Friday

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New York's got cloudy the last couple of days and this has seriously cooled it down. It's been very pleasant out there. Having said that, I think I'm pretty much done with New York now. I've seen everything I want to see and am now just living the life of the bohemian writer, bumming around cocktail bars and being pretentious.

Went down to the UN building yesterday. It's the place where ways of avoiding wars are debated and then ignored. As a building that is potentially so important to the world it really is unimpressive, just a non-descript glass and steel skyscraper in an ocean of glass and steel skyscrapers.

I went for a pint in The Manchester Pub which was cramped and dingy. Having never had a drink in a Manchester pub I assume it was authentic and the reason that Noel Gallagher is so angry all the time. What was not authentic was that the place was packed with Americans!

I went to Midtown Comics and spent a couple of hours rummaging through their bargain bins for a light read then rumbled through the Lego store with its giant Lego dragon that was so big it wound its snaky body round the whole two floors and the NBC store that had hordes of memorabilia for shows such as Friends, The Office (American version which is on tv every day over here), Star Trek and, strangely, the Simpsons, which I thought was a Fox property. I was also pleased to note they had Dalek, Cyberman, TARDIS and 'Trust me, I'm the Doctor' T-shirts for sale. In fact the British Invasion, as they call it, keeps popping up in ads across New York. As well as DW and the original Office, we're also exporting such top quality material as Robin Hood and Little Britain. Do we really hate the Yanks that much!?!

Stumbled on the Rockefeller Centre and as it was a nice day I went swimming (see photo). Didn't have my trunks so I went naked but the people watching didn't seem to mind. Strangely enough they kept getting their cameras out.

Had a couple of hot dogs ($2 or $3 depending on the whim of the street vendor) which work out a helluva lot cheaper than eating in the restaurants. Then had a martini (nee cocktail) at a pub amusingly named 'Carneys'.

Anyway today is the anniversary of 9/11. I hadn't planned to be here for it, it's just that I can't understand American date formats. The TV has the memorial service on multiple channels and Manhattan is likely to be quite down so I'm heading out to Coney Island instead for an afternoon at the seaside. It'll be nice to get away from the skyscrapers too.

One final note: I'm probably going to change my plans completely and should sort it out this evening. I have a ticket for the Cincinnati game next Sunday but hadn't realised just how damned awkward and expensive to get to Cincinnati is. It's really remote and there isn't much on the way there to do. Also it has no hostels as it's only a small and uninteresting city. The cheapest way to get there from here is actually a flight which costs over $200. Throw in $100 per night for a hotel and it's really steep. I've already paid $90 for the ticket but I might have to just take the loss. I can get a bus from NY to Boston or Philadelphia in 2 hours and they have lots of hostels where I can meet people and do some fun stuff. It's a shame I'll miss the game but it's also quite fun to be able to change my plans on a whim. Bet you don't get that at work! 😊

Anyway, I'll let people know later what I'm up to.

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Photos

The UN Building
As uninteresting as it is unsuccessful.

Me skinny dipping at the Rockefeller
Note the bronzed Adonis look.

Comments

[Dad]

Football
If you stay long enough you could get a ticket for the Superbowl instead.

[Sue Rooke]

I think you're brave to eat so many hot dogs from the street vendors in New York. Please don't develop a taste for them though, or there's a chance upon your return to England that you'll be insisting on eating burgers from the vendors in Romford Market...urghhhh!

[Oly]

UN Building
You can get into the UN building and I found it more interesting than the outside suggests.