Fall in New York

I have visited NY in all seasons since I go there once a quarter. This time, I got to see the Fall face of New York (again). Well, more specifically, the fall look of Manhattan - Grand Central Station.

Not much fall color to see in Manhattan - at least not near the Grand Central Station. Just grey buildings and yellow taxi cabs. I didn't even see brown dry leaves on the streets. The weather was still rather warm. It rained last Tuesday and Wednesday but more like the summer storm than the winter rain. Some street vendors started roasting chestnuts but I thought it was too warm still.

Time Square, as always, was full of neon colors and people but no Fall either. It was a place where time stood still. Come any day any time, and you will find that it always looks and smells the same.

Summer in New York

Hot. Humid. Sun. Rain. Lighting. Thunder. I understand that this is New York summer. Maybe a little bit more dramatic than usual.

Big rain clouds hover on some parts of the city. Where they cover, the sky goes dark and it pours. During heavy down pours, even people with umbrella gave up walking because you would be totally drenched except your head! Ask me!

Rain or not, the ladies are in their summer apparels. Tank tops, short skirts and sandals. Don't dress like this when visiting SF in the summer. You need sweat shirt and thick pants. Don't forget the parka!

I didn't have an umbrella yesterday and I got wet like a cat that was scooped out of the water. I remembered to take a big umbrella from the hotel lobby this morning but it was perfectly sunny. Sigh!

I was cooped up in the hotel for the past two nights but today I'm set free. Thank you Weather God! Happy Hour at the Whiskey Blue Bar with the office folks. Dinner at the Sea Grill at the Rockefeller Center with my cousins.

Not a bad way to end this visit. No complaints.

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A Bite of the Big Apple

Back to NY. First trip this year. Weather was fine but temperature in the 30’s. I heard I missed the snow the week before.

Instead of walking about town, I ate my way through town this time. OK. I could only hit one per night so four different restaurants last week. Can’t complain at all. It beats eating salad and burrito with a beer in the hotel room.

My eating partner: Debbie, our controller who was visiting the NY office at the same time.

Monday: Grand Central Oyster Bar and Restaurant. A classic, traditional restaurant tucked inside the Grand Central Station. We each had a platter of oysters – no sharing – and I had a squid salad for entree. It was not a California squid salad that's light with a tangy dressing. It was ALL SQUID. I was totally squid out!

Tuesday: Japonais New York. Complete different from the night before. The place was hip and modern. Great tasty food and the décor was FABU! The prefixed 3-course dinner was awesome. It was in the Union Square neighborhood. Nice little district with actions. I really felt like I was in New York!

Wednesday: Surya Restaurant. Modern Indian food. My first try of goat meat and had a theme-inspired cocktail: Indian Rose. It was lovely. The only thing about Indian food is that all dishes look alike. The restaurant was in West Valley. So, I really got to venture out of the midtown area.

Thursday: Riki Japanese Restaurant. Back to the Grand Central Station area. We had eyes for Japanese ramen to chase away the chills. We had originally wanted to go to a ramen place, but after hiking over – in the rain – we found it closed. Ugh! Not giving up, we searched the surrounding blocks and found this restaurant. We ended up not having ramen but sashimi and a pitcher of draft beer. Yes, walking makes you thirsty even in the rain.

Friday: home. I had plenty of good eat but I miss home cooking.

This Week in New York

Two things happened this week during my visit to New York: the presidential election and my birthday.

This election was historical either way; my birthday was memorable. I celebrated my birthday with cousin Chin-Huey and her husband at a Portuguese restaurant in Newark after I took the subway and then the train to New Jersey. Never thought I would have celebrated any of my birthdays there and with them. Funny how life goes. It was a fun night.

How about the NY underground?? Huge! Like a complicated maze! So many people and so many exits. Need to have strong legs and fast feet to run from one platform to another to catch the transfers. My ride was: Subway S from Grand Central Station to Time Square --> Subway 2 to NY Penn Station --> NJ Transit to Newark. It took an hour and about $6.

Subway: human sardine cans. This is what New York commuters have to go through everyday. It makes our BART ride a breeze. Happy to have experienced it once so I can talk about it. The NJ transit train moved slower than expected. Somehow I was expecting it to zip through like a bullet train.

The Grand Central Station is beautiful and big. The New York Penn Station is even bigger. People rushing here and there - kind of like ants hurrying in and out of different tunnels. The Newark Penn Station is split on two sides of Market Street. Ching-Huey and I couldn't find each other because we were waiting at different side and different end of the station.

