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Forwarding Address
August 03, 2005

28 years-old
April 19, 2005

human...
April 17, 2005

Pancreatitis
April 14, 2005

Depressed
April 13, 2005


The current mood of aliwalidoodah at www.imood.com

December 12, 2004 - 3:46 pm

The Big Apple

New York New York. Well I am back. And I have now been married for one year and 13 days....and 2 hours....ish. New York was an amazing experience, definitely more of an experience than a holiday, I'm cream-crackered and could sleep for a fortnight despite snoozing off the jet lag all weekend. It was a lot like London in many ways - except much cleaner and tidier, there was an illusion of order created by the straight lines of the grid system. Quite a contrast to the higgledy piggledy topsy turvey rows of subsiding old buildings and winding roads of London.

I was surprised by how clean it was, and how safe I felt. Within 24 hours we were on and off the subway and walking around like we�d lived there all our lives. Maybe that�s just what happens when city-dwellers venture to other cities. The people were extremely friendly, except for the staff on the underground who were shockingly rude and made the employees of Whitechapel London Underground Station look like they should win awards for customer service.

We kept getting things for free too, like entry to the Met - we checked our coats intent on spending an hour or two browsing around and then we discovered that the entrance fee was $12 each. We couldn�t afford that so we went straight back to pick up our coats again - the cloakroom attendant, seeing us return so quickly, told us that we weren�t coming all the way from Britain and not getting into the Met, and promptly handed over two free entry-badges. Made my day!

Afterwards, in a bar, we shared a few rounds of drinks with a doorman from the Plaza and then rode the bus back to the hotel for free when we didn�t have any coins, just notes. The bus driver, who thought we were Australian (we didn�t correct him in case that was his reason for letting us ride for free�) explained to us the intricacies of New York public transport and the metro card, very helpful.

On the night of our anniversary we were presented with a free slab of pumpkin pie with a candle in it as a congratulations from our waiter.

The next day we stopped at a bar for a wee dram to keep off the chill air and emerged three hours and several cocktails later having not paid for a single drop - our bartender had regailed us with stories, poured us endless �jolly ranchers� and �mummy muds� then waived the bill in honour of our wedding anniversary celebrations. Jolly nice bloke, he got a jolly nice tip too.

We spent every day we were in New York running around like mad things seeing everything we could, we were usually in bed by 11pm exhausted. My favourite moment was ice skating in central park (and not falling over once) on our anniversary and recreating the favourite new york moment?�..this one�s climbing up the charts� scene from Serendipity. And I loved drinking in the Plaza then riding in a horse drawn carriage round central park whilst making munkee wave at everyone.

We went to Ground Zero. I wasn�t sure how I�d feel, or even if it was appropriate but in the end I was glad we went. It was strange thought, as we turned the corner towards the site there was a sudden and enormous gust of wind and rain, water sheeted across the pavements and we had to lean into the wind to walk forward, then as we reached the edge of the site it stopped and cleared. It was as if what I was feeling inside manifested in the weather - I was feeling like I should hold back from seeing it, that I shouldn�t really be there, that it wasn�t my place, and I was finding it hard to approach it. But when we got there I felt more peaceful, like I personally had made peace with how I had felt on that day, and peace with what was happening in my life at that time. Because we all felt our individual feelings about September 11th, it affected us all somehow in different ways. The area was smaller than I thought it would be, with a lot of damage still very evident. The plaques around the site were good, very well done and respectful, focusing on past, present and future. Down the side of the site, in a makeshift passageway is a shrine filled with many items, I took pictures but haven�t had those developed yet. I�ll post them one day.

Here are a few little piccies�.

Time Square. It was pouring with rain when we went here on our first day so we went for lunch to hide from the downpour for a bit, when we re-emerged an hour later it was bright sunshine.


NY cabs in the rain on the same day.


The mall in central park - this is me and munkee resting our aching feet having walked around half of Manhattan.


Statue of Liberty. We caught the Staten Island ferry on a very windy day to see the Statue of Liberty, which was much smaller than I expected.


The Empire State Building was a stone�s throw from our hotel and we went to the top on our last day. I was terrified. I didn�t think I would be, I�m a fairly strong stomached kinda gal, not often afraid of things like heights (spiders, planes and ghosts yes, but heights and depths and sharks no) but this was scary, this was very very very high up, and the building moved in the wind�


The Disney Store. Anyone who knows me will know that I had to go to the Disney Store, I just had to. This is me after my visit looking happy and sporting my purchases in a big bag.


Butch and manly NYPD cops looking menacing with their granny-moped.


Mmmmm�. Yes I know it's a pretzal and not a bagel...thanks to therertimes for pointing that out. They taste the same!�.


FAO Schwartz. The toy store in one of my favourite movies in the Tom Hanks collection.


Ground zero.

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