Around the world, NYC, April, 2007

21st April, 2007 - Off to the land of the free and fair - NYC

Saturday is travel day again. I have to leave for New York. Thankfully, the start of the journey is around midday, hence no need for early rising and plenty of time for a pleasant and peaceful breakfast with Angela. The flight goes via Amsterdam, where I have a few hours to kill before the KLM takes off towards JFK airport.

The quirky thing in European Airports is the fact that these days you can't buy any tobacco products in the duty free shops, unless your immediate destination is outside the EU. So my large collection of Mac Barens Mixture which I picked up in Munich all has to go back into the shelves, since I still go down in Amsterdam. And there is no arguing about this being only a few hours stop over etc. The European answer is NO. Funny enough, the same does not apply to any other stuff in duty free. Mohamed only knows why, the duty free shop staff certainly don't.

The linguistic upshot of all this is that I now have many tobacco packs from the Netherlands with the Dutch warning on the packs that "Roken is dodelijk" which if read with an English understanding of language in mind sounds a bit like "smoking makes you doodle around" which sounds rather benign and certainly takes the edge off the serious warning!

The onwards flight from Amsterdam to NYC is unfortunately a couple of hours late which contributes to my long hours of travelling/waiting on assorted airports around the world. But these days, you learn to get into an 'airport mode' somehow.

It's a special kind of frame of mind where these things are simply taken as they come without causing too much stress. An hour or two more, who cares. With my music in my ears and the remaining few Bulletins to be read, we'll kill those hours, living with the expectation that we might re-gain at least one of them due to the fact that we are going to arrive after the Saturday evening rush-hour traffic in NYC has run its course and hence the trip from JFK to Madison Avenue might in all likelihood be at least 30 minutes shorter than it would have been, had we arrived on time as scheduled.

As you would know, entering the land of the free and fair these days resembles somewhat entry into a prison system, where your fingerprints are taken, you smile for a mugshot and you confirm on a long list of questions that your visit to the US of A does not serve the purpose of blowing something up, robbing banks or committing other felonies listed on the entry card like a list of 'what to do in the US' suggestions. I would really like one day, just as a matter of life experience, meet a girl or guy, who have ticked YES at one or even several of those categories on this list.

And imagine the following. Some rogue element travels to the US of A with the clear intention of blowing up half of NYC and hence makes a tick at the most appropriate question indicating his intentions. And imagine, this tick would be overlooked which is not such a fanciful idea given the fact that 99.99% of cards would not show such a tick in the 'wrong' place. Now this guy actually does what he intended and ends up in court, accused of blowing up buildings illegally. And now his cunning defence lawyer points out that the defendant has clearly indicated on his arrival card that he would do just that, hence it is unfair and unjust to accuse him of something which, upon asking for entry into the USA he clearly signalled to do and still being admitted for entry. That could get the justice system into a mighty pickle.

And with another of my famously twisted imagination I sometimes wonder whether I could sue the EU countries for reckless negligence and wilfully endangering my and other people's lives since they let those unwashed hordes from all over the world into and across their borders without ever asking any of those vital questions.

These procedures now require quite a different assessment of 'queue content' in order to be able to judge/estimate, which of the 20 queues you may chose from is the most likely to advance quickest.

Once upon a time, in Australia, it was relatively easy. There was one rule "don't queue behind Indians". I know, this is a fairly racist and probably totally unwarranted rule, but I remember it very well from the eighties. I have never made a proper test with it and my observations are and have been only qualitative as opposed to quantitative. However, I sometimes seemed to observe a certain degree of confirmation for the practical relevance of that rule.

Though, here in JFK, you are not allowed to make such decisions yourself, but you are ordered into a queue, selected out of the 'one fits all' snake which winds its way around and along a sheer endless number of twists and turns, guided by those fancy ropes fixed to little silver poles. A bit like Lombard street in San Francisco, without the nice flower pots in the middle. A burly immigration official orders you to …window no. 6 or what ever the number may be.

Well, eventually I make it through without being arrested and the wait for the luggage. You see that is the great equaliser on many airports and in particular JFK which is one of the worst and slowest handling Airports I have ever come across.