Note to self: pick a corner and stay.

The Big Chill. It rained all week but not cold at all. The biggest chill has to be the global economic crisis that is turning countries upside down. One bad news after another. The rain was very suitable for the mood especially in Manhattan.

Home Sweet Home. Glad to be back and leave the cold and misery outside.

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NYC: The Good,The Bad & The Ugly

THE UGLY. Hot. Steamy. Sticky. Stuffy. Cloudy and Rainy. Not a very good combo for summer. The humidity is just too much for me. Want a different summer? Come visit San Francisco!

Ladies were all in sun dresses baring shoulders and legs. Funny how everyone (yes, even the guys) was wearing flip-flaps - not the nice ones too. I looked out of place in my loafers.

THE BAD. I had a horrible hotel experience this time. The AC broke down. It would ice up and block the air flow. So, the AC man said to turn it to warm to melt the ice. WHAT? Then from Wednesday night on, there was no hot water - just luke warm - for shower. So, I was cold in the shower, and hot in the room. Well! That was one heck of a way to experience the NY summer.

THE GOOD. I countered the worst with the best. I got to see cousin Ching-Huey and her husband. It has been so long since I last saw her - and this is the first time I met Mr. Chang (and they've been married over 20 years). They drove over from New Jersey last night fighting traffic all the way. I booked a table for dinner at City Crab & Seafood Company. It was a pretty nice restaurant. It happened to be the New York Restaurant Week so we all went for the pre-fix menu. Three of us shared 3 appetizers, 3 main courses and 3 desserts. Oh, yes, we had a oyster platter too. It was heaven!

Seeing my dear cousin made this week all good.

Paint the Town Red

Back to New York: This time I had company. Debbie, our Controller, sync-up her schedule with mine so we could do something together after work.

The Night Life: This is the first time that I really got to enjoy New York after work. We had good food, good wine, "Hairspray" and a comedy show. Weather was kind of unpredictable - rain, wind, sun all in a day -but that didn't stop us. We only had 3 nights to pack it all in.

We got 50% off show tickets at the TKTS Discount booth. It sells day-of performance tickets but no guarantee what you will get to see. We decided to just show up and see what was available on Tuesday night. So "Hairspray" it was. Great show!! Likewise with the comedy show at Dangerfield's Comedy Club on Thursday night. No idea who was performing but "buy one get one free" tickes from the web were great deals. Great entertainment at affordable prices. Life can't get better than that.

After I got to the hotel on Monday night, I did my little nightly walk. This time, I got to visit St. Patrick's Cathedral. The building is so beautiful inside and out. A mass was going on. I stayed for a while to take it all in - the prayers, the pipe organ music, the architecture, and peace.

My Sippy Cup: I had wine in a plastic sippy cup. Ugh! DON'T LAUGH! That was the only way we could bring wine into the theater to see "Hairspray." Of course, it was a ploy to sell souvenirs but we gladly played suckers.

Girls just wanna have fun.

Hello Again...

A Green Drink Day. I arrived NYC on St. Patrick's Day. Midtown Manhattan was full of party goers and green was definitely the color of the day. The Irish bars - seemed like one on every block - were packed. Hello people, it's only Monday.

March 20th. I got to spend first day of Spring in New York. Being the fashion mecca, window displays were full of Spring colors: pink, yellow, green, white, all colors of the rainbow. Big contrast to dark color coats that people were still wearing. Soon, people will shed the heavy layers.

Spring Shower. I even experienced my first rain in New York. Hate to be one who has to take subway/metro on rainy days like this... I've been on BART on rainy days but nothing compared to the New York subway. The NY trains are smaller, narrower and more packed.

Think steamed buns.

Bear It. The big talk of the week was Bear Sterns and I happened to walk by the Bear Sterns building on one of my nightly strolls. A very impressive, nice building. But, it doesn't mean a thing when the stock is only worth $2/share to JPMorgan.

The tall building (behind the green roof and partially covered by clouds) on the right of the right picture is the Bear Sterns building.

Mini R&R

Fourth visit to New York in 12 months: Although I'm out here for business, I felt like I'm on vacation. I don't have to worry about cooking, cleaning, helping mom, and, my goodness, I have time for TV!!! I actually got to watch the whole 2 hours of American Idol last night. Wow! Good life!

