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Books

I have joined the local library (Hammersmith and Fulham) which has quite a bountiful resource of educational and entertainment material. They have quite an impressive list of DVDs that you can borrow for £1 for 3 days as well as CDs and a fairly comprehensive travel book section!

...the reading of good books is like a conversation with the best men (or women) of past centuries - Rene Descarte (1596 - 1650)

Books I've read recently...

Perfume : The Story of a Murderer, Patrick Suskind
Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
Christ the Controversialist, John Stott
The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien
A-Z of Negotiation, The Economist (didn't finish but interesting)
The Cider House Rules, John Irving
The Lord of the Rings (complete), JRR Tolkien (just borrowed)

New York, New York

Photos:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=za0rna8.6xfuyp0&x=0&y=4rv25e
(Click on 'View Photos without signing in')

I was blown away by New York!! Fantastic city, so much happening, so vibrant, so modern. I definitely want to go back there again to see and feel more of it!

Shopping
New York is famed for its shopping and whilst I don't think it is exactly dollar for pound shopping, it seems to be pretty good value. We didn't go to the outlet malls (which are reputed to be great places for bargain shopping) because they're about an hour out of NY city. We did check out out the famous department stores such as Macy's, Bloomingdale's, FAO Schwarz (toy store featured in 'Big', it's a quality place) and Bergdorf Goodman. It was sales tax free week so it made things just that little bit cheaper which was lucky. Most of the sales were over though but I managed to get a CK raincoat from Century 21 and some shirts from Bloomingdale's that were significantly reduced. Oh, and a couple of ties from some street vendors. Pretty cheap for Italian silk.

That was the extent of my shopping though I sorely wanted to buy a PSP ever since I saw Andy's in Germany. But there was really no point in buying it in the US because all the games and movies would be region coded for North America.

I was happy as the only thing I really needed was a more professional looking coat for wearing to and from work and found one my size and the style I wanted.

Sights
Staying at the Grand Hyatt at Grand Central was very convenient indeed for seeing all the places on Manhattan Island. It was a combination of walking and taking the subway to get to the places that we wanted to go to. The 6 hour flight from London didn't prove too taxing as I got to the hotel about midnight and went to bed at 1am and got up feeling fine the next morning.

We saw Rockerfeller Center, St Patricks, Trump Tower, Statue of Liberty (we paid for our ferry ride but I would just get the free Staten Island one if I went again), Empire State Building (amazingly no lines!! Good work Denise on pre-purchasing tickets online and going on a Fri night), Central Park (impressed by size and number of joggers!), Guggenheim, the Metropolitan Museum, MoMA (Museum of Modern Art), Times Square, Chrysler building, Chinatown (lots of cheap fakes) and Grand Central Station, amongst other places.

Now when I watch movies that are set in New York I can't help but look out for sights that I have seen firsthand! We also saw possibly NBC filming something in the street opposite the Dean & DeLuca store where we had breakfast, some filming in Times Square and the filming of a movie called The Killing Floor (probably just the working title) a couple of blocks from where we were staying.

We were squeezing a lot into 3 full days so some of the places we went to we didn't really spent a lot of time at. For example, with the museums we really only appreciated the buildings from the outside and the architecture inside without taking a good look at all the exhibits. When we went to MoMA we intended to look around but it was so busy and hectic that Saturday that I wasn't keen to walk around with such a crush of people.

Slam Dunk
The main thing that had been pre-planned from the UK was a trip to the world's most famous sports stadium, Madison Square Gardens, to see the New York Knicks play the Houston Rockets! It wasn't that busy when we got there possibly because it was Super Bowl Sunday and it was easy to go and pick up the tickets that I had pre-purchased over the internet (ah, internet, don't ever change).

The Stadium was only about half full when the game started and maybe got to about 4/5 full after half-time but there were a lot of spare seats. We could have moved down to closer seats if we'd wanted to but there was no point unless we actually made it down to floor seats. There was no one in the row in front of us and nothing to block the view of the court. I had my binoculars with me and spotted Spike Lee walking around during half time. It was a good game with Yao Ming doing the work for Houston in the first half and T-Mac (Tracy McGrady) carrying the load in the second half. Houston were definitely the better team on paper and on the night though NY could have sent it to overtime if they had managed a three pointer in the dying seconds. Alas Houston's defence was too tight. The atmosphere was good but not as good as the match I saw in Chicago and this was post-Jordan! Chicago put on a much better 'show' and entertainment during the breaks and time-outs.

Sustenance
I love the restaurant service you get in New York City. I can't remember service being this good in LA or Chicago (the other two US cities I've been to). The service is better than Melbourne service and leaves London service for dead. Sure you can be cynical and say that the tip is a motivator but it was consistently outstanding; prompt, well organised and friendly. And anyway, they don't know how big a tip you're going to leave. We just went with the standard 18%-20%. Things were expensive though, money was just flowing out of my wallet when it came to restaurants. But hey, no point going all the way over and not enjoying it!

On the Friday night we went to Salute! at the concierge's recommendation for Italian food. Pam came down from Philadelphia where she is finishing her MBA at Wharton so it was great to catch up with her. Food wasn't great but again service was brilliant. On Sat we met up with Pam and friends for brunch at Sarabeth's which is a popular place where queues form on the Saturday and Sunday.

Fortunately we were able to make a booking as we had a large enough party. Unfortunately they stuffed up the booking so we were an hour late in getting our table. The places wasn't super posh but definitely up there above your norm. Booking debacle aside, food, setting and service was highly rated but the pancakes a bit doughy in the middle (says the food critic ;)). Price guide ~$US25 for brunch.

Our last meal with Pam and last nice restaurant in NY was dinner at the Mercer Kitchen, at the Mercer Hotel in Soho.

Splendour of the Word
New York Public Library had an exhibition of Medieval and Rennaisance manuscripts on display called 'The Splendour of the Word'. I thought it might have been related to Biblical matters through the use of 'the Word' (cf John 1:1) but it was a library and could have been anything. However, I was right and the majority of the many items on display were Bibles from past centuries. Sort of like the Book of Kells in Ireland and even though these manuscripts were not as old there were many more of them and it was free to view. Much of it was on public display for the first time.

Soup Man
The soup man (aka soup nazi) made famous in Seinfeld has now franchised his soup shops and there was one on the corner of East 42nd St and Fifth Ave. We went past it many times but were never hungry at those times so I didn't get to try any of his crab bisque.

Supper
A long story but Denise was flying back Business class while I was flying back lastminute.com class but because of her Business class managed to get me into the BA lounge at JFK. Very nice indeed; some snacks, nibblies and Asahi beer :) The lounge was used by Qantas as well. Heard announcements of flights to Sydney and felt like getting on ;-)

Didn't get much sleep on the way back and the jet lag really hit me back in London. I think it was the fact that I got back in the morning and tried not to sleep but really had to since I had not slept on the plane.

So ends another trip. It was truly marvelous but it's definitely an expensive place if you want to live well!

God bless.