It does not matter what sort of tricks and assessments you employ for going through immigration as quickly as possible, you might be first off the plane and first in the queue to be finger printed, strip searched and photographed, but your suitcase comes last on the belt, probably because it was first ON the plane because you are such a cheeky bunny. And when you really think about it, it all makes sense. Just imagine if you will, this big hole on the one side of the plane where all those suitcases are stuffed in. those which are stuffed in first have every chance to come out last. So the trick is to try to get your suitcase loaded as late as possible, so that it comes out first at your destination.

At the end of the day – and that is to be taken literally – I make it to the Roosevelt Hotel on Madison/47th Street just before midnight. So there is not much more to do for the night, other than paying a fleeting visit to the bar, having a glass of dry white – no, no Chardonnay, thank you – and to fall into bed for a good night's sleep.

Opening the window in my room a little bit, I am instantly reminded of the fact that it is time to get used again to the endless humming of aircondition units. They are just simply everywhere and that applies to NYC as well as to SF and Waikiki. Sometimes I could see myself becoming a worldwide crusader against airconditioning units! In most instances of their use they are as useless as stretch limousines (an equally useless invention for the benefit only of lazy stilt-walkers, who can't be bothered taking off their leg extensions)

22nd April, 2007 - NYC a city where boots are made for walking

Given the most pleasant summer weather, the boots are sandals this time around, however, the rest is true. New York is one of the great walking cities on this planet.

Given the clear grid system by which the streets and Avenues of Manhattan are organised and the fact that the Streets are numbered from 1 to 150 and something, it is as easy as pea soup to work your way through the system. It allows you to calculate reasonably accurately how long it will take you to get from A to B since all the blocks, meaning the distance from one to the next street, are more or less equal in size. And since you get some kind of 'progress report' on every street corner, things usually seem to take less time than they actually do. And since the Avenues, at least to some extend, have all their own individual character, you can enjoy some predictable change of scenery and flair by going up, for example on Madison and then down again on, let's say Lexington or Av of the Americas.

Since I have been staying at the Roosevelt Hotel for many years now over the last decade, I know that I should give the restaurant a miss, even for breakfast. That is somewhat against my general habits but here and also in my next stop overs a fairly sensible rule.

The breakfast buffet at the Roosevelt is not too bad, however, very expensive and they have a very irritating habit there. When they present you with the bill, it has a hand written note on it "15% gratuity suggested" That means they 'demand' 15% in addition to your already hefty bill for… yeah, what exactly? Filling up your coffee cup. After all it is a buffet style breakfast which means, you serve yourself, lug all the stuff to your table yourself, and all the staff does is to mince around and, every now and then, fill your coffee cup. OK they remove your empty plates once you have gone and every now and then come around and try to take a plate away from you which still contains 2 or 3 pieces of fruit or so. You ain't eating fast enough fella!!

I remember a few years ago when this unsavoury habit of demanding gratuity at 15% started, I got into an almighty argument with the head waiter. The upshot was that I did not pay a cent of gratuity and decided then and there that this was the last time I would set foot into this restaurant. And since things have not changed there, I don't see a reason for changing my decision.

So it's back to the breakfast deli, of which there are plenty in NYC. Unfortunately some of these shops tend to change their owners regularly and you might find one during one visit which prepares quite acceptable breakfast fare, but a year down the track, the owners have changed and so has the menu and quality of the sandwiches. I usually try to find one which has some European 'ethnics' behind the cashier – which indicates owner. If it's an Italian or, even better, Spanish looking owner, you can usually assume that they have a bit of an understanding for making a savoury sandwich which goes beyond the white blend turkey with a whole Schrebergarten full of salad on top of it.

And all the while you are pounding the pavement on the search for a half way decent sandwich for breakfast, all those Starbucks joints smile invitingly at you at every street corner. But if there is one thing clear – after making a fair test of it – Starbucks is not for this hungry fella, never ever. I ended up finding a half way decent shop in, of all places, Central Station, which happens to be just around the corner from my hotel. But I was determined to find out on Monday whether I could still improve on this one.

With the breakfast hunt behind me I got ready to join the many New Yorkers for a walk up towards Central Park and the Museum mile. From Madison Av I crossed over to fifth Av and started walking up the approximately 15 blocks to the beginning of Central Park.

