New York

"Halloween Jack is a real cool cat, And he lives on top of Manhattan Chase"

Wow, wow, wow.  I just love New York.  What a city.  And what a view we had flying in, of Manhattan Island all lit up at night, clearly seeing the Empire State Building and other familiar sights.  We were lucky to get in actually - the next two days, almost all flights were cancelled due to a heavy snow storm.

The most striking thing, for both of us, has been the architecture.  Though Angus wouldn't necessarily name that, he's constantly noticing and commenting on buildings around town.  I haven't seen such a great range of very beautiful building designs concentrated in one place like this before.  There also seemed to me to be a disproportionate number of very good looking people in New York.  Weird.  

Our little apartment (through Big Apple Sublets) was a very typical New York apartment, as seen on Friends, Seinfeld, Sex and the City, etc.  It was small, but had a gorgeous courtyard complete with waterfall, and was very well heated - I think the heating must have been for the whole building, as we had no control over it in our unit.  The pipes clunked and groaned loudly all night, but we got used to it.  Part of living in an old building I guess, part of the charm.... 

About half an hour after we arrived in our lovely little apartment, Angus started throwing up.  He was very, very ill for a good 16 hours, throwing up and also losing fluids from the other end, which continued way after the vomiting stopped.  I’d had a slight case of Montezuma’s Revenge that morning in Mexico, and had been a little concerned that it might get worse and affect our ability to travel, but mine improved over a few hours.  Angus was hit way worse.  So, our first day in New York was spent at home, doing laundry - a couple of sets of sheets, blankets, towels - all belonging to the apartment - as well as our summer clothes from Mexico.   Thank God it happened in New York and not while we were still in Mexico.  It would have been very difficult to care for him properly there.

The next day was Angus’s birthday.  We’d intended to go ice skating, climb the empire state building, and more.  But - when we woke up, and looked outside, everything was white!  About a foot deep of white!  Angus looked out into our courtyard when he woke up and said sleepily ‘Happy Snowy Birthday to Me’.  

We still went out, but couldn’t do what we’d planned.  We went to Toys R Us at Times Square, which had an indoor ferris wheel, and they let Angus choose us the Scooby Doo car, despite the signs saying ‘You cannot choose a particular car’.  It wasn’t a bad ferris wheel actually.  Then, we bought his birthday present and had brunch at a very expensive ‘Brooklyn Diner’ at Times Square, which was pretty nice.

Angus was still feeling quite delicate so we still took it easy, and just explored a bit on foot - but not too much, as the snow storm intensified and we had huge flakes of snow flying vertically into our faces as we struggled into the wind (which kept changing direction).  It was all still a thrill for us, though clearly the locals were sick of it.  We had dinner at an Indian place around the corner in E 53rd Street, and the staff brought out a gulab jamun with some custardy cakes around it, and everyone in the restaurant sang happy birthday.  Angus called it "the most embarrassing moment in my life".  But he didn't crawl under the table, and he managed to smile pretty broadly.

The next day was still very snowy, but much lighter.  So we headed out to Central Park, and the zoo.  It was excellent - we’d expected to see a lot of familiar animals in the ‘Tropical Zone’. But of course, it was mostly animals from the South American continent, which meant they were very unfamiliar to us. Piranhas, flamingo-like birds, toucans, iguanas, chameleons....   In the outdoor section the polar bears (one called Gus) looked very pleased with the weather, as they sprawled on a snow covered rock, one with his arm gently around the other.  The zoo had some great quotes displayed all around it.  I found many of them very moving too - even the one from Where the Wild Things Are.  “That very night in Max’s room, a forest grew ....  and grew .... “  I know that book by heart, from when I was a child and more recently from sharing it with Angus.  I think I”m finding lots of things very moving!  Perhaps because I’m in a different place.  But Angus and others might say I’m always susceptible to emotions.

The 9/11 Visitors Centre (I think it’s actually called a Tribute Centre), which uses ‘person to person history’ was very, very moving as was the site of the World Trade Centre.  I spotted a big burly army guy in uniform wiping his eyes (along with almost everyone else).  I think Angus realised for the first time the momentousness of what happened there, and he said he thought the visit had been very worthwhile.  He asked lots of questions about it all afterwards, naturally enough, and is still doing so a few days later.  I hadn’t been sure about taking him, and telling him about what happened, and about what’s going on in other parts of the world, but he already had a basic idea and at least this way I could control how he learned about such things.

