The Big Apple in 24 hours

A short while ago, I was in New York and my youngest Ali flew in to join me. It was meant to be a weekend but life intervened so it turned out to be only a little over 24 hours of father son togetherness and I meant to make the most of it.

Ali lives and works in Cayman but on occasion goes to Bermuda for work as well so it was fairly simple for him to jump on a plane for the 1 1/2 hour hop to JFK. I'd suggested he take the subway and I'd meet him and walk him around for the next 24 hours.

First thing was a late breakfast and I chose Sarge's Deli which I knew made the best all around corned beef hash in the world. Topped with 3 fried eggs and home fries, this is a real breakfast!

We ached as we came out but with the weather an unseasonal and balmy 23 degrees with bright sunshine, I proposed to walk Ali all over town. With New York set out in a classic grid pattern, all you needed to know are cross streets and you can find anywhere.

Ali needed some shopping, personal items, so we hit the stores. Midtown Mall is right next to Macy's so after blanking there, this was our target for Ali was on a budget. This all made me realise just how much US retail is suffering. There's so much of it, so many people looking to buy too, but with incomes not really rising and Amazon crowding out many retailers, those that remain have a tough time surviving.

We found a fairly ratty JC Penney as it happened with the men's department hosted by an attractive young lady who found a very special deal for Ali. I would have been absolutely mortified to be served in this fashion when I was younger and actually let an attractive young lady know what undies I wore, but then again being from the old school of Speedo's and tighty whiteys, perhaps that would be the case now too. Ali being from the new generation of board shorts and boxers held no such feeling.

As we had a subway card, we hopped on the subway for positively 4th Street (a nod to Bob Dylan who used to live there). This is Greenwich Village and home to our evening's entertainment. I wanted to show Ali the clubs and of course actually confirm that something would be on tonight. Cafe Wha was still there with the House Band due to start up around 5 pm, and around the corner Bleecker Street was also there and ..... had become almost gentrified. Possibly a Starbucks even.

When I first went to NYC back in the 1980's, it was dirty, edgy and a bit grungy. Some nice parts too of course but it had a definite Noo Yawk edge. That was one of the things that made it attractive. Perhaps it was the crack cocaine epidemic which hit the big apple in the mid-eighties? I never saw that in person but do remember walking up 5th Avenue at night near Grand Central Station with a work colleague and a couple of big black guys wearing reddish blazers came up behind us and said 'keep walking'. I hadn't a clue what was going on but my colleague said 'don't worry, they are the Angels'.... it may have been a different name but these were guys that roamed the street at nighttime to prevent people from being mugged.

There you go, the Guardian Angels.

It was Rudy Giuliani who was responsible for cleaning up NYC sometime later with his no nonsense policing tactics and I think he did a great job at that. New York is unquestionably a cleaner and safer city than it was but as we strolled along Bleecker Street, I did get the feeling that it had been tidied up a little too much. Gone were lots of the old grungy bars and eating places, gone were a number of places that showcased music like the Blues and Jazz. However Terra Blues still remains and we were able to confirm that there would be music later on.

We turned left up Broadway and because it was so lovely a day kept on walking. And walking. So much life to be seen in a city when you walk around it. New York is so fascinating too. You may think that being a huge city it has no distinctive bits and pieces but that is totally untrue. Korea Town, Japan Town, Chinatown, Little Italy, Hell's Kitchen... some great names too! Sarge's Diner was in a section called Murray Hill (2nd and 30-something). There were actually a few hills too, but not too drastic. Because big retail is suffering so much, mum and pop shops proliferate which I think is great as the independents reflect the community to a large extent and add great feel to the place. OK, I am a fan of the big apple. It's a real pleasure to visit.

Of course I wanted to eat at a venerable NY steakhouse but first choice Keens was full and Del Monico's could only manage a ridiculous time so we settled for Frankie & Johnnie's Steakhouse on W 37th street. It was great... of course. Steaks were huge and done beautifully. Martinis sang to us. Just a perfect preamble to the rest of the evening.

Cheers!

After this we soldiered back down to Greenwich Village for the Terra Blues experience and after some bar hopping, we finally arrived. I am pleased to say it was just how I remembered it. Small, low ceiling, little tables with chairs dotted around the club and some terrific blues. We stayed for 3 sets and made it back to our hotel about 3.30 am.

The following day was a Sunday so we wanted brunch which we found to be what almost every other New Yorker was doing as well. The myriad eateries that offered it were packed solid ... it was another lovely day so this is not surprising, however I remembered a Greek place on 1st Avenue and we wandered down there and were richly rewarded with piles of pancakes, French Toast and other goodies that you associate with brunch.

As we left JFK to our different destinations, we both agreed that we'd probably skip the next couple of meals.

