Win some, win some

We won!! Ok - the other team didn't show up so we got a 10-0 walkover... but all the same it's our first victory since the last team that didn't show up about 14 weeks ago!! Instead of playing a competitive game we had a friendly game with the three players from the other team who did show up plus three of our team on one side against the remaining members of our team. It was still a great run around and gave us a chance to relax a bit and to try playing proper football - including actually passing to each other...

Not much else to report today except that yesterday as I was in the West Village sending some documents by FedEx, I ended up standing next to my dream celebrity girl - Olivia Wilde - as she tried to hail a taxi. She stars in House (which has Hugh Laurie in it) and is super sexy! Sensing my one and only opportunity to approach the girl of my dreams and to make some witty / charming introduction, I did what any good Bethel man would do.... I pretended not to notice her and sent messages to Jimmy on my iPhone instead!! Spotting celebrities must be like London buses I think...

For those who don't immediately recognize the name here is the future ex Mrs Bethel:

And for anyone wondering what to get me for my birthday next year... (balloons optional):

Happy Birthday to my sister!

Today was my sister, Antonia's, birthday! Happy birthday Tone!! Hope you had a lovely day xxx

I haven't been up to much this week (not a surprise...) so this blog will be a quickie! On Wednesday, I had my weekly night out on the razzle - this week I had dinner with my business buddy Frankie D. We ate at the new Gansevoort Hotel on Park Avenue. It was an Italian restaurant and was very nice - I had salmon carpaccio followed by Squid Ink Tagliatelle with seafood. Great food and great company. After I left Frank I went to the Meatpacking to meet with Gil (not a surprise...) where he was having dinner with friends and acquaintances at MPD. By the time they had finished eating I was a little tipsy and unquestioningly followed them all to a cool club called the 1920 Bunker Club. Very cool.

The next morning after running through my "hangover checklist" - Who's apartment is this?! Mine...phew! Check. Did I take my contacts out last night? Yes... Check. Do I have my wallet and all my bank cards? Yes... Check. Did I bring home my suit jacket? Yes.... Check. Did I send any silly text messages to anyone? Just Jimmy... Check. I settled into recovery mode (aka lights off, stretch out on sofa, emit low groan continuously for 14 hours, chuckle at silly things I did in uber-trendy club last night). Recovery Thursday contained not a single additional activity.

On Friday, feeling refreshed and hairy, I decided to get my ass down to the barbers' shop for a trim. My barber is another uber-trendy establishment in the West Village / Meatpacking called FSC (Freeman's Sporting Club). It is exactly how I imagine a 1920's barbers' shop would look if there was one at the Epcot Center! I always feel slightly intimidated by it's trendy "we're so not trendy it's trendy" vibe and today my intimidation was heightened by having to sit next to a celebrity in the waiting area! Nigel Barker is the celeb in question and he is to fashion what Simon Cowell is to music. He is British, he is a fashion photographer extraordinaire and he is one of the hosts of America's Next Top Model with Tyra Banks. On top of that I have to admit that he is very good looking... Here's a photo for the ladies:

So as I was sitting next to this celeb, trying not to look like I cared one little bit, I decided to busy myself by messaging with Jimmy on my iPhone. Jimmy however, was still amusing himself by the fact that messaging me the word "gin" would still make me want to vomit in my mouth... After one too many gin references (it was either - have you ever been to Vir-GIN-ia?, or - that was GINius) I decided to send Jimmy a picture of what my vomit might look like if he kept up his juvenile teasing (where did he get that from??). It was at the time that I sent him a picture of a toilet covered in puke that Nigel, lord of the cool, Barker looked over my shoulder, saw the picture, shuddered and said under his breath "lovely". He looked very relieved when his hairdresser came and got him moments later... I guess I won't hold my breath for those tickets to the season finale of America's Next Top Model...

Saturday, inspired by my trendy haircut, and the arrival of my new scarf from Mango.com, I decided that Timmy needed a blazer. I had been meaning to get one for months and months but was put off by the continuous heatwave that is the New York summer. So I styled my barnet and headed out to the Meatpacking (if you hadn't guessed - I love the fricking Meatpacking!!) to the new All Saints store there and proceeded to buy myself a lovely blazer. Very happy with my buy. So here is a self taken (sad) photo of myself displaying hair, scarf and blazer... enjoy... or don't... see if I care... but seriously... ENJOY!!!:

Only comments relating to how the 2nd picture in this blog is far sexier than the 1st will be accepted...

