Agnès arrived in NY on Tuesday. Herself and artemis dropped up to the office and we sat around chatting for a few hours. I also met up with Agnès on Saturday afternoon for Lunch.

I’ve noticed a bizzarity in social event attendance etiquette. I’m not sure if it’s a New York thing or an American thing (I’m told it’s a New York thing) but saying you’ll attend x social event and actually attending it mean two completely different things.

On each of social outings I’ve had with American folk only 0-25% of them have shown up. Even for a co-workers birthday (which was joined with a going away party, as we weren’t going to she her for a few months) only about a quarter of the people who said they’d show up actually came. I suppose it’s something I’m just not used to, if you say you’ll be somewhere, you’d better have a good reason for not showing. Sure, you may be late, that’s almost expected, but to not show up, with no excuse? To not even call or text to say that you cant make it after you’ve made a commitment seems very aloof.

Also, there is a certain amount of suspicion and second guessing of ones motives in social encounters. A lady in a Subway station a few weeks back asked if a certain line stopped at a particular station. I told her that I didn’t know. I then tried to make small talk by saying that I’d just arrived, that the city was new to me and the I had only really taken one of the lines. I was glared at, as it to say “I only asked you for directions, nothing more. How dare you try and talk to me”.

Anyway, I went to see Infected Mushroom on Saturday in Webster Hall. It’s a really cool venue. There was Rap/Hip-Hop playing in the basement, trance/house on the ground floor, the band were playing on the Ballroom (which has a balcony for VIPs) and there was some Minimal Techno in an Upstairs room. There was also an EBM DJ playing before and after Infected Mushroom in the Ballroom. Infected Mushroom are a band who I’ve been into for about a year and I’m quite glad I saw them, considering I missed a free Coldplay gig and a Freezepop concert. I hope to get a few more gig’s in before I head home; I have my eye on Regina Skeptor, Bloc Party and Foo Fighters.

On Monday I wandered over to artemis’ to watch Dexter. I’ve also been watch a bit of Curb your Enthusiasm with my flatmates, Greg and Nanda. Both shows are pretty good and this has been the first time I’ve seen either.

I got a new phone on Saturday, a Nokia N70 (Music Edition). It’s a small step up from the 6680, but it’s got a better camera, more RAM and an Active Standby screen (which Vodafone decided the 6680 didn’t need, so they stripped it out). All my apps from the 6680 also just worked straight away when I pop’d my old card into the new phone, which was really handy. I also picked up a BL-6C (at last) and a Bluetooth Keyboard. Here’s a great list of S60 handsets (maintained by Steve Litchfield) which I’ve used for reference since I’ve owned an N-Gage.

I went to my first Movie Premier/screener on Wednesday. Some of the nice people in Media at Large gave us tickets. It’s called The Rocker and is basically a story about Pete Best. In a hilarious coincidence it actually contains Pete Best, playing a cameo role. There was one line I found amusing where a bland hippstr type is referred to as “[...] like Abercrombie are making people”.

I’ve just watched Once twice, the second time with the commentary. It’s been the first time in years that I’ve liked a film enough to watch it a second time, with the commentary. It’s a film everyone should watch.

I saw one more cockroach in the basement. I don’t consider two in a month to be an infestation but apparently the germphobic upstairs thinks otherwise and has asked the landlord to get the building fumigated. Germphobia is another big thing I’ve noticed over here, but I’ll leave my comments on that till another day.

Up early this morning to head to Harvard, from the lack of students we saw on campus we assumed they were on spring break. We saw a notice for a one bedroom student flat near the campus going for a grand a month, nothing special, the same kind of thing that would probably go for about 400 a month near UL.

After that we did a bit of shopping, Americans aren’t kidding when they say malls are huge. Again if anyone wants me to get them anything there are still plenty of shopping slots on the itinerary. We were in an electronics / Music / Games store which was unreal, there were several areas with plasma TVs and leather couches where the public could come in and play some Xbox 360 (which is rare and in much demand over here) or watch a DVD from your pick of any in the store, just to “test the equipment”.

After shopping on the tube ride home Cian decided he had left a bag on the tube after we were all off and leapt back on. To his dismay the bag was actually inside the bag he was carrying.

We rested up a bit and got a tube ride to TGI Fridays only to discover that even though they were still giving the menu for the Boston branch online the store had infact, after 28 years of business, closed only weeks ago. Still, the steak with jalapeno butter hit the spot in the next restaurant down.

Gareth, Colm and Dan (Nagle) are giving presentations in MIT tomorrow and, as usual, they were left till the last minute. Some of us were tired ad went to sleep but myself, Steve, Ivan, Pili (Ivan’s girlfriend) and Dan went to see Underworld: Evolution which was middling. Its the first time in a while since I’ve been to the Cinema and so I saw trailers for three movies I have to see, V for Vendetta, UltraViolet and Silent Hill.

After we came back Gareth informed us we had to be in the lobby ready to head at eight in the morning which is about seven hours time.