For all you ass holes
Someday, I will have the last word!!!
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Manhattan Mania
After a wait of almost five years, it did happen – In some ways the new head of internal audit at the client site came as a blessing for having seen the need for two experienced team members to visit the United States office. Well, good for me. And there was no way I was missing out on the opportunity to visit the city that never sleeps on my trip. And so began the planning process. I have to say, it did not take too much effort. With credit going to the social networking craze – I did manage to track down a close childhood friend in New York City. I usually do think twice about piling on, but I could not have been happier this time that it was Mish I was piling on to.
And did I make the right choice. You bet – She has a Midtown Manhattan address (which of course did not mean much to me till I actually got there) right in the heart of the city. The arrival did confirm the crazier side of Americans that I have heard people refer to till date. It’s the only flight I have taken where there is double security right before boarding the flight, where even cooked and dry food items in checked in baggage mandate an additional screening at the airport and where the luggage trolley does not come free (and if you are new to America like I was, you could just possibly pay double the charge!!) Anyhow, I was excited to have arrived. I actually pinched myself a couple of times on the weekend that I was actually in New York City!! Going back to Mish’s midtown manhattan address – it was not only the hippest of addresses, but also one of the hippest buildings. I almost mistook it for a hotel on arrival. She had a nice one bedroom, hall and kitchen studio, which by no means was uncomfortable for the both of us. I actually found it rather big for the city. I liked it even more because it managed to re-ignite the want of having my own place to stay and manage. So though it was early in the morning, I did not allow her to go back to sleep. We chatted and caught on with one another’s life, with marriage occupying the major part of the conversation. By the end of it, we were just about glad to have the next two days to enjoy New York in our own ‘single’ way!
We started off with breakfast at Dunkin Donuts, and the first signs of obese America started to show when the server put cream cheese on the Bagel. Without wasting any further time, we hit upon Fifth Avenue. I do have my priorities right :). I could not have had better company for shopping in Manhattan. Mish had turned quite the shopaholic. And she did manage to shop more than me at every store we visited. It’s fun to shop with such people. So from Macy’s to Bloomingdales to Victoria secrets to Bath & Body works to Banana Repuplic to Zara to Nine West to almost every store we could set eyes on – we covered it all. Lunch was at the Heartland Brewery right under the empire state building.
Central Park was our next stop. That was an impressive green patch amongst the high rises. In some ways, I preferred it to Hyde Park in London because of the activity and buzz that was in there. Dead tired after walking through our shopping escapades, we decided to take the cycle rickshaw to get a tour of the park, just to get reminded of the price of labour in the country. It was just about 150 times the quarter we’d spend back at home for traveling that distance. After a short ‘Friends’ break at her apartment, we headed to watch the ever famous 4th of July fireworks. Honestly, I was not awed at all. I saw similar and maybe better fire works on Australia day in Sydney. Or maybe, they would have been worth it if we didn’t have to wait for them under our umbrellas!!!
Day II was a tourist’s date with Manhattan. The first thing I did was climb up the empire state building. With the rain the previous evening, and more rain expected during the day, visibility was almost zero at the top. So definitely not worth the exorbitant price they charged. But it’s not something I could have skipped. The next trip was downtown to the Battery Park to catch the ferry to the Statue of Liberty. And it just seemed like all tourists had descended onto the park just on that day. The line to buy the tickets was about 45 minutes long and the line to get onto the ferry for 150 minutes only. Now, there are about two supposedly embarrassing things I did on this trip. One of them was asking a South Indian uncle 4 people away from the ticket booth to fetch us tickets. And that’s what I like about our Indian population numbers – we’ll find one in every part of the world willing to help another fellow Indian. So that saved us the precious 45 minutes in the jam packed day. We saved the other 150 minutes by just taking a cruise around the statue, Ellis island, Ground zero and Brooklyn bridge, and not take the ferry to the statue. That was a wise thing done. We then headed to Wall Street. And you should have seen the ‘Bull’. Tourists were crowding around like bees to honey. So I played honey bee too :). We then headed towards Magnolia Bakery (as Mish put it, its more a New Yorker thing to do, and not something tourists would generally do) to have the apparently famous cup cakes of New York. I have to admit that the location of the Bakery (at the Village – apparently where the FRIENDS lived) was a very welcome change from the NYC I had seen till now. But even more amazing was the 40 minute queue to enter the bakery (no wonder Saif Khan refers to New York as Queue York in KHNH). But smart me made Mish stand in the line, while I walked the area. Am usually not that mean – time was just too short.
Our final destination was Times Square. And I was delighted to be at the so called centre of the universe. Apparently, its said if you stand at this particular stretch on the square, you would meet someone you know every seventh person. But Times Square was an experience. Something I could just not resist capturing. This one though is an alternate version I found on you tube.
