Friday 5 January - Boston & New York City

Another full day of ePace training. Or at least it should have been. Making today a lot easier (apart from the fact that we didn't have Ab take us for training as scheduled, given she's such a hard taskmaster!), was the fact that our facilitator Dan "Hassel" Huff finished at 2:30pm, which enabled me to get onto a Greyhound bus bound for the Big Apple at 4:30pm. The bus was preferred to a flight as:

• The bus is $30 one way or $55 return (a lot cheaper);
• It doesn't have the queues associated with airports, particularly US ones;
• It doesn't require a cab to and from the airport (it's $45 set fare from JFK to Manhattan alone);
• There's a lot lower chance of my baggage being lost, which it appears to be a "high" chance in the air given we're 0 for 2 so far;
• There will be no airport security possibly conducting an uncomfortable physical search;
• There would probably be little difference in the time taken to complete the total door-to-door trip; and
• On the bus, you can see a bit of the US landscape as well.

The only downside of the bus (apart from what would later happen on Sunday night) was that when we arrived in NY, the city was shrouded in fog, thus the ideal introduction of approaching the big lights of Manhattan didn't eventuate.

The bus took just under the scheduled 4.5 hours, and was pretty comfortable (particularly as I had two seats to myself). Obviously it wasn't as comfortable for the bus driver, Ms DeMornay (yep, the same bus driver we had on our 2nd day in LA - it was either her or her twin sister), who was in a cranky, aggressive mood (again). The bus went via Hartford, and come in to Manhattan from the north via Harlem. Between Boston and NYC, there isn't much road where there is not civilisation on either side - this part of the country really is heavily populated.

Libe had advised me to wait at the Greyhound ticket office of the Port Authority Bus Terminal once I arrived. Unfortunately, there were two such ticket offices, and we just happened to wait at the alternative ones. I suspected that that may have been reason that I hadn't seen Libe once 45 mins of waiting had expired, however didn't want to move as I had my bags with me, thought Libe would be more familiar with the Terminal than me, and was also wary of walking away just when Libe had approached the office where I was. Anyway, after 75 minutes, she came looking and we were finally reunited in NYC.

Walking out of the Terminal was an immediate sensation. Immediately, this place felt different to anything I'd experienced for a long time, if ever. Perhaps the only feeling of being in a huge city I've previously experienced has been in Sydney, which feels so much bigger than Melbourne than it actually is, although Sydney pales in comparison to NY. We walked through Times Square on the way to Libe's apartment - an amazing place, which is best described through the pictures posted for Sunday.

After a couple of welcome drinks with Libe in bars near her apartment, we prepared ourselves for a big first day of exploration around the Big Apple tomorrow.

Dan 'Hassel' Huff - Good build, great facilitator, even better bloke for letting us out at 2:30 today

Thursday 4 January - Boston

Another full day of training. Libe left for New York City via a Greyhound bus early in the morning, to begin our 3 months of solitary confinement. I think she'd been quite enjoying taking it pretty easy in Boston too.

Got introduced to ePace, Vitale's version of PP's Caseware. It has a few nuances to it: the terms 'binders', 'synchronisation' and 'local file room' will become familiar, as will the process of 'assigning' editor rights. Time will tell - it's obviously early - however it appears as though Caseware is further advanced. Points of note:

• Importing the TB is quite complicated, as is mapping the TB and creating leadsheets. There's actually quite a lot of risk in the import of the TB; any errors sound like they can cause simple problems, hence it appears as though it is the seniors on the audit that will do this. Obviously with Caseware, you just re-import the TB in case of errors, and leadsheets are automatically created, hence its a grad's work.
• In ePace, the "financials" are excel documents with only the basic reports - Balance Sheet, P&L, Equity statement - which are then transformed into financials by another department, while in Caseware they are largely automatically generated via the import of the TB.
• It's more difficult to get a copy of the audit file through ePace. However, although the synchronisation process is a little complicated, it does eliminate the risk of two people working on the same document at the same time.
  

In other, more important, news, there's a bloke from Vitale that looks like Darryl Kerrigan. Out of respect, I won't post his photo here, but Pete did agree, and I reckon Glenn may too.

Wednesday 3 January - Boston

First day of work at Vitale. A full day of training, along with the 'new hires' and 'interns' (graduates and co-ops), going through the various systems and procedures, having photos taken etc. Felt like the first day I walked into PP. Quite a cruisy day, followed by a feed with Libe, Pete, and Becky at one of the many "Irish" bars near our apartments. Pete only lives about 300m away... good for socialising, bad for the waistline.

Monday 2 January - Boston

At Macy's and the Gap today, with Libe in full shop mode (not for the first or last time!). Macy's give all foreigners a 11% discount at each store, on top of the 15% nice face discount which you may also get (and Libe received today). Like Myer, Macy's appears to have become just one giant discount store, as everything apparently is 'on sale'.

The other Vitale secondee, Becky Wheeler (from Birmingham, England), arrived today. I think I'll have give her a nickname. Either "Free" (as in 'free wheeler'), or "Reece" (as in Reece Wheeler, the jockey who famously rode champion stayer Bold Bard to an outstanding but unlucky 16th in the 2003 Melbourne Cup). She'll be giving Libe a relief from all my bad jokes for the next 3 months.

Champion galloper Bold Bard and Reece "Becky" Wheeler overcoming an outstanding field, and a torrid run in transit, to win the prestigious Bagot Handicap for the 2nd time in succession, New Years Day 2003. With the first 3 legs of the quaddie home, and the field in the last, for 50c (or for those who are too young, 50%), it was a tremendous start to the year.

Monday 1 January - Boston

A day of shopping in Macy's and the Gap with Libe, and then a feed at a nearby Italian restaurant. As you may have read in Lawson's blog, the feeds here are massive, so much so that I noticed most people in this restaurant received foam containers at the end of their meals, to pack the leftovers in for a trip to the home fridge.

Now, I am going to admit something that you are likely not to hear from me again. Yes, for one day, 1 January 2007, I actually didn't think about Australian Rules Football. I promise not to do it again, Milka. It only dawned on me the following day, when I subsequently read half a book on John Harms' boyhood following the GFC.

Discussions about the local sporting teams - the Celtics (NBA Basketball for the unaware) and the Bruins (MLB Baseball) - has brought about nothing but criticism. Perhaps they need a Brian Cook review too. I didn't mind as it would make my life easier to get tickets. The TD Banknorth Arena where both teams play is only a 10 minute walk away from the apartment, thus I can see myself there a few times.