Sunday, September 26, 2004
A group men playing mahjong in China town
A photo I took from the top of the Empire State building (using the zoom, obviously)
of the flatiron building
The buildings next to Ground Zero where the World Trade Centre stood. (the flag
on that building is just huge)
This was a nice touch - it's a bell by ground zero which anyone can go up to
and strike...
A view of Manhatten at night after a trip to Staten Island on the ferry.
Eveyone told us how boring the Island would be, but we discovered a place that
serves rasberry Cosmopolitan cocktails - an invention I totally approve of!
I think that's such a pretty building!
Grand Central Station - I love this photo, especially with the motion-blurred
people in the front...
One thing that stuck me about Wall Street, is the mixture of people there. If
you think of Japan's or England's financial centres, there seem to be mostly
bankers and courriers, yet in Wall Street there were loads of people unrelated
to the financial district just walking around, getting a coffee etc. I found
that most surprising..
Time Square
Oh, this was fun. On an episode of Sex and the City Carrey goes to a trapeze
school. I didn't see that particular episode, but my friend did, and suggested
we go. It sounded like a fun idea, and indeed it was! This is me just seconds
after jumping off the platform for the very first time....
And here
I am a swing later, hanging upside downon the same trapeze. It all went so fast
- and gave me a fantastic adrenaline rush. I do like adrenaline rushes.. There
were only 4 of us in the group - including me & my friend, and we were there
for a good 2 hours. By the end, we doing doing some even cooler stuff: one instructor
would be on another trapeze and would tell us when we should "go"
on ours. We'd start (as in the first pic), by holding on to it and jumping off
the platform, then we'd bring our legs up above the bar, let go wih our hands
(like in the pic above) reach backwards, and then the instructor would grab
hold of our arms we'd grab his wrists and then letour feet go from our trapeze
- so we'd he hanging off our instructor's arms who would in turn already be
upside down hanging off his trapeze. I can't begin to tell you how much fun
it was!!! (sadly no pics of that..)
Posted by ThatP @ 04:39 PM GMT [Link]
Monday, September 20, 2004
Oh, everyone was SO right. I love New York. I'm having such a fab time, I really should have come years ago.
And there's just so much to do. I'm on day 10 (out of 15) and there's still tons of stuff I want to do here. Mind you, the 10 days so far have been great - it already feels as if I've had a whole holiday - so having another 6 days left (I'm including today, since it's still the morning) is great.
I was staying in a hotel with A. until yesterday and then moved across to stay with my good old friend Steve yesterday. It's worked out really well this way; at the beginning A & I could go out and explore at will, not having to worry about what time we got up or got home. We started off doing the classic tourist things, like going on a couple of tourist bus tours which was brilliant because in a short space of time we got a feel of what was where (and which way was north). Naturally we had to "do" the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island (actually the immigration museum at Ellis Island was dead interesting), and the view from the top of the Empire State Building was nice to because we went up on a perfect weather day.
The vibe of the city is much nicer than I'd expected. I'd dated a New Yorker some years back and he was a selfish shit, and the reputation of New Yorkers is one of an aggressive people, but actually I've been surprised at how enjoyable and interesting they are. Although it's true that they don't say sorry when they push past you in the street and the subway (and for me as a Londoner to be saying it, it's quite something), overall they seem very friendly and cool. Yesterday Steve took me to a BBQ one of his friend's had organised and the 10 or so people there were all great. Apparently New Yorkers aren't representative of the rest of America, but I had a great time, and was much relieved to hear that none of them supported Bush. I have to say, given that everyone at the BBQ was straight, I was impressed at how liberal they all were - I'd be hard pushed to come up with a more liberal straight crowd back in London. But maybe that's just representative of Steve's friends than of the country - and there is a reason why Steve and I are such good friends: if he was a bible bashing anti-everyone Texan who was proud of the death penalty, then we wouldn't be friends… and liberal people usually have liberal friends, so I guess it's not so surprising that I liked his friends.
Actually it's been very cool catching up with Steve. He was my neighbour for 3-4 months in 1997 in Japan. He lived in the room next to mine in a dorm in central Tokyo. There was a sink in the corridor between every other room, and so he was my sink-buddy as well as my neighbour, so we used to chat whilst shaving and used to hang out regularly. I've got the impression I was his first gay friend (actually, I should check that with him…), and he was my first straight American Jewish friend. It was very cool.
