New York, New York...

Who is my fan? AM please identify yourself!
D2- it was a 50-50 chance.. and I made a guess based on your writing style as opposed to DW.
C- glad to know I will sell at least ONCE book.

For some people blogs are just narratives, of daily events. But when you write, I feel you should write from the heart. Its corny, but words are the windows to the soul, and that’s how you let people in. This blog is a TAD long.. hahah but see how much of it you guys manage to get through!

NY is the city that never sleeps, and I am the girl who has barely slept in the last 4 days. But perhaps you may experience the most amazing city in the world vicariously through me!

So here I am, undertaking this enormous task of sharing everything I saw, smelt, tasted, felt and heard in the Big Apple. How does one put these intangibles into words?

The moment I stepped out of the cab onto the pavement of Lexington Avenue on this warm and sultry Friday afternoon, I could feel the city seep into my skin. There was an indescribable vibe, which was captured to perfection as I sat on the rooftop of the Rareview Bar on 37th and Lexington, sipping a strawberry mojita and watching the sun set behind the Empire State Building. Everything about NY is Big, bold, daring and unabashed. The pizzas are the size of 18 inch mag wheels, scoops of ice cream perch precariously on top of waffle cones which require 2 hands to grasp, sky scrapers touch the clouds and the New Yorkers do not speak. They yell.

On a perfect summers morning, we stroll to the Guggenheim, then laze in the warm sunshine on the lush green turf in the middle of Central Park, watching the children play baseball, relishing the ultimate NY breakfast- hot toasted blueberry bagels washed down with tall creamy lattes. The artists line the streets in front of the Metropolitan Museum of Art , with their paintings and photographs of famous NY landmarks, and at the end of each block of artwork is a stand selling large salty pretzels and cool iced tea. The tranquillity of the day is broken by the noisy lunchtime crowd in a quaint sushi bar in Chinatown, where gorgeous morsels of sushi fill our stomachs, and the buzz of the city engulf our senses.

Ever heard of the Great Hotdog eating contest? It is held at the famous Nathans Hotdog Stand on Coney Island, which is where we dared to venture in the midst of the Brighton Beach Mermaid Parade. After 2 hours of battling traffic and a complete 10 round tour of the streets around brighton courtesy of a desperate search for parking, we finally make our way into the heart of the party, where we are greeted by grown men with hairy chests dressed in bright sequinned mermaid outfits, complete with flipping tails and shell tops to hide their non existent mammaries.

Little Russia, little italy, little Ukraine, little italy.. One can stay right in NYc and travel the world. The senses are boggled by the myriad ethnic groups, the food, music and culture, right here on the east coast of the US of A. A trip to Harlem proves startling in its juxtapositions- a white boy with 2 chinese girls in a car driving into the heart of one of the toughest neighbourhoods in NY, where a non African American on the street is a rare sight. But I am mesmerised by the women with their ample bottoms gyrating with unimaginable fluidity to music only they seem to hear, the boys break dancing at the traffic lights and the number of ALL YOU CAN EAT soul food buffets.

Sunday Brunch in NY is an institution. And as I walked out of the muggy afternoon sun into the cool welcoming arms of 11 Madison Park, I get a feeling of Déjà vu…. The white linen table clothes, warm wooden panels.. and those steps…. I confer with our friendly waiter and confirm that this is the very site where Carrie fell rather unceremoniously down THOSE steps one Sunday on the set of Sex and the City. Ah…. I feel like I have made my pilgrimage and paid homage. Tasty slivers of smoked salmon on a bed of rocket and chives, tucked in a warm soft pretzel, complete with a cool crisp glass of sauvignon blanc. The perfect Sunday brunch. We clink our glasses and propose a toast- to life, to food, to family, to friends and to NYC.

Then there is shopping. 5^th avenue, where the heart screams out in desire and the mind screams out reality! The angel and the devil are in the full throes of battle as we dart in and out of the shopping institutions of this city- maceys, Bloomingdales, saks.. need I go on? We settle on 2 shirts from the Gap as the angel won this round.

In almost every sci-fi apocalyptic movie, the aliens have shown that they too believe what the world believes- that NYc is the centre of the universe, and the mothership often finds its way right into the heart of Times Square. With more billboards than anywhere else in the world, boasting muscials, planet Hollywood, and YES the hersheys flagship shop, this is the Piccadilly circus the other side of the Atlantic.

After all the excitement of the last few days, it seemed fitting to finish it off with a visit to the 3 greatest monuments of this city-

The empire state building, once the tallest building in the world. The view from the top was one of the most breathtaking I had ever seen , even on a cloudy day like this. Every building, every road in NY could be seen from its observatory, the rivers and estuaries, the islands that surround the mainland, the bridges , the yellow cabs.. and as I looked up and shielded my eyes from the rays of sunshine that pierced through the dense clouds, I held my breathe as I took in the sight that met me.- the steel spire seemed to reach out and touch the heavens.
The statue of liberty. The symbol of freedom that met the immigrants who first set foot on this island. The symbol of hope to the Americans and indeed to the world. A symbol that perhaps, has gained even more significance after the incident that occurred 2 days after my 21^st birthday-sep 11 2001.
As I wove my way through wall street and the financial district of the world, I felt a sudden inexplicable apprehension- I was approaching Ground Zero . Here in this gaping hole, was where one of the 2 tallest buildings in the world once stood. Alhtough shocked at the time the sep 11 attacks occurred, I had a somewhat cynical view of the god bless America dramatics of the American media, and how American lives seemed to be worth more than those of others. But standing behind the tall steel barricades, and looking up at the plaque with the names of the victims of this horrific attack, imagining the tall twin towers ablaze and the people who perished, I found myself choking back a tear, for at that moment, I finally understood what it all meant- these people were innocent victims of a war that was not theirs to fight, and we, the people of the free world, might never be free again. We are fighting a faceless enemy , an enemy with a goal and ambition that conflicts with the very principles that make up the fabric of our civilised society.

Like the broadway shows that abound in NYC, the city itself is exciting, brimming with diversity, music, laughter, tears, sometimes euphoric, sometimes melancholy. The lights never dim, the show always goes on. And at the end of each performance, we all wish for an encore…But every party must come to an end.. and as I opened the door to my tiny apartment in the quiet, old school suburb of Notting Hill, I feel like I have come home, a place where I can actually get some sleep to rest my weary soul.