New York Minute - what the?

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It is true what they say about the new york minute we have discovered. The first example was upon our arrival I got a call from the owner of our accommodation to say he was sorry but could I collect the keys from an address and he apologised because it was 15 mins walk away. So I headed off leaving Dan with the bags and said see you in 30mins and as I cursed this guy whilst walking up the street, i'd only had time for one bad thought when I was outside the building?? Total time there and back 8mins - mystery?

This type of thing kept happening while we were there, oh that is 20mins away, we arrived in 9, even the train stations would say 13min till train arrives and it would be there in 7mins.

Not until an 80 year old jewish woman at the post office almost took me out did I realize that New Yorkers are so important and busy that 1min does feel like 15 to them. These people spend so much time rushing around being busy. They do not like waiting! And they will tell you, a few times I lined up for food or tickets and they would be like "what's happening, what's taking so long why is the line not moving", I told one particular lady one day who just would not shut up that I thought a man at the front had a heartache to which she responded "well he does not need to be served now, move him out the way". I think she wondered why I laughed and accidently snorted soft drink up my nose.

But to finish this blog of examples, we went to the post office to post mum's birthday present, waited in line, watched an argument between two guys about waiting (I think the wait was more than 30 seconds or something, you get my drift), get to the counter chat with the nice lady serving, (Americans love our accent but more on that later) get paperwork and told to go to the counter fill it out and just come back to her when finished.

All is going well and I return to the front of the line as the only person I see is a frail elderly lady with her walking stick but she is waiting about 1 meter away from the start, as I stand there this voice that is so high pitched says "HEY, I'm waiting here. I'm like a stunned mullet firstly because I think well stand at the front of the fucking line then, but more because the volume and velocity of tone that came out of this frail looking woman was even more amazing. Things get interesting when my server lady (which let's just say was an African-American lady whose got back), says "She's with me", cut a long story shorter, I play head ping-pong for a bit watching them take each other on verbally until my server says " just step forward now over here and I decided I was slightly more scared of her and did what I was told, although I kept turning around to make sure nanna didn't whip me with her stick from behind.

Nanna had to wait a total of 1 min to be served, but hey that equals 15min in New York time right?

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