25 June 2007

New York, Mon Amour

I can't believe it's time to leave lovely New York so soon after arriving. I packed in a hell of a lot of stuff and that's without considering shopping as an activity. I really don't want to leave and it was quite a sad moment in the limo back to JFK and as we drove over the Queensboro Bridge, when I turned around and caught a final glimpse of the skyline glinting in the evening sun, the pivotal moment being when the Chrysler and the Empire State Building were framed either side of some other tall skyscraper. New York does look beautiful in June when the days are long and the weather isn't too hot and muggy. But then, I would happily go there at any time of year. In this respect, I am not fussy.

Yesterday, after SoHo, Maman and I paid a trip to the Met, mainly because neither of us had ever visited before and felt we ought to do so. I don't really like art but I do like naked men and there were plenty of Greek and Roman statues to satisfy my marble-lust (though I prefer Abercrombie's take on the statue: buff jock in the style of a naked man. Museum #2 was the American Museum of Natural History, which I always enjoy, particularly the space show, which is amazing (this trip's highlight: some kid was screaming his head off for several minutes and being terribly English, I couldn't possibly complain but some blunt American wasn't having the value of his experience diminished by some loud kid, so he just yelled, "quiet your child!" and the nervous mother skittered off, kid in hand) although the "highlights" tour I went on was very interesting too (how to tell the difference between male and female bears: male bears piss forwards, females piss backwards, apparently).

I walked back down through Central Park to Whole Foods (a gourmet food store, which has recently taken South Ken by storm) where we acquired a veritable feast on which we picnicked in the park to celebrate the brother's birthday. It was a typical sunny Sunday afternoon in the park: busy and lively and so much nicer than Hyde Park (let alone Jesus Green). After a final shop and a final steak, we headed off to the airport.

I was pretty agitated as the flight was booked solid so there was no chance of an upgrade (and I got lumbered with a crappy middle seat - big error) but the cheerful check-in chick did let the bro and me into the First Class lounge - a favour for which I was immensely grateful given the various flight delays. So, here I am in the First lounge where they don't even give you free wireless internet (BT OpenZone, indeed! And to rub salt into sore wounds my connection keeps on dying so I am forced to type this up on the computer in the lounge, using IE (eww)) but where there is a free bar so I have been helping myself to plenty of Bombay Sapphire and tonic so even though I have a crap seat on the plane, at least I will sleep well. A bientôt, NYC!

State licence plates spotted: 29 (stupid, 12 year old family tradition)
Burgers/steaks consumed: 3
Amount spent on clothing: Don't want to think about it
Number of G and Ts drunk in the lounge: err...

No comments:

Post a Comment