Cold but not frozen. I'm lucky that I have yet to experience the real New York winter. So I can still do my little nightly walk. I'm getting a hang of the streets around the Grand Central Station but spin me a few times and I still get my East and West all mixed up. I visited the grand New York City Public Library on 42nd Street/5th Ave. last night. What a majestic building! I wish I could spend more time there. I felt I gained more brain power just by walking through it.

"On the Road": The library exhibition is on Jack Kerouac's work. Pardon me for being shallow, but who was Jack Kerouac? Well, I learned about his writings, his philosophy, his life and his dreams after touring the exhibit. The Beat Generation. Heard about it but knew nothing about it until last night. Hit the road, Jack!

Think Art

Third visit to NYC in 10 months: this time I got to visit the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan on a gallery tour on 10/02/07. Do you know that Chelsea has the highest concentration of art galleries in the world? 300!!! I didn’t count. The walking tour took us to 8 art galleries and my feet screamed uncle.

Note to self: wear walking shoes; boots hurt.

Eye Opening: abstract paintings, self-portraits, computer animation, computer art, video art and sculptures. It was quite a mix of art forms. Some were confusing and some just didn't connect with me. Overall though, they were interesting and I walked away with admiration for those who have the imagination and the ability to express their thoughts and feelings.

One exhibit was all self-portraits of the artist, Julie Heffernan, wearing dead animals. What’s up with that? I thought it was kind of morbid yet the paintings were rich and colorful at the same time - very bipolar.

I really like Ugo Rondinone's 9-feet sculptures and there were 12 of them - EACH being sold for $200,000. Want one for your garden?? Want to guess what they were made of? Clay? Mud? Try aluminum. Would you have guessed? Complexity disguised in simple form.

Sol LeWitt's 3-D sculpture was giantic and powerful. It stood alone – grandly - in an empty exhibit room and what a visual impact!! The cube art was sketched with ordinary pencils on 4 large building sheetrock. It took 12 artists over hundreds of hours to make the art. Mr. LeWitt passed away in April 2007. He instructed to have this art be destroyed after the exhibition. Huh? Do you have to? They make beautiful room partitions. Wouldn’t that be more meaningful (for me anyway)???

Hello New Paltz

My second NY visit in June: Brian was so sweet. He offered to pick me up at JFK and wanted to show me his city, New Paltz. Little did I know that New Paltz is far far away in upstate New York.

It took Brian and Terry 3 hours to get to the airport and it took us another 2.5 hours to go back. I had an hour flight delay and Brian got lost in lower Manhattan so by the time we got to New Paltz, it was about 10:00pm. After a late supper and a night tour through the sleeping town, we got to their house around midnight.

I saw closed shops and dark houses.

The place was quiet and calm. Ahhh... so tranquil. But when I learned that we would have to leave around 5:15 am in order for me to be back in Manhattan by 8:15am, I rattled the place!

What? A 3-hour drive? Briiiaaaaaan, why didn't you say so?

The morning was beautiful though. I had my first good look of their house and the surrounding. It was like being in a park. The morning sun was already out and birds were chirping away. These pictures were taken around 5am on the property.

The drive back to Manhattan was longer than the evening before because of the morning traffic. Oh, I missed my 20-minutes BART ride!!

Brian wanted to pick me up and take me back to New Paltz again after work because I didn't get to see anything the night before. Huh? What Brian? Are you out of your mind?? Are you thinking of going home and coming out in the afternoon and going back and out again in the morning??

What's wrong with that picture? Should I stay at my hotel that was right next to the office building? Do fish drink water?

Until next time, New Paltz.

Hello New York!

First visit to New York ever - I got to be a New Yorker for a week. I got up, dressed and walked to work. I ate with the lunch crowd and rushed the streets with commuters in the evenings. The one difference was I ate out every night and I slept in the hotel.

I also played tourist after work. Most of my memory of New York was night scenes because it was dark by the time I started my little walking tour. In a way it was good because the lights at Time Square were more brilliant at night anyway. Chinatown was bigger than the SF Chinatown. So many jewelry stores. Where did all the gold come from? Mulberry, main street of Little Italy, was quiet the night I visited. Where was everybody? I didn't smell any food!!

People in New York do walk fast and most move in one direction. Must be careful when walking opposite of the flow. You will feel like a fish swimming upstream.

I went through the Grand Central Station everday. I learned quickly that it was the short cut from Point A to B. After going around in circles few times, I think I got my directions figured out for next time. Great place for people watchinng.