Total New York Recap - Part 1
Total New York Recap - Part 1
i havent been sleeping normal hours these few days. adjusting to new york time is easier than changing back. i've been sleeping at 6am, and waking up when the sun goes down at 6pm. i dont know how to remedy this before i get back to work!
i've gotta write all these down before my memory fails me, and for those who know, i brought my digicam, but forgot the xd card, so i was really limited to about 40 pixs..sucks, but i'll get the photos from the others. photo uploads next time!
18 April 200711.50pm yay! take off on SQ26. so excited, there are many ppl who are on the same flight to the Sg Day event. the band, dancers and what have you not. also, yan yan (aka xiaxue) is on the same flight with rosalyn (i only found out on that same day and i msged yan yan..whee!!
19 April 2007what time was it?! touched down in frankfurt where we transited for 2hrs. the frankfurt airport is so not happening. there isnt any great shops. the mcdonald's sells pizza, lol! i was suppposed to get V a beer mug, but man..SGD to Euros are damn expensive. i went to the moneychanger, and the filipino woman (she's not german!) gave me the attitude, and the wrong change. i didnt count it, and when i went to the shop to get the mug, i was short of money! (i changed just enough for the mug, which costs about SGD40) i got fed up and didnt buy it. sorry V!
when we went back to immigrations, there was a really long queue cause they were body searching
everyone! the lady officer felt my legs, my boobs, my underwear band, my underarms (twice!). felt intruded, but at least i didnt have to remove my shoes like the others. so, back onboard the plane for a 12hr flight from germany to USA.
10am New York soil! i held myself back from kissing it. it was a cruel journey, but well worth it. my american dream come through. we lost Sam in the JFK airport, couldn't find him for 20mins. arrgh, but we got on the way pretty quickly after that. got a long day ahead of us. the weather was cold and dry, and the wind just chills your skin. i heard that they were having the worst storm in NY before we arrived, but the weather was fine when we were they, haha!
2pm met my sis at my hotel, Milford Plaza, we went to grab my first food in NY, pizza! (later did i know that it was all the place had to offer). Famiglia's pizza, i must say, hot & crispy, delicious! Rushed back to the hotel and my sis had to leave cause i had work to do! she went back to her hotel to pack up and head back to sg.
3pm the whole group split, and some went to Trump Wollman Rink, which is an ice skating rink closed for Spring, located in the famous Central Park. i went to the central kitchen provided for us to do the cooking, it was in Long Island City, and the place was a cooking school, not extravagant or anything, but just a simple large prep area. we did an inventory of what was there, and left for Wollman Rink.
5pm Trump Wollman Rink was cemented for the season, duh, there was no ice, it wasnt winter ya? but it had a nice view of the NY city skyline. Central Park is one nice place. the trees were grey and bare, like in the movies, the grass wasn't the lush green colour, but a pale wintery green. it had large boulders scattered around for people to sit on, running small streams, very picturesque. the event grounds were still in the works, big stage area, and the food booths were coming along.
6pm Popped back into the hotel to get some rest, cause we had to be in the central kitchen by 8.30am the next day. poor Mardi was gonna stay in the kitchen til 1am, return to the hotel and then go back at 8.30am again. did i go out on that day? not really sure, but i dont think i did much.
20 April 20078.30am We're in the central kitchen preparing all the food! i was supposed to last til 8.30pm or something til the next person comes and takes over my shift. but my respect goes out to the hawkers; they were preparing the food for hours straight cause they had to stick to their alloted times. i was just overseeing to make sure nothing goes wrong. ah well, hiccups here and there, but it was well in the end.
Before midnight Back in the hotel, had to rest so that we'll reach Wollman Rink at about 8am.
21 April 2007 This is it! The big day. This is what all those months of preparing is for. We had expected a thousand odd people, but latest figures were up to 5000. WOW. The weather took a nasty turn on us, and we were in the sweltering heat without a leaf for shade. Poor hawkers were tired and burnt. The highlight of the event? i dont know whether good foresight was involved, but male hunky models were engaged to be busboys for the event! Imagine handsome hunks in black trousers and long white shirts under the hot sun...yummy!
It was so weird, cause the Singaporeans there really miss Sg food. i mean REALLY. I gave away a container and half of Chicken Rice's rice alone. without chicken, only chilli as an accompaniment. and they lapped it up! so touched. the helpers at the stall were really good. they had no complaints about the weather, and they didnt even take a break for food. imagine serving all those nice aromas, but not able to try it yourself. dang! but thanks y'all.
Queues were long, and some were in line for an hour just to get a small portion. the hawkers were maxed, just standing there serving, cooking. when they rested, the line just stopped. kudos to all. kudos to the helpers, i realised some were learning bakery, and some culinary, and there were those who actually volunteered for the event. how touching.
6pm Dead beat back in Milford, and we took the subway to New York's Chinatown to eat. You know, a road idiot like me couldnt navigate the subway if my life depended on it. One train station had many trains, and a few platforms. Thus, not all trains that come through the platform goes to the same place. You have to pay attention to the PA system where they will tell you where the approaching train goes to. If you don't hear it, too bad! Thank goodness i just followed the group.
Chinatown is like what you see in the movies, chinese shop names, fishmongers displaying their seafood etc. We walked pretty far to a chinese restaurant, and had good ol' plain white rice and other dishes for dinner. 18 people ate USD200 over, which is like, SGD300. Expensive! next door had 4 Cai 1 Tang for $4 (4 dishes and a soup), shouldve had that instead, but luckily, the group was so nice to blanjah me. sweet.
cab ride back to Milford plaza but no, we couldnt waste a single second! i believe only a few of us were sober enough to hit town! (it was just outside our hotel actually) TIME SQUARE, here we come!!!
the sights and sounds were unbelievable. New York is one restless place. honks blaring at midnight, lights and LED billboards twinkling away, people still wandering the streets. the bes of Time Sq was at night. it was a pretty sight. kelvin, ryan and i were drinking it all in. we went to a porn shop that had live girls. woohoo! quite expensive though, they will only serve one person in a booth. made no sense for me to watch alone, so we didnt take up the offer. we were inside the shop and witnessed our very first NYPD arrest. (so drama right?)
apparently, this guy was in the shop, and i guess he was high on drugs or alcohol or something, cause he was pretty much thrown outta the store and handcuffed. his friend tried to reason with the police officers but he got tossed away from the scene instead. so there was the scene with one guy handcuffed and in the police car, the high guy was on the floor bawling, and the friend who kept reasoning with the police officers. the officer got really pissed with the friend who was in the way all the time and arrested him too! so dumb! so he got stuffed into the police car for nothing. the high guy tried to stand up but the officer wouldnt let him, in case he tries to make a dash and got knocked down by the traffic. after about 10mins of humiliating the guy by shoving him face first onto the road, the NYPD guys shooed us away. man, what a great experience. as though it was straight from COPS~!
this is also the same night where we found the greatest tourist souvenier invention ever! it was a penny collector machine where you slot in 51cents, of which 50cents is for payment and the bronze penny gets flattened inbetween rollers, and they imprint an image on it, like the USA flag, or the subway train! so damn cool! these machines are at every tourist hotspot and we were like children, 'Collect All 4 Now'!
ok folks, i would love to continue, but i think i should be getting some rest.
i have to kill this jet lag.
i promise i will return tomorrow (which is technically later today) to finish this up.
I LOVE NEW YORK!