Today, I met up with my friend Stevie P (the actor) and we went to an Irish bar near Times Square to watch the Chelsea versus Man Utd football game. I gave in to temptation and circumstance and ordered the Irish Breakfast which consisted of two eggs, over-easy, 2 slices of toast, a portion of fries, two sausages, a pile of bacon, lots of black pudding, limitless coffee refills and two pints of Guinness - the breakfast of champions I hear you say! When I got home my scales were hiding from me and threatened to report me to the police for abuse if I dared stand on them... So I didn't!

Tonight I did house chores (laundry and online supermarket shopping) and went to Chelsea Piers to hit some golf balls. 

Onwards and upwards... Love you all lots! xxx

Lose some, lose some

So it's Tuesday night which means that all the mental institutions in New York let their patients out to play football on my team... After our dreadful performance last season we were quite rightly relegated to the third (turd..) division. It was hilarious to listen to my team-mates complaining about being relegated before our game tonight...! They were genuinely bewildered to have been relegated after a season that comprised zero wins, zero draws and 8 defeats!

Well guess what - we lost! 13-4!! We were awful... At the end of the game my team-mates were genuinely surprised we lost and said things like "I can't remember us being that bad".... I was going to remind them that we were that bad just two weeks ago before catching myself and reminding myself that it requires an actual brain to have memories from two weeks prior...

On a lighter note... I weighed in after my game tonight and the scales told me I had lost 5lbs!! I am very happy and currently stand at 17st 6lbs - so I am 13lbs away from my target weight! Not bad after just a few days and really it's all down to a better eating regime - I haven't ordered delivery for a week, and I have been eating cereal for breakfast, a light lunch, fruit in the afternoon and a low calorie dinner. No chocolates, no desserts, no fizzy drinks at all (hhhhhhhmmmmppphhh!), and nothing after 8pm.

Anyway, nothing really funny has happened to me so I'm sorry if this blog has been a little bit flat... But I love you all loads xxxx

Hi hi my American Pie...

I made Cottage Pie for the first time ever tonight and had to show someone....

It was actually delicious and despite the devastation that I unleashed on my kitchen whilst making it, I was very happy with how it all went. 

On a side note - I now weigh 18st 2lbs. Maybe I over did it with the butter, heavy cream and Parmesan cheese... 

Scale of the century....

Hello all! I hope that my recent lack of blog activity hasn't caused too much consternation amongst my loyal followers... I'm talking about you Dad!

I would have to describe my week as eminently unbloggable... It has been a decent sort of week but as we are between football seasons at the moment, I don't even have a humiliating defeat to talk about. Work has been another week of holding pattern as I wait on several clients to get back to me on various proposals.

I did catch up with a British friend of mine who has recently moved to NYC as his play has moved to Broadway after a successful stint in Chicago. This is obviously impressive going for a guy only two years out of acting school and despite having followed a career path that almost represents an effort to stalk Jimmy (he worked at Encore tickets and DCG!) he is still very grounded which is great. The show is called Chinglish and his name is Stephen Pucci.

So we met up on Wednesday and had dinner at Spice Market - Asian restaurant in Meatpacking district - which was fun. We moaned about women and Americans. Apparently the cultural differences between Brits and Yanks is even further accentuated in the field of theatrical performances. We have vowed to meet up often for more beers and bitching!

Thursday night I got a call from Gil and we decided to welcome the new season of American football at a sports bar (or two) and somehow I woke up on Friday feeling a little worse for wear! I have a sneaky suspicion that someone spiked my gin with tonic water...

Normally, waking up with your pyjamas on back to front and having not quite managed to pull the duvet over yourself before falling asleep, is not the end of the world... Especially on a Friday when you work at home and have no client meetings scheduled. Imagine my horror when I checked my schedule and noticed that the weekly Managing Directors call would this week be a two hour video conference call...! I hastily drank two starbucks coffee drinks and had a shower before putting on a shirt - just a shirt.. I was wearing boxers and thought what's the point of trousers when all they can see is my top half! It was one of the longest two hours of my life - in fact if my doctor ever tells me I have just two hours to live and Mr Reet isn't available, I will schedule another video conference call with a hangover! I will be begging the Grim Reaper to arrive!!

