warned that they are pretty good, but I didn’t think I would end up eating two. Oh and if you are wondering where all these glorious places are I have made my own google map of NYC which anyone can view.
In other news – Punks Jump Up have found 4 bootleggers of our notorious shirt over in South East Asia – Mad HUH! Shame they messed up the design too, some bootlegs I have seen have actually been really good, the HeartsRevolution eye chart shirt was ripped of in an awesome colour way, but this is just whack, and the offset is rubbo, plus it doesn’t start at the bottom of the shirt hem like it’s supposed to. Fucking copy kids.
I swore I wouldn’t cycle in this city, its fucking dangerous, totally confusing, bla bla bla. But it was an itch I had to scratch.
My usually reliable retailers in Brooklyn NYCbikes let me down, they didn’t reply to my email about my custom order a month prior to hitting the US, and there was a 4 week wait for the frame alone, so I thought screw the custom racers, lets go the fast route and get something ready made. I didn’t want something too flashy, a simple chrome classic bike, so I chose the Bianchi Pista. I will be able to replace it if it gets stolen, and its not too hard to come by, unlike my pink racer back home.
I made some adjustments to the standard set up. I hate drop downs, so I swapped them for Nitto Pursuit handle bars, and got some MKS pedals, whacked a free wheel on there and a front brake. So it will be ready to pick up tomorrow. I am fucking excited. Pictures of me kissing its chromelylovelyness to come soon.
Oh and I got the bike from NYC Velo [nycvelo.com] (they were great) I went in pretending I didn’t know what I was talking about, to test to see if they were snobby. They weren’t, so thumbs up to them.
Filed under: nyc, things to do | Tags: Barc Shelter, daisy, jesse, pitbull, ruffles, williamsburg
Today – Daisy, Jesse and I went to Barc Shelter in Williamsburg and walked dogs for 2 hours. This was the most fun ever. We have decided to make it a weekly outing. When we showed up keen and eager, they told us there were no dogs left to walk. I was genuinely quite upset, not even because we had researched the whole thing, but I was really looking forward to it. Anyway, we played the brit card, told them we had come all the way from London especially to walk them. He wasn’t hard to convince.
The kennel guy came out with a hysterically jumpy Pitbull mix puppy. Who I instantly fell for. Boisterous was an understatement. Ruffles was on a metal chain because he has a bad habit of biting at the leash, but that didn’t seem to stop him from jumping up and biting it most of the time, and every so often my hand. He calmed down after a while, I mean it must be hard to be dragged around by a stranger everyday.
Filed under: nyc | Tags: clubhouse, goodbye, heathrow, hello, london, nyc, upperclass
As promised – I set this blog up for my family so they could keep up to date with my goings on in this city. I have been here almost a week and I have lots to write about already.
GOOD BYE HOLLY GROVE!
After some teary goodbyes to my friends, (who I only see every few months anyway, so I don’t know why we were getting upset), and a lovely “All American” breakfast with Donna, I packed my bags and rode with my favorite cab driver to the airport (he smokes cigars and lets me puff out the window). And, Yes, I did indulge myself in an Upper Class ticket for my departure, and it was a rather seamless experience from arriving at the airport to being in the lounge. The “Club House” as they call it, was pretty imense, my frequent flying brother had told me it was pretty awesome, but I don’t think I realised how much so. I was certainly the youngest person in there, and out numbered by 60 something suits. The waitresses ignored me, but I got my dinner in the end. I had the first facial of my life, which was amazing, I had to stop my self from smiling for the majority of the treatment, (this normally happens to me during massages so its easier to disguise/but its hard when shes looking right at you). The lounge was the best part of the experience. The flight wasn’t as rewarding, they don’t currently support the mag safe Apple power adapter (though they have cables for the old models) so I couldn’t work on the plane. The film selection was weak and the food sucked!!! (like really sucked, and I normally love plane food).
THE CLUB HOUSE @ HEATHROW
I landed in NYC, and cabbed it to Brooklyn. It has been boiling ever since, it finally cooled down. When I arrived there was a mad heatwave, which meant we could only eat popscilcles and stay indoors for 2 days. I did venture out for some shopping and plenty of eating. I have totally indulged on everything. Waffles, pancakes, burgers, plenty of salads of course, and most of all, Arizon Ice Tea which Melissa has just informed me is full of high fructose corn syrup. That stuff is inescapable really. I stayed with Jen and Megan for a week, and now I am moving to the East Village where I am staying in an old friends apartment whilst she is away.
I have been going out plenty, and already bumped in to friends old and new. I had a lovely day out with Sara and Alex who are here from London and was reuinited with Mo after a year of her foreign escapades we are finally reunited in NYC.
