The flagship store for clothing brand Abercrombie and Fitch is on 5th Avenue in New York. One of the tactics they use to lure in the youngsters (and unfortunately, some not-so-youngsters) is to put a shirtless model out the front, who happily poses with passers by for a photo. I had to twist Sami and Dani’s arms pretty hard, but they finally agreed to let me take their photo with our shirtless friend.

Seemingly, the tactic works, as every time I’ve been to A&F, it’s packed to the clappers.

Another company that I’m quite fond of also has their flagship store on 5th Avenue, and seemingly they’ve noticed that putting a typical model of their customer base out the front is a great advertising tactic. I had to twist Kristy’s arm pretty hard, but finally she agreed to take a photo of me with my – thankfully, non-shirtless – genius friend.

Given that the Apple Store is always chaotic with customers, no matter what time of day you visit, it would seem as though copying Abercrombie’s tactic is working wonderfully for them. Well, it’s either that or the free internet access; but I’m fairly certain it’s the genius out the front.

Mom and Dad were in New York over the weekend, and so at the very last minute (literally: we booked on Monday night to fly on Thursday), Kristy and I decided that we’d go over to see them. After all, we couldn’t let them wander around alone – they’re not trustworthy!

Turns out we weren’t the only ones gate-crashing the party – Mom’s two brothers came up, as did Martyn’s girlfriend Jenni Lopez (yes, really, but not like you’re thinking), and an eccentric old friend of all of theirs, Maria. To be fair, M&D knew that all of those folks would be there – but as a surprise, Natalie, Philip, Sami and Dani came along for the ride as well! That’s 12 people! Aged from 16, to 74!

On reflection, it would have been good to have arranged everyone in age order, but instead, it’s an exercise for the reader to figure it out. And yes, I realise that there’s only 10 people in that photo, but I was behind the camera, and Kristy was out drinking cocktails with Claire.

Anyway – though it was awesome to see Mom’s extended family all in one place, I have to admit it was pretty tough at times trying to come up with activities that would appease the entire crowd. We had some winners though – walking around in Greenwich Village, Dim Sum and ice-cream in Chinatown, the UN and our old neighbourhood, Ray’s Pizza, and of course the absolute, second-to-none highlight of the trip – Chipotle.

There were a few occasions where our group fragmented into sub-groups of similar interests, such that everyone got to do what they wanted to do. On one such occasion, Dad, Philip and I walked from Chinatown to the Brooklyn Bridge, as the bridge was very high on Dad’s list of “things to see in New York”.

We took a slightly wrong turn somewhere and ended up more under the bridge than we wanted to be. A cop directed us down a path which initially took us right next to the bridge, where a bunch of young folks were tricking it up on their bikes and skateboards. Some of them were absolutely sensational! We stopped and admired them for a while, taking a few photos for posterity’s sake.

Figuring that we’d only be in our room to sleep and get changed, we decided to save some money by staying at the YMCA. It’s a good thing we didn’t host any parties there, because the room was very basic – two bunk beds, and very little else!

But, at only USD$306 for four night’s accommodation in midtown east, we were hardly in a position to complain. Also, we got to use the gym for free, and being former members, we knew just how good it was! I really enjoyed waking up each morning and going for a run – all the while watching cable TV!

It was awesome being back in Manhattan, especially so with Mom and Dad and the rest of the troops. Four days was barely enough to give everyone a taste of how great the city is, but I think it was just about the right amount of time to allow such a large group to leave on amicable terms; if there’s another group holiday, I’m going to suggest we all just go and sit on a beach!

It seems that so many of our goals whilst we were back in New York were food related. We’ve certainly eaten our fair share of just about everything; here’s some of the highlights:

• Chipotle. C’mon, this was a given. We haven’t had this nearly as many times as I would have liked, however that’s partly due to them not opening today (Easter Sunday). A little warning would have been nice!
• Brunch at The Corner Shop Cafe with Karl and Sibylle. We ate here a few times when we lived here – the first being with Stacey and her Mom Jean, when we stumbled upon it whilst shopping in NoHo and looking for a place to grab a bite. The great thing about their food is that generally everything is well balanced, and you leave feeling satisfied, and never overflowing.
• Steak at Wollensky’s Grill with Fabia and Adam. Wollensky’s motto is, “if steak was a religion, this would be it’s cathedral” – and I don’t think that’s too far from the truth. I thoroughly enjoyed my absolutely giant Colorado Ribeye!
• Jamba Juice. This is basically an American equivilant of Boost Juice – a chain of bars which specialise in fruit smoothies. Sure, it doesn’t sound so high end, but places like this are sadly lacking in London!
• Churrascaria at Porcao, again with Fabia and Adam. This is a Brazillian style BBQ restaurant, where you have a little disc that you can turn to reflect your current eating status. On one side it basically says, “keep feeding me meat”; on the other – “sorry I’m defeated”. Then, a whole bunch of dudes walk around with freshly barbequed cuts of meats, which they cut straight from the skewer onto your place. Absolutely divine, but deathly filling!

