Monday 16 September 2013

Down time in New York

Yorkville
As you will know if you read my last blog post, I decided to go out to New York a couple of days before my job commenced to hang with my friends and acclimatize. The flight was delayed by an hour leaving Heathrow but the upside of the journey was that the immigration process was relatively short compared to the two hour wait we had last year. I spent the next day shopping for consumables for the job and had dinner with my friends at the Stand Up NY comedy club.

Before checking into the hotel the next day, we took a stroll on the promenade of the East River on the Upper East side and admired some of the lovely little buildings tucked down the side streets ... something I never really get to do as it's usually all go go go in the city that never sleeps.

I just managed to get to a friend's birthday dinner on the second Saturday night .. late finish at the tennis, bus back to the hotel, quick shower and change and hopped in a cab for a 10 minute ride to Dizzy's Jazz Club at the Time Warner Centre.  I made it just in time for the 9.30 session.  By 11pm I was ready for my bed, so it was just as well that the next session was due in at 11.30 and off I went!  Such a party animal me!!

I also met up with a couple of my NY friends after work on two occasions but I had to get them to come to me at my hotel as this job was just not conducive to getting out much. Fortunately, the hotel has a rooftop bar and a stunning view of the top of my favorite building the Chrysler, situated on 42nd and Lexington.
"The Chrysler building is one of the last skyscrapers in the Art Deco style. The gargoyles depict Chrysler car ornaments and the spire is modeled on a radiator grille. Since it was restored in 1996 it glitters again like it must have in the 1930s." 

Lunch at Robert
After the job was over and most of the crew had gone home, I stayed on for an extra day to pack my kit carefully and do some last minute shopping, eating and catching up with one of my best friends. We ate lunch at Robert which is located in the Museum of Art and Design and has the most amazing views of Columbus Circle and Central Park. We had a look at the jewellery exhibition within the museum, wandered around the air conditioned shops in the Time Warner building (it was an extremely hot, humid day outside) then found ourselves still there at dinner time so went to Landmarc for our last night together.

The flight back was also delayed by 2 hours and I arrived back the following day to a cold, damp, grey day in London .. aaah it's so good to be home again! 

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