New York, New York

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New York Part 1

We departed for New York via Jet Blue but luckily, our flight attendant, Tim, didn’t go postal, abuse us and launch himself down the escape chute. He did however suggest over the plane’s intercom that we: “Sit back and relax or lean forward and be tense, the choice is yours on Jet Blue”

We had a nice quick flight down the coast (49 mins) and flew directly over Manhattan allowing a quick spy of central park.

As we came into land I spotted 5 jets in the pattern ahead of us on finals, one of which came from underneath us. We were too close and catching it up so we had to do a wobbly S approach (not sure if that’s the technical name for it since I just made it up) to come in behind it.

As we landed, I spied a giant burning plane on the runway which a couple of airport fire engines were scrambling to attend to. I was worried for about 1.38 seconds and then realised it was a training exercise.

We arrived at our NY loft apartment in Little Italy, previously owned by Boy George and were suitably impressed. The apartment has a baby grand piano in it and there is still plenty of room. Access from the street level is via one of those goods service lifts you see in movies. Very NYC!

The apartment was still being cleaned when we arrived so we stopped for a bite to eat at the famous ‘Sal’s Pizza’ in Little Italy and ate some of the best Pizza & Pasta we had ever eaten before catching up with the tardy troop members and taking off to Times Square.

We all bought 7-day subway passes and Steve & I are determined to learn how to use the underground system. Unfortunately it was designed by a drunken monkey who has run out of beer and become agitated so we are up against it. The different routes are designated by colours which are then broken down into numbers or letters (no consistency) for the different trains which travel different lengths of a route. Therefore you can’t just travel up a particular coloured route because it may include transfers to a number of other letters or numbers. What’s more, only a handful of letters or numbers are available at each station, further limiting options.

On arrival at Times Square, we tried not to look like tourists but did a pretty horrible job of that since we couldn’t stop staring above us, pointing, laughing and taking photos. Luckily I’m pretty sure tourists outnumbered locals around there so we weren’t out of place.

We toured the giant M&M store, the Hersheys Chocolate Store and a few souvenir stores. Afterwards we purchased hot chocolates and coffees from Starbucks and sat on giant red stairs that had been erected beneath one of the electronic advertising towers and watched the world go by.

A good start to the New York holiday…

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Comments

[Chris]

Boogie-ing in NY
Hi Richie and Paula, Great photos, New York sounds pretty dammed good! Have you go any interior and exterior photos of the loft? Did you have a play on the piano? Can you take some short vids on you camera? I guess you've been to a show by now, but can't remember which one you decided on. Hope it was brilliant. And I suppose you'll have said goodbye to friends and will now be on your way to Washington. And the Pentagon! Wow. XXM/C