You Might Very Well Think That. I Couldn’t Possibly Comment.

I am not normally one for box set style obsessions with TV shows (or in this case Netflix shows), I rarely find the time to watch them, but sometimes you just have to make an exception to the rule, and what better show to do that for….than House of Cards!

I won’t mention anything that would remotely be considered a spoiler, but I just wanted to say that few shows live up to the hype, but this one certainly did. From the opening scenes, you could tell that this would be a great show, and the nod to the original book and subsequent BBC series House of Cards from 1990 with the Democratic House Majority Whip Frank Underwood (Kevin Spacey) speaking directly to the audience just sucks you in to this world.

If the series wasn’t great enough….the theme tune is damn awesome….

If you have not had the opportunity to see this show…Do It Now, It’s well worth it!

Happy New Year!!

Well Ladies and Gentlemen, that time has arrived……HAPPYYYYYYY NEWWWWW YEARRRRR!!!

From a personal standpoint, no one can ever tell if the year ahead (in this case 2014) will be Happy…or indeed if it’ll feel like a year as I am understanding my parents more and more when they say that time flies the older you get, it’s damn true, but basically the one thing word that remains 100% true in a person’s mind is this….’NEW’! There will be a lot of new things ahead this year, even if we do bemoan New Years Eve because of the fact that come January 1st…nothing changes….yeah, but give time!

On December 31st 2012 I had no plans, one of only two NYEs in over 10 years where I had nothing planned…and I kept it that way, I watched TV…The Alan Carr New Years Specstacular was on and was sufficiently hilarious to make me think that I had made the right decision. At a few minutes to midnight my sister and I went into the kitchen to see our parents and counted down to zero with Jools Holland as had long been the tradition……A normal night at home, doing normal things, and at midnight….the world didn’t appear to change, life carried on just as it had done a few minutes before.

Fast forward to December 31st 2013 and I am counting down to midnight with new friends, in a fun bar in Alphabet City, on my first NYE as a resident of the City of New York. Had I been asked at 1/2/3/4 minutes past 12 on 1st January 2013 what I would be doing on NYE 2013, I certainly wouldn’t have come up with what the reality turned out to be. Yeah it may seem like nothing new lies ahead when we are drunkenly saying goodbye to 2013 and bemoaning how life isn’t fundamentally different, but like most things give it time, I can’t wait to see where we all are at the end of 2014.

New Friends Cassie and Katie treating me to a great NYE in NYC.

So now that the new year has arrived….what next?? Well firstly I would like to secure a paid job that allows me to gain good experience and fits well with what I am here to do! I would love to make some great new friends and I would also love to visit some old friends across the country.

As I look forward to exciting times ahead, I know that i’ll likely face some pretty rough days, I miss my family and friends at home, I miss the security of a job, I miss the familiarity of knowing a city inside out, I hate being the newbie……but my word, if those are the only problems that I have to contend with….then that’s a pretty blessed life! I am soooooo excited about what lies ahead in 2014 because I now know that whatever happens on any given day, if I want….I can change what happens the following day and the day after, I don’t have to be stuck in a rut….I can break that cycle and take risks and have new adventures. If 2013 has taught me anything, it has taught me that…..and for that reason alone, 2013 will be remembered as a pretty great year!

Have a great 2014!

James