Our trip to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island was also moving.  I was just imagining (admittedly at the as suggestion of the recording on the ferry!) what the immigrants felt when they saw the statue and the Manhattan skyline after their journeys from desperate situations towards some hope of a future.  Of course immigrants to Australia faced even longer sea journeys - often against their will! - but that isn’t really the point.  I think the values of freedom, opportunity, etc have always been more central to the US than to Australia, probably because they were never convict colonies (I don’t think - some of the states might have been at some points).  So Australia has ended up with its values of a fair go, without getting too big for your boots (tall poppy syndrome), and a healthy mistrust of authority.  We don't call people 'sir' and 'maam' the way they do in the US, where there seems to be a very strong respect for and trust in authority - as well as respect for courtesy and good manners in a much more formal way than is the norm in Australia.

To get to go up to the crown of the statue, you need to book 3 months in advance or take your luck with a small amount of tickets that are released each day for ‘walk ins’.  You’d need to have very good luck to get one, given the number of people who were there to get the ferry to Liberty and Ellis Islands.  We were content to look at the statue from the ferry, and get off at Ellis Island.  We did a guided ranger tour with Sam, the ranger.  Also on the tour was a large group of children from West Point Military Academy, very smartly decked out in their dress uniforms.  Ellis Island was the old immigration centre, for steerage class passengers.  First and second class passengers got off at a different dock, and were processed quite differently.  The ranger had a number of interactive activities which gave us a better understanding of what the immigrants went through - a 6 second medical as they walked up some steps, possible detention for further investigation, possible deportation.  And they had to have $25 - enough to show they would not be a burden on the society.  There were lots of charitable institutions providing translation services, as well as caring for detainees.

Angus was inducted as a junior ranger after the tour, and received a gold badge, which looks a little like a police badge.   This prompted a guy who may have had a mental illness to make a big fuss in Park Avenue later that day, saying “wow, you’re a cop, you’re gonna look after us? “  He wasn’t unfriendly.

Shopping in New York is incredible, with amazing discount stores selling top labels, new stock - but you had to fight to get the bargains, and be prepared to WAIT.  It was quite annoying in the end, buying the D&G sunnies at Century 21 - and I decided against them once I got them home.  I’d bought them under pressure, knowing that if I didn’t pay then and there, while I had a sales person’s attention, I’d be waiting another half hour to get her attention again.

Then, I read a Courier Mail (Brisbane) shopping blog, while web-surfing at home that night.  I was mildly curious as to what bargains were happening at home, so that I didn’t get carried away and think NY was my only chance to get these things.... which was an easy mode to get into, with so much product and limited time.  And, it referred lovingly and longingly to a US shop called Anthropologie, which has a huge store in NY and now ships to Australia - with very expensive shipping though, making it still prohibitive.    So I checked out that store’s website and a few hours later, had a shopping list of the most beautiful home items (towels etc) and clothing.  We headed there early the next morning and got most of my list, and few other bits and pieces, in record time.   That’s the main shopping I did in NY, and I feel it was a very good outcome.  We bought another suitcase at Bloomingdales afterwards.

Our last dinner in NY was at Patsy’s Pizzeria on E 60th.  They are at several locations around Manhattan, and something of a NY pizza institution.  We shared a ‘small’ pizza and a salad, and were very satisfied.   I don’t think it was the best pizza I’ve ever had though.  A little too much sauce and a little soggy in the base.  Seated next to us was an author, who was about to start promoting her new book about menopause.  She was a doctor, I think some kind of celebrity doctor.  I’ll have to google and see if I can find out who she was.  She and Angus had a quick chat about salad choices.  

All in all, we heart NY.

Things we've learned:

• HIstory shapes the present and the future, so whoever's version of history is the dominant one is very powerful indeed.
• We're not bound by history.  We still have choices and can shape the future (but our choices may well be shaped by our own histories unless we consciously recognise that possibility).
• Anthropologie now ships to Australia, but it's expensive.