What a rocking city. Amazing, incredible, fantastic. I love adjectives. I had strange expectations of the city that never sleeps, and I was also expecting it to be a bit rubbish. So it was exciting to set off on a trip there.
One problem is going to a city on holiday - Lee would rather go out into the country, I often have stars in my eyes with romantic notions of a city I've read about, seen films in and generally want to visit. Its the same about the countryside, just different.
My parents were visiting with us in London for a month which was so wonderful, I loved having them in the next room when I woke up - it was so good for the soul to hang out with them.
So Lucas Stauffer was getting married (blast from the past) and they had invited us to their intimate wedding in New York City. So we went for 5 glorious sun-filled days. NYC has a vibe of its' own. It is massive, the buildings are massive, the food portions, the cars, the signboards - everything is flipping massive. But there is a buzz that you just can't put your finger on and you just can't beat. Thankfully it was not "American" in the negative way, it was more like "Goodfellas" most of the time which was super. Especially at the wedding, Nanoonie!
We visited Central Park on the first day, walked around taking all the large buildings and roadways in. You could easily just stand on a street corner and take it all in for an hour. We met up with Af - it was weird seeing him in this new city, calling it his own, telling me which block he was staying on etc. But it suited him and he was happy, so that is most important.
Day 2 - Lee, Tash and I walked from our hotel off Broadway all the way down to Greenwich Village for lunch where we met Cindy Stauffer after 10 years which was amazing. Then Lee and I walked down to the Hudson River and took in the sights. We missed the last ferry to Stanton Island which we didn't mind, it was actually cooler seeing it from afar. It was also September 11th and we were right by Ground Zero which really fascinated me. I'm such a news and current affairs junkie since my journalist days and being at the centre of where the modern world changed - well it was moving. We had just missed Obama and McCain's visit to the site to lay flowers.
That night we met Lucas and his bride to be Martha - what a hottie. They had all been through some rough times so it felt extremely special to all be together after so long and celebrate something happy.
The next few days went by in a blur - Lee and I visited Cunning New York, had lunch with Mark and Floyd - what a cool bunch they are. It was hard not to say "so do you need another team member?" their offices were slap bang in the middle of Soho - they had windows! Good vibe there.
It poured with rain that afternoon, Lee and I bought a $5 umbrella, which was more like a $1 one - it was crap. But we had fun exploring Soho in the rain, running into shops and photo galleries. We then all went to dinner with Af at the Buddha Bar in the meatpacking district which was awesome. But oh one two many sake's which hurt the next day.