Sex and the City at the Regal on Times Square was the most perfect way of summarizing my New York experience. A quiz on FB once told me that New York is the city for me. Have to admit, its not all that untrue :)
**Sidenote: Coming back to the two embarrassing things I did, the second was to not pay tip to the cabbie who drove me to the airport. Its true, he made it more than apparent that he hated me by asking "You aint left no tip?". But he dropped me at the wrong terminal, so no way he deserved a tip for making me pay even more for the already exorbintant New York Taxi!!!
And did I make the right choice. You bet – She has a Midtown Manhattan address (which of course did not mean much to me till I actually got there) right in the heart of the city. The arrival did confirm the crazier side of Americans that I have heard people refer to till date. It’s the only flight I have taken where there is double security right before boarding the flight, where even cooked and dry food items in checked in baggage mandate an additional screening at the airport and where the luggage trolley does not come free (and if you are new to America like I was, you could just possibly pay double the charge!!) Anyhow, I was excited to have arrived. I actually pinched myself a couple of times on the weekend that I was actually in New York City!! Going back to Mish’s midtown manhattan address – it was not only the hippest of addresses, but also one of the hippest buildings. I almost mistook it for a hotel on arrival. She had a nice one bedroom, hall and kitchen studio, which by no means was uncomfortable for the both of us. I actually found it rather big for the city. I liked it even more because it managed to re-ignite the want of having my own place to stay and manage. So though it was early in the morning, I did not allow her to go back to sleep. We chatted and caught on with one another’s life, with marriage occupying the major part of the conversation. By the end of it, we were just about glad to have the next two days to enjoy New York in our own ‘single’ way!
We started off with breakfast at Dunkin Donuts, and the first signs of obese America started to show when the server put cream cheese on the Bagel. Without wasting any further time, we hit upon Fifth Avenue. I do have my priorities right :). I could not have had better company for shopping in Manhattan. Mish had turned quite the shopaholic. And she did manage to shop more than me at every store we visited. It’s fun to shop with such people. So from Macy’s to Bloomingdales to Victoria secrets to Bath & Body works to Banana Repuplic to Zara to Nine West to almost every store we could set eyes on – we covered it all. Lunch was at the Heartland Brewery right under the empire state building.
Central Park was our next stop. That was an impressive green patch amongst the high rises. In some ways, I preferred it to Hyde Park in London because of the activity and buzz that was in there. Dead tired after walking through our shopping escapades, we decided to take the cycle rickshaw to get a tour of the park, just to get reminded of the price of labour in the country. It was just about 150 times the quarter we’d spend back at home for traveling that distance. After a short ‘Friends’ break at her apartment, we headed to watch the ever famous 4th of July fireworks. Honestly, I was not awed at all. I saw similar and maybe better fire works on Australia day in Sydney. Or maybe, they would have been worth it if we didn’t have to wait for them under our umbrellas!!!
Day II was a tourist’s date with Manhattan. The first thing I did was climb up the empire state building. With the rain the previous evening, and more rain expected during the day, visibility was almost zero at the top. So definitely not worth the exorbitant price they charged. But it’s not something I could have skipped. The next trip was downtown to the Battery Park to catch the ferry to the Statue of Liberty. And it just seemed like all tourists had descended onto the park just on that day. The line to buy the tickets was about 45 minutes long and the line to get onto the ferry for 150 minutes only. Now, there are about two supposedly embarrassing things I did on this trip. One of them was asking a South Indian uncle 4 people away from the ticket booth to fetch us tickets. And that’s what I like about our Indian population numbers – we’ll find one in every part of the world willing to help another fellow Indian. So that saved us the precious 45 minutes in the jam packed day. We saved the other 150 minutes by just taking a cruise around the statue, Ellis island, Ground zero and Brooklyn bridge, and not take the ferry to the statue. That was a wise thing done. We then headed to Wall Street. And you should have seen the ‘Bull’. Tourists were crowding around like bees to honey. So I played honey bee too :). We then headed towards Magnolia Bakery (as Mish put it, its more a New Yorker thing to do, and not something tourists would generally do) to have the apparently famous cup cakes of New York. I have to admit that the location of the Bakery (at the Village – apparently where the FRIENDS lived) was a very welcome change from the NYC I had seen till now. But even more amazing was the 40 minute queue to enter the bakery (no wonder Saif Khan refers to New York as Queue York in KHNH). But smart me made Mish stand in the line, while I walked the area. Am usually not that mean – time was just too short.
Our final destination was Times Square. And I was delighted to be at the so called centre of the universe. Apparently, its said if you stand at this particular stretch on the square, you would meet someone you know every seventh person. But Times Square was an experience. Something I could just not resist capturing. This one though is an alternate version I found on you tube.
Sex and the City at the Regal on Times Square was the most perfect way of summarizing my New York experience. A quiz on FB once told me that New York is the city for me. Have to admit, its not all that untrue :)
**Sidenote: Coming back to the two embarrassing things I did, the second was to not pay tip to the cabbie who drove me to the airport. Its true, he made it more than apparent that he hated me by asking "You aint left no tip?". But he dropped me at the wrong terminal, so no way he deserved a tip for making me pay even more for the already exorbintant New York Taxi!!!
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