Due to novelty of the call and the fact that one of my partners - an Indian Sikh - took the call from his car, which we all found to be hilarious and equally dangerous, Chris Debrusk took a screenshot to remember our first one (see below).

Today my scales arrived - which means I can now draw a line in the sands of obesity (if I could even bend my massive bulk over to reach the sand...). This is a new dawn for Timmy - I will now be regularly documenting my weight on this blog as I look to drop some of the baby (whale) weight I've been carrying. 

So anyway, I opened the box containing my scales and noticed that they had included a tape measure, so I measured my waist (42 inches..I checked and they were definitely not centimeters) - not a great start. Next I put the batteries in the scales and with little fanfare stepped onto my platform of shame. In large LED lights that can be seen from the moon, a number appeared on the screen, at first I thought the number was one of those counters that shows the current size of the US National Debt, but on closer inspection it was a much larger number than that! 

My weight (drum roll....) is 17 stone 11 lbs. Oh dear! Damn you pain au chocolat, blocks of soft cheese and red wine!! At this point I thought to myself that instead of a measuring tape they should have included a number for a suicide hotline... but after discovering how difficult it is to sever an artery through an inch of whale blubber, I decided to give weight loss a real go!

My target weight, for no reason at all other than nostalgia for a weight that I haven't seen since my teenage years, is 16 stone and 7 lbs. That is an 18lb loss goal (36lbs if I factor in Mum & Dad's upcoming trip!!). I will be posting regularly here so that you can keep the edges of your seats worn down with the inevitable excitement of it all...

Anyway, love you all loads!! xxx

Assorted vids and pics!

So... I've been back for over a week now and have decided it's time for a download of pics and vids from my iPhone. I want to say thanks for all the birthday cards I got from everyone - except Jimmy & Lauren (see their card below...), and also thanks for the Amazon vouchers (Playstation 3 game is on it's way as we speak) and the iTunes vouchers (AKA e-tunes - Dad!) - bringing my iPod up to date! I also realised that I had a load of reward points from my bank here in the States and those points roughly translated into a new digital camera, memory card, a flip video recorder, $100 Amazon vouchers and $100 iTunes vouchers...! So prepare yourselves for some better pics and videos on this blog in the near future! I love getting something for nothing!

It wouldn't be a blog without a quick recap of my week including my latest football failure - we just finished the season without a victory - should we be known as the Vincibles...? We contrived to throw away a two goal lead in the last 5 minutes and I managed to burn the last vestiges of friendly relationships I had with any of my teammates... No great loss - they are a constant reminder that, in America at least, the rise of the apes would be an evolutionary step forward... 

I also managed to fit in my weekly night out - I gave Gil the week off and instead went out with my business partner, Chris, and an ex-colleague of ours from Sapient, David. We had a few drinks in an Irish pub after which David dropped out to go home to his family (whoopah!) whilst Chris and I went for sushi and sake at a lovely Japanese restaurant by Bryant Park called Koi. We then walked 21 blocks as it was a nice night and found a cocktail lounge dark enough to hide my sweating! I forget the name of the place - not due to alcohol but rather just lack of attention. In a somewhat related way, I have decided that I am going to go to a bar alone in the next week or so as whilst I appreciate Chris and Gil's company, I think that if I keep relying on them we are soon going to become sick of each other. I have decided to make Hudson Bar & Books my local haunt - I will let you know how that goes...

Without further ado here are some visual treats:

Happy Birthday Dellboy!!

A study in concentration:

Let them eat cake...

Jimmy's worst nightmare...

This is what happens when you drink too much French red wine...

Happy Birthday to me.. Thanks Jimmy & Lauren

But good to know that they were listening to my philosophy...

Here is the 9th Wonder of the World - Mum & Dad's wonky floor...

The reason I spent two agonizing hours making small talk with Mr Reet rather than relaxing in the Virgin Upper Class Lounge....

My view at the golf driving range

Finally, my outside office when my cleaner is here...

Hope you enjoy the pics and vids. Love you all lots! xxx