Moving house does give one the opportunity to go through some of that stuff you have hoarded and throw some of it out; and boy did my collection of flotsam and jetsam amalgamated over 10 years need some ruthless culling.

Whilst I was clearing out some stuff tonight though I came across something that reminded me of a trip taken to the Big Apple in February 2005 to celebrate Andy's 30th. You can see my pictures of the trip on Flicker here. On the night of Andy's birthday we went to eat at a place called Radio City or something like that, just up from out hotel in central Manhattan. I remember little of the night as we managed to polish off 9 bottles of red wine between six of us, before moving on to some bars. I do remember that I ordered a dish that was basically a selection of different types of sausage, after which, I don't think I could face another sausage for a good few weeks.

My other main memory of that night was of the music. They had a jazz band on and a female singer who meandered in amongst the tables. At some point it was flagged to the band that it was Andy's 30th and he had the next song dedicated to him, at the end of which she was perched on his knee, finishing with a cheeky "boop boop dee doo" and a playful rub of Andy's head.

We were all impressed (especially Andy) and she gave us a flyer and told us where they were playing the following night, where they would also have some CDs on sale. Andy was flying back the next day, so we drunkenly agreed that we would go to this bar she was performing at and buy him a CD; of course when the next day arrived, all of us feeling somewhat delicate, we opted for a quieter night and never made it to the bar to see a repeat performance. We could also only remember the first bit of her name (Tira), so Andy christened her Tira Misu, after the dessert.

Tonight when I was clearing out some paperwork, I found the flyer in there, so thought I would scan it in (wirelessly) and share this short anecdote.

The website of the band she sang with is still up here. It even has a page dedicated to Tira with a link to her latest CD: maybe we will get that CD yet, a mere 4 and a bit years late!

UPDATE
Surreal. After posting this blog I went and had a look at the CD which it appeared that she recorded in 2000 with her twin sister Dhira. I then did a search for Tira & Dhira and this brought up this strange YouTube vid from 2007, part of a series documenting the lives of bohemian types scratching out a living in NYC. Considering what Andy christened her, it is amusing how she introduces herself in the video.

Of the things I will not miss when I move out of here is having the untidiest front garden in the neighbourhood. The ironic thing is that we only have a patch of grass that is no more than 20 square foot to tend, but still it ends up looking like this:

It would not be so bad if it were not for the fact that those 4ft thistles did not disperse seeds all over the lawns of are house proud neighbours. You can see in this shot a little bit of next doors gardens:

Andy has finally seen the light though I think. I told him when he got it done he should not have bothered with a lawn, so now he is getting the lawn taken out , having it zapped with weedkiller and replaced with something that does not require any tending: dead wood.

I think the straw that broke the camels back was when he tried to "mow" the grass a couple of months back. He got a few feet in:

And then our poor, long-suffering Flymo gave up the ghost.

RIP

I have started to make some tentative investigations towards getting out of renting at Andy's for the rest of my life, however attractive that prospect might be from a financial perspective, and buying a place of my own. I have set up a separate blog to track my progress and solicit requests for advice here. Please add it into your RSS reader or pop back to see updates at regular intervals.