Tuesday, October 24, 2006 - NYC

Finally, after living in the US for nearly 20 years I visited New York for a four day trip, what can I say apart from "I should have went sooner"................ absolutely brilliant, and here's why.

The people - I know I'm generalising however I was amazed by the difference in the people from one coast to another. In LA there's little to no sense of humor, comeback, banter. In NY the people I met in bars, restaurants and stores had some comeback and witty retorts. A breath of fresh air instead of the egocentric, all about me, gone Hollywood folks I encounter on the West Coast. The amount of street life was a refreshing change, people actually walk, interact and talk to each other rather than being trapped by themselves in endless commuter cars, as is the case in Los Angeles.

The architecture - One's eyes cannot rest, not knowing where to feast themselves next. The buildings, art deco, museums, it seems every doorway, roof and window has something to offer. The two iconoclasts of art deco design which are the Chrysler building & Empire State building truely are wonderful, not to mention the feats of modern engineering which are the Brooklyn & George Washington Bridges.

Central Park - Absolutely great for a day out where you can jog, boat, ice-skate, eat, drink or just relax  people-watch and take in the scenery.

I think my favorite areas were Central Park, SoHo and Greenwich Village, conversely my least favorite were Little Italy (offering food which does not even come close to it's older parent)  and Chinatown with it's tacky t-shirts and souviners.

I  elected to spend almost a full day of my four day trip in a museum and chose the Metropolitan Museum of Art, I was not disappointed however a full three days would have been needed to take everything in. John Singer Sargent, Van Gogh, Caravaggio, Remington, Vermeer were the works of art that left the most lasting impressions, with Van Gogh imparting a rich emotional experience upon viewing the works of his obviously tortured soul.

 But it wasn't all artsy fartsy, each day was also interlaced with lots of hilarity. The various loony characters on the subway, a Chinese lady with the worst teeth I've ever seen, pissing ourselves laughing at a guy with the largest fattest head which resembled a grotesque Humpty Dumpty all afforded some light relief from the sightseeing.

My two favorite incidents were;

Meeting Michael Caine and consequently informing a very drunk New Yorker that Sir Michael was in the bar, the guy stumbled over to buy him a drink, walked past the spectacled actor and started talking to some old guy in the corner. He came back to the bar to be  greeted with much hilarious derision by myself and my buddy, then was presented with a bill for the Grand Marnier he had just bought the stranger in the corner..............

Standing outside a restaurant chatting with a  Puerta Rican girl who was smoking whilst she was sitting on the edge of a concrete planter, the owner of the restaurant was a very overweight Jewish grandmother-like lady. Upon noticing the girl had squashed some of her plants and before getting into her awaiting taxi she unleashed a string of unexpected expletives  to the girl, exclaiming "look at my fucking plants you fucking fuck you". Whereupon the girl very sweetly replied " I like your dress, you look really nice tonight".............. the dress was a large flowery muu-muu.

Great trip and a truely great city..