This city reminds me of Osaka. The massive, one way streets, the high class shopping centres, the many taxis, the crossings, and the buildings. And I really liked Osaka, so this is pretty cool. The heat is quite intense. I'm in loose fitting clothes, as most are. But the sun, which rarely pervades through gaps in the buildings, does provide a suitable friend to the air conditioners. I'm considering buying an air conditioner to take back home. I'm scared of the English heat, but it's only for a few more weeks after I get back, so it wouldn't be worth it.
I took the train to 72nd Street station, and from there walked to Central Park. Central Park is far more incredible than I imagined. The contrast to the city is so stark. I was walking among the most consistently tall buildings in the world, and then I was in a park that could have been in South Africa, in the suburbs of Durban. The city is the first place that definitely didn't feel like Africa, but the Park is like this natural haven from every negative aspect of the city. And life in general. It's peaceful and tranquil, and in New York, it sticks out like a green thumb.
I walked to the centre of the South Side, an then walked South towards Times Square. On the way, I found this Starbucks, where I'm currently writing, and I'm enjoying the first of three free drinks. I won't have them all here and now and today, I'll space them. I'll go and have a McDonalds later as well. Anyway, my Venti Banana caramel Frappucino is gone, and I'm about to go to Broadway for discount tickets. I'll post this and go.
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Monday, 31 July 2006
Hot Apple
The heat in this city is increasing. Apparently next week is a record breaker. I hope not. But, I'll live with it. It's better than being in England.
I left the building today, and immediately regretted taking my jacket. This wasn't California where you could wear it on your shoulders, this would cause you heat related pain by being near it. I struggled with the door locks for a few minutes before I got in, and dumped the coat and left again. I took the subway to Times Square.
I honestly felt like I was at the centre of the earth. I looked into the sky, and imagined the world looking at me, as it revolved around me. Henny does work for a lot of companies, and they give him vouchers in return. As well as money, of course, but he gets vouchers. He doesn't use many of them, and gives them to me. At the beginning of the day, I had 5 Free Extra Value Meal vouchers. Now I have 4. But these vouchers don't need any purchase or anything. I hand it over, they look, they give me the meal. This evening, he also gave me three Starbucks Drink Vouchers, valid here, Canada and the UK for any drink I like. Venti Java Chip Frappucino tomorrow I think.
I wandered Times Square. I wandered 42nd Street. It is just shops with massive rents backgrounded by skyscrapers. It's a beautiful shopping complex. An iconic shopping complex. THE shopping complex; where you buy anything that's worth owning. Like I<3NY shirts. It was a spectacle that had my neck craned for hours. I didn't actually do much. Or anything. I did a little shopping. I had more Cold Stone Cemetary ice cream, white chocolate with Oreos this time.
It was strange to hear English accents around me again. I felt no less like a tourist, I just felt less alien. I felt less foreign. This is strange because Natasha noted that she felt more foreign in New York than any other place. Compared to Osaka and San Francisco, I feel less foreign here. I do however, feel more remote. The friendliness of people here seems to be less. I'm not complaining, it's what I was expecting. And it's quite nice to be ignored in the hustle of everything. Despite the fact that this isn't my home, I feel like it has been, just for the way people don't tend to react. People are still friendly, don't get me wrong, but this isn't the West Coast. And don't think I don't enjoy not being ignored. It's why I like going to far away places and I cherish my accent when I do, but this makes a change.
I had a good chat with my family before I went out, and I am still eager to see them again, but I'm liking it here. My feet are throbbing and I have another busy schedule tomorrow. I'm going to see if I can get discounted tickets to Rent, and look for other, cheap shows as well. I applied to go and see a taping of the Daily Show, and I'm also going to go in and look for tickets for The Colbert Report, Letterman or Conan O'Brien, if they're available. I don't know much about the latter shows, but any live taping would be awesome.
I have vouchers for free food, and drink, and the subway is pretty cheap here. It's $2 to go anywhere you like. And it's not exactly the most pleasant trip ever. It's smelly and dirty, and people keep trying to sell you things, but I enjoy the 90% saving over a cab.
Henny took me to a Chip Shop, where we chatted and shared stories about the West Coast. I also finally ate deep fried chocolate. This was a deep fried Reeses Peanut Butter Cup, and it was good, but I'm too used to deep frying to come with something savory. I noted that it tasted like less-healthy chocolate. Which it was. Still good though. One the walk back I also grabbed a 12 pack of Welch's Grape Soda, a relatively tasty drink which Henny had brought over for us before.
I'm expecting every person who has missed me to meet me at the airport. That is, if Heathrow has the capacity to hold all of you. Oh ego ego. But I am hoping to see Becky waiting, and parents smiling as I walk in to Terminal 2 (it isn't necessarily Terminal 2, I just left from there).
