New York: Fame, misfortune and the subway

Downtown Aldinga Beach and Manhattan have a lot more in common than people care to give New York for. Both are the economic and culture hearts of the surrounding area, both attract a wide range of people hoping to make it big and both are places I could easily live.

I fare welled my brother and South Columbia (after missing my flight due to some slightly wrong turns and a run in with a mile long freight train, had to spend 4 hours in an airport the size of Kingscote's!!!!) and rocked into the biggest smoke of all on Tuesday arvo. I managed to negotiate the subway and to Brooklyn where I stayed with some good friends from Perth, Lydia and Jack (peace out to the WA massive). They are currently touring around the world, with Lydia having sometime soaking up NYC whilst Jack has a dream job in the Mountains of Canada.

We headed out for a look around, and the first decent coffee since I left, thanks to the cafe where Lydia works (no one knows what a fucking flat white is over here, asked for one and got a "flat water", three words America "Queens Fucking English" (sorry about that)). We ended up at a bar, where Lydia and Jack had connections, to have a few drinks. The Beat (or The English Beat as the Americans know them, an old skool 80/90's slightly sca band) where playing. Now I don't like to drop names but I really have to on this occasion because this night was very New York. Lydia (and myself to a very very lesser degree) know Heath Ledger from the old Perth days. Heath and his fine lady turned up at the bar to say hello a little bit later on in the night and whilst at our table where visited by the one and only Michael Stipe from REM (I told my brother Andrew and he said that I should have asked him to buy me a beer as some form of compensation for having bought the Monster album). Well to cut a long and boozey story short we ended up in the back room with, aside from the other hangers-on; Drew Barrymore, the other guy from Brokeback, the chic from third rock and a couple of Tommy models. Needless to say I played it rather cool in the corner and didn't talk to any of them.

The night was only capped off by the slice of Pepperoni pizza on the way home!!! I had at one stage of the evening though that I had wiped off all of my photos from my camera of the trip so far but have since had the majority (except San Fran) recovered from the memory card. So to have a big night and a slice was a good way get over that and say hello to NYC.

The next few days were taken up looking at sneakers (shit there is some stuff over here, $650 US for original Jordan Ones) and generally wondering the streets. Didn't really do any of the tourist things other than timesquare on the last night but had a good chance to check the city and subway out. I really love the subway, not sure why but it is really cool, I think I'm just a sucker for mass transit suburban light rail networks.

The other big highlight was the baseball, Mets v Reds, with 50,000 people at Shea Stadium in Harlem. Had a pretzel and a few Bud Lights with Jack and Lydia but the Mets ending up going down after Billy "The Sandman" Wagner (complete with Metallica soundtrack) lost it for the Mets pitching in the top of the ninth!!

I managed to get to the airport on time and am now in London. Have had a bit of a look but am taking it easy as I feel a dose of the Flu coming, thanks to a few nights on the town and a shitty trans-Atlantic flight. I'm about to head back to my brothers flat prior to England's big game this afternoon at 4pm. This town is crazy about the wog ball!!!!! Hoping to catch the Aussie game tomorrow. Watched the last group match in an Aussie bar, "The sunburnt cow" in New York. It was such a relief to get through to the group of 16 and even better when the owner shouted the bar to drinks, pity it was Fosters.

Photos of New York to come, hopefully prior to my departure for France on Wednesday.

Peace out, Damian