25.07.13

Are you getting tired of all these New York-related posts yet? I’m sorry if you are. I think this must be the last one…

It just struck me that this time last week, i.e. 07:00 Sydney Thursday i.e. 17:00 New York Wednesday, I was at JFK waiting to board the long flight home.

Is it possible to feel nostalgia for something only a week old?

I still have so much of Central Park to explore… (Amongst a gazillion other things.)

This shot was taken there in the early yet already humid morning. My running buddy said she thought that the fun fair converted to the ice rink in wintertime. Whatever. I thought it looked pretty sweet.

24.07.13

Oh, for a good night’s sleep!

Ironically, after I took this photo of my bed in New York, I proceeded to have The Worst Night’s Sleep Ever which resulted in a mere two hours of shut-eye, and the rest of the time, tossing and turning and stressing out about not being able to drop off after waking at 02:12. (And here’s something random: 02:12 is the time I was born, if my birth certificate is to be believed – which is the reason why I remembered the time.)

02:12 aside, I don’t quite know what my excuse is back in Sydney; fractured or bad sleep seems to be the norm these days. And by these days, I mean the last few years. The only time I sleep well is when I’m on holiday.

Just as well that I’m three weeks’ away from said holiday then, isn’t it? Because I’m feeling quite frayed at the edges as we speak.

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Listening: Asleep by The Smiths

23.07.13

The rumour is true. I’m struggling with infidelity.

Having always been Sydney’s girl, I now find myself wanting to be with New York.

Why did I not feel this after last year’s trip, I wonder?

I keep telling myself that I was based mainly in the Upper West Side in swank Woody Allen-ville, hardly Real Life, you see? And yet… I want to be there still.

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Listening/Loving: Holy Grail by Jay Z

22.07.13

I may be here, but my head is still in New York amongst its tall magnificent structures. I was that annoying person who halted every two minutes to capture yet another of Manhattan’s finest with my iPhone 5. I couldn’t get enough of them. Old, new, Art Deco, 70s, amazing, ugly less so.

It’s a strange thing really, this fixation with bricks and mortar, glass and steel. The shapes they make against the sky, reaching, towering.

Urban beauty.

21.07.13

I wasn’t ready to return from New York, truth be told. I even tried to change my flight at about 4am on Wednesday morning. I was still out – dinner with colleagues extending to a couple of clubs in the Meatpacking District. But the travel agent couldn’t find a flight that suited so I decided to stick with the original plan.

Thankfully, it’s been blue skies since my return to Sydney and I’ve not had any jetlag at all so it’s back to the old routine…

I’m very fortunate to live in such a lovely city. Blue skies in mid-winter. Hurrah!

20.07.13

I visited The High Line with a colleague last Saturday. Friends had recommended it and I’d done a bit of obligatory pre-visit research but I really wasn’t sure what to expect. Retired/disused rail line above Manhattan? I couldn’t help thinking of Sydney’s own recently closed Monorail.

It wasn’t too busy on arrival, or so I thought! There were a few people resting on benches here and there, and to the uninitiated, it looked fairly nondescript. What’s the big deal? I wondered…

Wikipedia describes it as an ‘urban park’ and ‘aerial greenway’, and both terms are true. As I wandered along The High Line, I couldn’t help but be taken in by the profusion of flowers blooming amongst the lush greenery. It seemed strange because New York is all about bricks and mortar to me – except for Central Park, of course – so it was a lovely surprise, a break from the city right within it.

What I loved as well was being able to stroll through the buildings at an elevated level. So much of New York is neck-ache – I was constantly looking up everywhere I went. It made a nice change to be simply looking straight ahead to admire the view. The building above left is the IAC Building designed by Frank Gehry. (I guess I don’t need to mention my penchant for buildings – yet again; suffice to say, this was archi-porn as far as yours truly was concerned.) Apologies to the specimen in the back right. It was pretty cool, too, with its mosaic of windows but I only had eyes for the Gehry.

Street art seen from The High Line, and cabs, cabs, more cabs, below.

It doesn’t look terribly busy from the pics above, but trust me it was. Not to mention it was a sweltering afternoon in the mid- to high-30C’s and although I was wearing white, my bottom half was in trousers and I was ready to wilt. If you look closely at the guy above, I think you can see his perspiration-soaked shirt sticking to him. Whew! It made a nice change from being in wintery Sydney, although I heard that the last few days have been unseasonally warm with temperatures being at least 6C above the winter average.

Sydney weather aside, there were also food and drink vendors at The High Line, and although the food looked enticing, we only bought a couple of drinks from the Brooklyn Soda Works stand which were deliciously refreshing and precisely what the doctor ordered!

We spent some time wandering The High Line, then the Meatpacking District and the Chelsea Market afterward; this was after about three hours of traipsing around the Upper West Side and Midtown before we even got to The High Line. I’m not sure how many kilometres we covered that day, but the blistered feet were testament to the walking. I slept well that night (6 hours – good for a jetlagged body)!

19.07.13

Hello friends! I’m back. It was a short trip but a long journey… I’m very glad to be back in Sydney after 24 hours or so of travel.

New York was hot and sticky beneath a canopy of thick clouds. I must say the humidity took me by surprise. Thankfully, I was in air-conditioned surroundings most of the time.

The work thing went well. I got to do some sightseeing. (And shopping.)

I wish I could’ve stayed for longer.

Sydney feels very small now.