After all the delicious food that we’ve consumed here, I think we’ll be able to safely avoid eating for at least a week!

After a relatively smooth flight (our first on Continental, and our first time flying in to Newark), we arrived in Manhattan around 3 PM local time on Friday afternoon. Immediately we noticed that some things had changed – you only get $3 bonus when you buy a $20 Metrocard (used to be $4 bonus), and the Au Bon Pain that used to be on 53rd and 3rd is now a Qdoba. However, for the most part, most things were the same – including the escalator at the subway stop on 52nd and 3rd, which is still out of service.

Immediately after hitting the surface, we made tracks for Chipotle. We called up Fabia (who has very graciously given us her beautiful apartment for the weekend) and her new beau, Adam, who came down to have lunch with us. Waiting for them to arrive was the longest 10 minutes of my life – yes, even more so than waiting for Kristy to arrive at our wedding 15 minutes late. Finally, after 8 months, 29 days, and 3 hours, I was reunited with my old love – the Chicken Bol.

It wasn’t long before the rice, black beans, marinated chicken, tomato salsa, hot sauce, cheese, guacamole, and lettuce were speeding towards my stomach – ahh, the euphoric satisfaction! And it was nice to see Fabia again too, plus to meet Adam (who as it turns out, also works for a Hedge Fund!).

The rest of the day sped by – coffee with Fabia and Adam back at Fabia’s apartment (Fabia inherited our coffee machine when we left New York), a bit of shopping at Bloomingdales and its surroundings, and dinner with Karl and Sibylle at Republic. We were pretty exhausted when we finally went to bed around 11 PM (3 AM London Time, and we had been up since 4:50 AM), but now that we’re armed with a full night of sleep, we’re ready for more adventures back in our old home town!

I will always remember when we first arrived in New York, back in December 2004. It was straight after a very hectic period of life, and with about 48 hours of travelling behind us, we sprung $55 dollars from our extremely limited budget, and got a cab into the city. I didn’t know anything about Manhattan – literally, nothing – but I clearly remember driving across the Queensborough Bridge, and seeing a very brightly lit sign for Pepsi Cola. It is one of my earliest memories of the city.

I remember thinking at the time that it was unusual – it seemed to out of place, such an old fashioned sign for a city supposedly on the bleeding edge. And I also remember wondering where the corresponding Coke sign was. But anyway, there it sat, brightly lit, and (badly) attempting to entice its viewers to drink Pepsi.

As it later turned out, the view from my office was looking down over the East River at this very same Pepsi Cola sign. I saw that sign every day I looked out the window. I even saw a lightning strike only a little way up the river!

The Pepsi Cola sign really became the landmark of our place on the island (even though the it is actually across the river in Queens). So then, it was only fitting that on our last night in Manhattan, we sat on the roof at Sibylle and Jurgen’s house, looking across the street at the sign singing its neon praises for Pepsi Cola. For me, it was a sad moment.

But the irony is that even though I saw that sign almost every single day, in the two and a half years we were living in Manhattan, I don’t think I ever bought myself a Pepsi.

Friday night was my official farewell party from the work. It was tops!

First was an afternoon tea at work, where we all gathered around food and wine. My boss said a few nice words about me (and of course a few nasty ones too, since I was leaving), then presented me with a parting gift – a keyboard missing the “G” and “T” letters. Suffice to say I didn’t really get it – but then they also presented me with a PSP and a 4GB memory stick. Sah-weet!!

After the work party, we did what pretty much all Aussies do when they leave work – headed to the pub. Karl (especially!) and I have become quite friendly with Davi, the bartender, so he took extra good care of us, keeping us in high supply of Hoegaarden. I’ll definitely miss their two-for-one specials from 2pm-6pm!

It ended up being an early late night – you know, one which is actually early but feels like it was late – and a fitting end to my stint at the UN. Many thanks to all the folks that came, but most especially a huge thanks to Sibylle and Karl who organised the whole thing.

