15th November 2007

This week started well, My offer was accepted on the house and now I need to work my way through the US mortgage system. Not as easy as they all think, trying to get a mortgage as a non US citizen is fraught with loopholes. Not least because I do not yet have a social security ID. Hey Ho I am sure it will work out in the end. The other fun thing to try and do is transfer money to the US. There is International banking and then there is US banking.
Tuesday I travelled to New York on the train from Beacon – shame that it was so early in the morning. It was about 6.30am and the journey takes about 85 minutes. If you try it, you should make sure you sit on the left side of the train on the journey to Beacon and the right on the way back to New York. The train follows the Hudson river all the way up and the scenery is really lovely. Arrived in New York at 7.45, Grand central station (see the picture above) and then walked up to “Coach” one of our customers to join a meeting with my CEO. Meeting went well and I went out to La Guardia, stayed in a hotel near the airport ready to fly to Pittsburgh the next morning.
Flew to Pittsburgh and went to visit a second customer “American Eagle” this also went pretty well. Flight was delayed on the way back and then there was a shortage of taxi’s in La Guardia, one of the bridges into the city was shut which meant I didn’t get to Grand Central till 2 mins to 9 – It is a huge place and I had no clue where to go – luckily I found information pretty fast and managed to catch the 9.02 back out to Beacon and get back to the apartment.
Today started with an email proposal from Rob, when I asked him what prompted it, he said it was to get access to health care in the US!! who says romance is dead? Anyway I guess there will be more to follow on that story – watch this space ………