This Sunday was World Environment Day. And with the UNO – which declares these days – just around the corner, the good burgers of NYC were hellbend on spending a few hours of this glorious day in their green environment which is Central Park.

There was, however, a most unwelcome distraction from the relative peace and quiet. Apart from World environment Day there was also some Greek holiday. The flags around fifth Avenue and the many children and adults in traditional Greek costumes made this abundantly clear. The distraction, though, was the end of the parade (they always have a parade in NYC for everything) was formed by a large gaggle of Harley Davidson and similar motorbikes and they insisted on revving up their machines incessantly which, given the wall of Skyscrapers on the one side of the street, resonated with earsplitting thunder into the otherwise calm and peaceful environment of Central Park. It was highly annoying, entirely unnecessary but unfortunately inescapable. And the bitter irony of this environmental crime being inflicted upon us on world environment day seems to have escaped the organisers of the parade entirely.

Eventually I escaped a bit further into the park and ended up at one of my favourite resting places, the old boathouse. And by that time, the parade on fifth Av. had come to a merciful end and relative peace and quiet returned to the world. Time for a glass of dry white wine – no Chardonnay, thank you – a nice pipe and a bit of relaxing and watching your thoughts meandering through the clear and sunny air towards the heavens.

I usually visit at least one the great Museums around this area, in particular the Metropolitan and/or the Guggenheim. But I must admit on this day I felt particularly lazy and gave high culture a miss in favour of a longish afternoon walk down the Av of the Americas and back to my hotel of 47th Street. And after a healthy afternoon nap it was time to get going again and to join my cousin Anita and her family for a very pleasant Sunday dinner.

The Monday was once again a walking day. This time I was looking at going to some places I have not been to for some time, like the UNO building. Here I was interested in seeing the 'wandering' picture. That is a picture which starts in the foyer of the UN building and snakes its way out of the building, along the footpath down to the Hudson river, across the river bank, the water to be continued some further km away across a rock outcrop in the river and then to the other side of the water way. It was nice to see the band of colours floating through the landscape and seemingly crossing the river to get to the other side.

And there is another NYC attraction which I have to visit regularly and that is the Brookstone Shop at the Rockefeller Centre. It's a very nice gadget shop with many interesting designs and yes, gadgets to your heart's content. I don't quite know, how many keyrings with a twist I now call my own but many of them are from this shop. They often have a little torch built in or a little recorder for taping a brief message. I have a very sleek calculator/worldclock which I bought last year. And in my humble opinion, they have taken over from the sharper image in terms of design and elegance, not to forget quirkyness of the gadgets.

And yes, this time it is a clock again which catches my eye and which, eventually, I can't go past. Problem though is, I need to replace the American net adaptor in order to replace the 110 Volt with a 240 volt one for use in Australia.

The clock is a very sleek polished metal one with three round 'windows' in which you see the time, the date and the temperature. And those windows glow in all rainbow colours and hence make a very colourful and pleasant display.

I just have to find a place around the house where this clock can go. To be honest, I have so many clocks and time pieces around the house, it's becoming sort of a clock museum. On my desk alone there are 7 time pieces, three of them world clocks. And the entire house contains well in excess of 100 clocks and watches. It has come to the point where I have to take a day off twice a year in order to adjust all of these clocks to the changing time at the beginning and end of summer.

Once upon a time NYC was well known and justifiably proud of excellent service, in particular in hotels, bars and restaurants. After all, they kind of 'invented' customer service in this place. And whilst it might often have been perceived as a bit rush rush, it was never the less a well known and appreciated feature in this City's public life.

Those days, I am afraid to say, have gone. It is therefor even more remarkable and worth noting that on this Monday night I ended up in a restaurant on 45th Street/Fifth Avenue, called the Cinema Restaurant which I can recommend in glowing terms. Very nice food, good wine and a waiter with a personality which was the most pleasant and refreshing I have seen and experienced in a long time and certainly nowhere else in NYC. And you guessed it, my tip exceeded markedly the commonly expected 15%. And I made a point in telling the waiter how I liked his attitude, personality and attention to his job.