If you are jealous of my location, I ask you to do one thing: imagine all the media that has portrayed Ney York City, and use that to pretend you're there. It's pretty much what it's like, just with the third dimension and extra senses and all.
Erin mentioned we were starting a new society. She's going to have to be a long distance President of the Amateur Philosophy/Capture the Flag/Break Dancing Society. Or APCtFBDS. Rolls off the tongue.
I finished Arrested Development. Fantastic show. I'm going to have to watch it again, with friends. But I did like how it ended. It wasn't typical, but it was very conclucisve. They couldn't have had any further seasons. Maybe a Year Later special or something. Speaking of watching television on the computer, I might finish The Life Aquatic, or watch Hero. And turn the air conditioning back on. I missed out on stuff I did today, but you haven't read the last few updates and I'm writing this for nothing you worthless reader.
I left the building today, and immediately regretted taking my jacket. This wasn't California where you could wear it on your shoulders, this would cause you heat related pain by being near it. I struggled with the door locks for a few minutes before I got in, and dumped the coat and left again. I took the subway to Times Square.
I honestly felt like I was at the centre of the earth. I looked into the sky, and imagined the world looking at me, as it revolved around me. Henny does work for a lot of companies, and they give him vouchers in return. As well as money, of course, but he gets vouchers. He doesn't use many of them, and gives them to me. At the beginning of the day, I had 5 Free Extra Value Meal vouchers. Now I have 4. But these vouchers don't need any purchase or anything. I hand it over, they look, they give me the meal. This evening, he also gave me three Starbucks Drink Vouchers, valid here, Canada and the UK for any drink I like. Venti Java Chip Frappucino tomorrow I think.
I wandered Times Square. I wandered 42nd Street. It is just shops with massive rents backgrounded by skyscrapers. It's a beautiful shopping complex. An iconic shopping complex. THE shopping complex; where you buy anything that's worth owning. Like I<3NY shirts. It was a spectacle that had my neck craned for hours. I didn't actually do much. Or anything. I did a little shopping. I had more Cold Stone Cemetary ice cream, white chocolate with Oreos this time.
It was strange to hear English accents around me again. I felt no less like a tourist, I just felt less alien. I felt less foreign. This is strange because Natasha noted that she felt more foreign in New York than any other place. Compared to Osaka and San Francisco, I feel less foreign here. I do however, feel more remote. The friendliness of people here seems to be less. I'm not complaining, it's what I was expecting. And it's quite nice to be ignored in the hustle of everything. Despite the fact that this isn't my home, I feel like it has been, just for the way people don't tend to react. People are still friendly, don't get me wrong, but this isn't the West Coast. And don't think I don't enjoy not being ignored. It's why I like going to far away places and I cherish my accent when I do, but this makes a change.
I had a good chat with my family before I went out, and I am still eager to see them again, but I'm liking it here. My feet are throbbing and I have another busy schedule tomorrow. I'm going to see if I can get discounted tickets to Rent, and look for other, cheap shows as well. I applied to go and see a taping of the Daily Show, and I'm also going to go in and look for tickets for The Colbert Report, Letterman or Conan O'Brien, if they're available. I don't know much about the latter shows, but any live taping would be awesome.
I have vouchers for free food, and drink, and the subway is pretty cheap here. It's $2 to go anywhere you like. And it's not exactly the most pleasant trip ever. It's smelly and dirty, and people keep trying to sell you things, but I enjoy the 90% saving over a cab.
Henny took me to a Chip Shop, where we chatted and shared stories about the West Coast. I also finally ate deep fried chocolate. This was a deep fried Reeses Peanut Butter Cup, and it was good, but I'm too used to deep frying to come with something savory. I noted that it tasted like less-healthy chocolate. Which it was. Still good though. One the walk back I also grabbed a 12 pack of Welch's Grape Soda, a relatively tasty drink which Henny had brought over for us before.
I'm expecting every person who has missed me to meet me at the airport. That is, if Heathrow has the capacity to hold all of you. Oh ego ego. But I am hoping to see Becky waiting, and parents smiling as I walk in to Terminal 2 (it isn't necessarily Terminal 2, I just left from there).
If you are jealous of my location, I ask you to do one thing: imagine all the media that has portrayed Ney York City, and use that to pretend you're there. It's pretty much what it's like, just with the third dimension and extra senses and all.
Erin mentioned we were starting a new society. She's going to have to be a long distance President of the Amateur Philosophy/Capture the Flag/Break Dancing Society. Or APCtFBDS. Rolls off the tongue.
I finished Arrested Development. Fantastic show. I'm going to have to watch it again, with friends. But I did like how it ended. It wasn't typical, but it was very conclucisve. They couldn't have had any further seasons. Maybe a Year Later special or something. Speaking of watching television on the computer, I might finish The Life Aquatic, or watch Hero. And turn the air conditioning back on. I missed out on stuff I did today, but you haven't read the last few updates and I'm writing this for nothing you worthless reader.