When I have a moment to relax, I’ll upload some photos from the night!

Here’s something different! Last night, Karl and I met up with Damien and Lisa to do karaoke at a place called Sing Sing, down in the East Village! Why? Why not! We hired a “private room” which basically meant we only had embarrass ourselves in front of each other.

Originally, we thought that an hour of karaoke would be more than enough for any one person. Well, one hour passed amazingly quickly to the tunes of Pearl Jam, Frank Sinatra, Neil Sedaka, Oasis, and even a duet of System of a Down’s “Toxicity” by Karl and I! No guesses for which songs I had chosen . Kristy had been attending her farewell drinks from work but joined us a little later in the piece to chip in her versions of “Summer of ’69″ and “Sweet Home Alabama”.

In the end, we sung our lungs out for just over two hours! Song of the night had to go to Lisa and Kristy’s duet on “More than Words” by the one-hit wonders, “Extreme”. Nice job ladies!

Overall I would say it was a hugely fun night, and I’d for sure be signing up again. But, I suspect my dreams of being an awesome karaoke singer are probably going to go unfulfilled. Oh well!

The conclusion of yesterday was also the conclusion of our second last weekend in New York. We did what we could to make the most of it, but unfortunately it involved a fair bit of packing which isn’t the most enjoyable past-time. There’s still a long way to go, but now at least we have the advantage of living in an apartment that looks like the victim of a tornado.

Worse still for Kristy, she got roped in to working all day Saturday! At least she got paid for it (time-and-a-half no less – just like being 15 again!), and that means more spending money for travels!

So whilst the wife was slaving away, I went to gym, taught Fabia how to make espresso (she’ll be taking our machine when we leave), then met Karl for lunch at Chipotle (of course). After that, Karl and I wandered around the city, from Times Square, to Columbus Circle, then to 5th Avenue. It was a glorious, bright sunny day – I just wish I had taken my camera!

Yesterday was also fairly bright and sunny, but a little windy which made it a bit cool. We were told that we would be losing our water all day, so we started our day with a trip to the gym so we could shower there. Turns out that there was also a street fair running along second avenue, so we got to walk to the gym enjoying the smell of gyros, popcorn, and shish-kebabs. Tempting!

For lunch, Lisa and Damien asked us over to JC, where we joined them for a picnic with a view at Liberty State Park. Cleverly I did remember to take my camera, but not-so-cleverly I forgot to put the memory card into it. Whoops! Oh well, you’ll just have to take my word for it that it was a delicious feast and a fantastic afternoon. We’ll miss Lisa when we move to London. I guess we’ll miss Damien too, but not as much as we’ll miss Lisa. (Just kidding, Damien! )

We came home quite exhausted, so after some more packing/organising, plus a wicked good salmon dinner that Kristy whipped up, we turned in and watched Garden State. Quriky, with an excellent soundtrack. gerrod.com rating: 7.5/10.

After two-and-a-half wonderful years of living in the big apple, Kristy and I are packing our bags and moving on. We both finish up at work on the 11th of May (next Friday), then we’ll be travelling for a while, concluding with a trans-Atlantic flight to our next home city – ye old London Town. May is going to be a very big month!

Leaving New York was a very difficult decision – especially for me – but we feel as though the time is right to move on. So, here’s looking forward to the next part of this adventure we call life!

Lisa told us a while back about a quiz night that’s held every Thursday night at Rocky Sullivan’s pub, so given that Friday was a public holiday for us, we decided to give it a whirl this week. Our team consisted of Kristy and myself, Karl, Lisa, and Lisa’s friend Kersti, so naturally our team name was “Cher’s Spandex Tights”.

I’m actually a big fan of trivia nights, so I was very much looking forward to the quiz. I even thought that with all the extra study that I do, I may be able contribute a whole host of correct answers! But unfortunately for me, that was not the case. The questions were really hard! There was a few of them that I totally nailed, like, “Which two countries celebrate ANZAC day?”, but for the most part I was well out of my depth.

Still, mainly through the efforts of Kersti and Lisa, Cher’s Spandex Tights ended up in a tie with about four other teams, for third place! So in the end it wasn’t the miserable defeat that I had thought it would be.

So would I go back? Definitely, but next time I’ll stay away from the Miller Light; Karl and I suspect their keg was a few months old. But otherwise, it was an awesome way to spend a Thurdsay night!