And now, all these years later, I'm crashing at his place for a week. And it's great fun. New York in many ways doesn't seem new. From all the stories he and other friends have told me, and from the endless shots I've seen in films and TV series, it feels like an old friend - even though it is my first time here.
I hooked up with A French ex-boyfriend of mine for a lovely meal and I've bumped into people I know too - which just reinforces the familiar feeling. I bumped into a friend in a gay bar, into another in a shopping centre (in the most unpleasant Century 21 - a discount store which is popular due to its low prices, but which doesn't have a fitting-room, doesn't let you try on most clothes, has rude unhelpful staff and is the closest thing I've experienced to shopping-hell. Still, the low prices tempted me into buying a nice shirt and some new underwear). The rest of the shopping has been great- there seems to be more choice than in London, and the prices are lower, so that's been great. Oh and the food is so much better than I was expecting. American food in London really isn't very nice, but here it's delicious. I surprised Steve's friends yesterday by saying that American "French toast" is delicious. And there seem to be places to eat on every street - it's phenomenal how many eateries they have here. Ironically I'm not getting to eat as many dishes as I'd like to. I love having multiple courses in a meal - and they've got so many tempting dishes on the menus - but the portions are just so big I only get to order one main (which I rarely finish), and no started and no desert. If only they didn't serve so much, I'd order deserts (which look amazing)… I've not had one once - perhaps one meal I'll just skip the starter and main course and head straight for the cheesecake (which has been recommended, but which I have yet to try!). The other day we went to Tao Restaurant (www.taorestaurant.com) which had a great atmosphere and nice food.
The bars and clubs are cool too - and I've met plenty of friendly guys (actually I've met *loads* of friendly guys. People here are just so easy to talk to) and hooked up with friends too (including a gay friend from Japan who just happens to be here on holiday!).
And I've still got 6 days left. Marvellous! Right, enough computer - back to the fun city! See ya when I get back x
Posted by ThatP @ 04:33 PM GMT [Link] [6 comments]
Monday, September 6, 2004
Less than a week to go until my New York trip! I can’t believe I’ve never been before. I consider myself well travelled, and yet I’ve never been to London’s sister-town. Bizarre. My travelling companion has apparently been overdosing on Sex and the City in preparation – I reckon he’s just saying it for effect, rather than actually endless re-watching the same old episodes! Although with him, you never do know ;-) A New Yorker friend of mine said I shouldn’t expect as much glamour and fun in NY as I see in Sex In the City – but he’s a chilled guy, so perhaps it’s just not his lifestyle; after all, my life in London is pretty much like the TV series, so I don’t see why it would downgrade during my holiday in the big apple, that really wouldn’t make any sense!
One thing I have done, in preparation is figure out what cocktails I like. This is a good thing to know in general mind you – something the government should have in its “preparing for emergencies” propaganda leaflet. Far more useful than being told to stock up on tinned food, I’d like to know how I’m supposed to surf the net without electricity. I suppose my mobile and laptop both have batteries, so I’d still get by – but what when the batteries run out? Now that would be a disaster on a par with having to eat tinned food.
Last month transformed itself into a good one after all. I went to a swimming club on and had a fantastic swim. I’m used to being one of the fast at the pool at my local Holmes Place, but there I was definitely not in the fastest group of it… I really had to push myself, so if I join the club then it’s almost certainly going to further improve my fitness – which is great. What with all the cycling I’ve been doing I feel the once comical notion of finding a FitP side to myself isn’t sounding so ridiculous (and might already be happening) - and it’s great because I have more energy and I’m sleeping better.
Project+ is still going very well, which is pleasing me no end – but it means I’m going out SO much less. It’s amazing how busy you can be when you’ve got three jobs on the go!
I’d better get planning for New York though – I wonder what’s cool to do there? Anyone got any suggestions? Oh god, and what am I going to pack? The dollar’s weak so the shopping should be good – but Americans seem to wear much looser clothes than we do in Europe, I wonder if I’ll be able to find anything I like? Oh, dilemmas dilemmas!
Posted by ThatP @ 07:15 PM GMT [Link] [9 comments]