Sunday, 30 July 2006
Beep Beep
Good evening.
I'm in a high altitude traversing vehicle. An aeroplane. I'm blogging from thirty thousand feet. Cool, isn't it? I'm a few hours out of Newark, and I'm not going to sleep in the airport, I was recommended to a taxi from Penn Station, and it won't cost too much, about $15. So I won't be in danger at Newark Airport, worry not.
It's not a week in New York anymore. It's pretty much five days. It's not long, but people have gone to New York for shorter, so I don't think I'm missing out on a long holiday. I've had a long holiday. I had a good, long, holiday. People say that you should always leave a place wanting more, wanting to return. That works if you get sick of a place quickly. I would have spent any longer time at any place I stayed. It was great fun everywhere I went, and I want to go back, despite the fact that I went for a long time. My first holiday without Emma in two years, I miss that, but everything happens. She emailed me yesterday, noting how I had missed the entire time she's been busy. I guess I had good timing. We can enjoy the rest of the summer and do fun stuff without any other obligations. I have a busy summer to do.
I'm going to watch the rest of Arrested Development while I'm up here. I'll post when I'm at Henny's apartment in a few hours.
---
I'm looking currently at a massive thunder storm that I am watching from the sky. I saw one on the way to Japan, but I was more over it, now I'm more to the side, and this is very big. I'm going to stop posting and watch.
---
The thunder storm was massive. I mean, the one on the way to Osaka was pretty big, but the flashes were muffled by clouds, so they were like huge, brief white bruises on the clouds, then fading to blackness again. This time, I could not only see the log streaks of charge, but I saw them grow, and dart from one end of the cloud to the other. This was the first time I'd seen lightning in detail. I saw it close by once before, but it was only one. I'd been a stranger to forked lightning until tonight. Beautiful.
Three minutes before the end of Arrested Development, the very end, they asked us to turn off and put away all electrical devices. So I have three minutes left to watch.
I'm in New York. I'm at Henny's apartment. Everything went according to plan: I caught the train to Penn Station, and from Madison Square Gardens I caught a cab to Henny's place. Being in a car in New York is different to being in a car anywhere else in the world. Or at least any place I've been. There are white lines painted on the road, but I don't know why. Lanes mean nothing to these people. Everyone honks and hoots and beeps and shouts at everyone else. On the plane I watched 16 Blocks, and it was good to be shown stereotypical New York shortly before landing in typical New York. Busy, loud, stinky, and wonderful. The cabbie that took me drove and swerved like a mad man. I thought we'd crash several times. Once we had to slam on brakes hard enough to almost skid because someone just pulled into our lane. So much fun. I really want to drive in this city. And I want to drive a manual in this city.
California's gone, I'm going home soon, and I have a lot to be doing. Henny doesn't know his WEP key and he's going to check it tomorrow, so I'm leaching off one of the other 4 networks available. I love cities, I so do. I'm going to leave my computer here when I go out from now on, unless I plan to spend the say in a Starbucks. Which I won't do.
I asked Rachel in Cannery Row Starbucks if I could leave my computer there and go for a walk, and it was fine. I severely doubt I'll make any relationships like that here, or be able to do anything like that with confidence. But hey, it's a different thing, there's a lot more to go on, and I'm sure it'll be more lively and maybe more fun. Damn hot though. I'm going to browse other people's blogs now.
I'm in a high altitude traversing vehicle. An aeroplane. I'm blogging from thirty thousand feet. Cool, isn't it? I'm a few hours out of Newark, and I'm not going to sleep in the airport, I was recommended to a taxi from Penn Station, and it won't cost too much, about $15. So I won't be in danger at Newark Airport, worry not.
It's not a week in New York anymore. It's pretty much five days. It's not long, but people have gone to New York for shorter, so I don't think I'm missing out on a long holiday. I've had a long holiday. I had a good, long, holiday. People say that you should always leave a place wanting more, wanting to return. That works if you get sick of a place quickly. I would have spent any longer time at any place I stayed. It was great fun everywhere I went, and I want to go back, despite the fact that I went for a long time. My first holiday without Emma in two years, I miss that, but everything happens. She emailed me yesterday, noting how I had missed the entire time she's been busy. I guess I had good timing. We can enjoy the rest of the summer and do fun stuff without any other obligations. I have a busy summer to do.
I'm going to watch the rest of Arrested Development while I'm up here. I'll post when I'm at Henny's apartment in a few hours.
---
I'm looking currently at a massive thunder storm that I am watching from the sky. I saw one on the way to Japan, but I was more over it, now I'm more to the side, and this is very big. I'm going to stop posting and watch.
---
The thunder storm was massive. I mean, the one on the way to Osaka was pretty big, but the flashes were muffled by clouds, so they were like huge, brief white bruises on the clouds, then fading to blackness again. This time, I could not only see the log streaks of charge, but I saw them grow, and dart from one end of the cloud to the other. This was the first time I'd seen lightning in detail. I saw it close by once before, but it was only one. I'd been a stranger to forked lightning until tonight. Beautiful.
Three minutes before the end of Arrested Development, the very end, they asked us to turn off and put away all electrical devices. So I have three minutes left to watch.
I'm in New York. I'm at Henny's apartment. Everything went according to plan: I caught the train to Penn Station, and from Madison Square Gardens I caught a cab to Henny's place. Being in a car in New York is different to being in a car anywhere else in the world. Or at least any place I've been. There are white lines painted on the road, but I don't know why. Lanes mean nothing to these people. Everyone honks and hoots and beeps and shouts at everyone else. On the plane I watched 16 Blocks, and it was good to be shown stereotypical New York shortly before landing in typical New York. Busy, loud, stinky, and wonderful. The cabbie that took me drove and swerved like a mad man. I thought we'd crash several times. Once we had to slam on brakes hard enough to almost skid because someone just pulled into our lane. So much fun. I really want to drive in this city. And I want to drive a manual in this city.
California's gone, I'm going home soon, and I have a lot to be doing. Henny doesn't know his WEP key and he's going to check it tomorrow, so I'm leaching off one of the other 4 networks available. I love cities, I so do. I'm going to leave my computer here when I go out from now on, unless I plan to spend the say in a Starbucks. Which I won't do.
I asked Rachel in Cannery Row Starbucks if I could leave my computer there and go for a walk, and it was fine. I severely doubt I'll make any relationships like that here, or be able to do anything like that with confidence. But hey, it's a different thing, there's a lot more to go on, and I'm sure it'll be more lively and maybe more fun. Damn hot though. I'm going to browse other people's blogs now.
Saturday, 29 July 2006
Guess Where I Am!
I'm in friggin' Utah.
Salt Lake City. How weird is that? Utah has always been this strange, middle America, desolate place, and it doesn't disappoint. Erin came and saved me after a long trip on the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) train, and I got to spend another 24 hours with her in California, so not everything was bad. We went to the Cold Stone Creamery (which I initially thought was the Cold Stone Cemetery), and I had this Cake Mix ice cream with Reeses and Snickers mixed in. I say it was amazing, and I will look for more in New York.
Erin took my to a Japanese place so I could taste the California-Japanese food, which most say is better than England-Japanese food. And it was. But it wasn't as good as Japan-Japanese food. I still remember the night with Yayoi as a provider of the best Sushi ever. I had Tonkatsu and Erin had Tempura, and the portions were big and the price was quite high, but I enjoyed the Tuna and California rolls I had with it all.
I spent my flight here watching the final season of Arrested Development, and if I have enough battery, I'll watch the rest of it before I get to New York.
I have to pack and get to my gate now. I'll call Henny and I'm thinking of writing a mid-air blog post. But for now, stay where you are, I'm not far.
Salt Lake City. How weird is that? Utah has always been this strange, middle America, desolate place, and it doesn't disappoint. Erin came and saved me after a long trip on the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) train, and I got to spend another 24 hours with her in California, so not everything was bad. We went to the Cold Stone Creamery (which I initially thought was the Cold Stone Cemetery), and I had this Cake Mix ice cream with Reeses and Snickers mixed in. I say it was amazing, and I will look for more in New York.
Erin took my to a Japanese place so I could taste the California-Japanese food, which most say is better than England-Japanese food. And it was. But it wasn't as good as Japan-Japanese food. I still remember the night with Yayoi as a provider of the best Sushi ever. I had Tonkatsu and Erin had Tempura, and the portions were big and the price was quite high, but I enjoyed the Tuna and California rolls I had with it all.
I spent my flight here watching the final season of Arrested Development, and if I have enough battery, I'll watch the rest of it before I get to New York.
I have to pack and get to my gate now. I'll call Henny and I'm thinking of writing a mid-air blog post. But for now, stay where you are, I'm not far.
Friday, 28 July 2006
New Flight
I have just finished a phone call with Continental Airlines (try typing their web address in Firefox without the use of the N key). The call took 40 minutes, but they rearraged my flight for tomorrow without the $100 change fee, so I am relieved. I fly tomorrow at 1PM istead of today, though I will look for overnight fares for tonight.
Now I have to go, a dog has just dropped a very nasty mess near to me, and I can't breath.
I'll be ok. I almost had to wait until the 31st, but it's not the case.
Now I have to go, a dog has just dropped a very nasty mess near to me, and I can't breath.
I'll be ok. I almost had to wait until the 31st, but it's not the case.
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