RTW sort of by Accident

Last week we returned from quite a long trip as it turned out. We hadn't meant it to be like this, witness the number of times we had cause to change airline reservations, but it sort of just happened.  The plan, if you can call it that, was to be in Zurich when our first grandchild would be born.... yes, I just slipped that in. Quietly. And yes, both Viv and I are very excited indeed! Around the same time however were a different couple of dates that we would not be able to change but which had to be included: namely a board meeting for me in New York as well as a 90th birthday party for Aunty Blanche in Bermuda.

Due date for the big day was 1st October for the longest time then all of a sudden it was pushed back, then not again. Not something that could be set in stone, that's for sure. Our grandchild would come when he/she was ready and not before. This didn't help much in our planning for, as everyone knows, those paragons of customer care, let's just call them 'airlines', do not take kindly to last minute booking and changes despite what all those "I traveled the world on $100" smart Alecs say. The later it became, the more painful it was.... for us needless to say. And as I said earlier, we had to make changes seemingly every week all of which increased the pain threshold. Fair to say I am heartily sick of aeroplanes, airports, airlines, mindless bloody stupidity at the airports, endless security lines, aeroplane food (big time), not being able to sleep, immigration procedures that change seemingly change all the time yet when you comment 'this is new', the official gives you a blank stare so you try to remember not to comment on anything but smile in a sort of glassy and fixed way every time someone asks something arcane like 'what brings you to...' -- I mean, I just landed on a plane for goodness sake, what do you think I am here for? To visit.... derr!

Anyway rather than go through a blow by blow for each stage, I'll do it by photos:

1. England

The land of Brexit and Boris Johnson! It seems to have become the only topic of conversation. Will we exit on October 31st in Boris's words 'do or die' or was it he'd rather be 'dead in a ditch'? Doesn't matter, everyone was speaking in ridiculous hyperbole like this all the time. 'End of the world', 'total disaster', 'catastrophic'.... you name it, these are the words of the time. Made me glad that we wouldn't be spending a lot of time here, just a few days with Viv's mum Anna.

Reculver Castle on the Thames Estuary is an old Roman Fort, church, you name it what else. The twin spires seen here are only kept as markers for shipping otherwise they'd be allowed to fall down.

Just had to eat the best fish n' chips in the country! Still great.

That other institution, the Sunday roast. Random country pub and it was fantastic.

Visiting the Royal Naval Dockyard at Chatham. Really interesting yet sad to me for it is now a tourist attraction seeing as there is very little Royal Navy left to service.

The Turner Modern museum in Margate I thought would have paintings of said Turner, a local lad who painted mid 19th century industrial type paintings, particularly steam ships, but it had the annual competition going on with artists like this doing modern stuff. The interpretation I found a little less than helpful.

2. Switzerland

Indy and Cat live in Zurich so it was there that we flew next. We stayed in an AirBNB in the centre of Zurich and found that the public transport was cheap, really efficient and on time. Trams, buses, trains... all really clean and a pleasure to use. We also found it was Oktoberfest time! So we had some fun before the big day arrived.

Quite a raucous affair it was too!

Taking our new grandchild for a walk. Felt like a supermarket trolley but of course just like everything Swiss, it really does work!

3. New York

After only a few days I flew through London again (ugh... horrible airport) to New York for my board meeting. Happily Dee Dee came to join me for a couple of days so we were able to hang out and go crazy. I dragged him all around Greenwich Village into bars and blues clubs.... great time!

Found time for the big steak too!

4. Switzerland (again)

Viv had stayed on in Zurich whilst I traveled alone to the Big Apple and I was looking forward to going back to join her, Indy, Cat and our beautiful grandchild for a few more days.

5. England (again)

One thing we have never managed is the knack of traveling light. I am always totally impressed by people that travel only with a carry on even when they are traveling for weeks or months. I imagine their choice of wardrobe is therefore limited but even with umpteen bags I find myself wearing the same trousers and shirt all the time. However this time we'd smartened up a little and actually managed the side trip to Zurich with just the one big bag... each, and had left the other two big bags in England. Hence England for a couple of days.

We took in a visit to a winery nearby which courtesy of global warming is now a producer of very decent bubbles, Balfour Estate. The tour guide explained that the owner had sort of bought the grape producing fields 'by accident' a few years ago and set to wondering what to do with just another 150 acres of decent arable land. He is very wealthy.

6. Bermuda

Thankfully we flew out through Gatwick, not Heathrow but I do have to comment on car rental firms. First time was Avis, second time Hertz. I go by price not loyalty so the companies change all the time for us. We get to see a variety of operators as a result. For some reason, this week no company had any cars to rent! This is Heathrow, one of the world's busiest airports. I'd booked ages in advance so was OK but people who rolled up on the off chance were totally out of luck. At Hertz, it was a pick a number and wait your turn thing! Unbelievable. 

It wasn't until our last day at Gatwick that we managed a full English breakfast! Very nice.

Great time of year to visit Bermuda by the way. Sunny and warm, yet no humidity. We stayed with Charmaine and David again and it was just lovely to catch up with friends. Dee Dee was working there too so we were able to  hang out with him as well.

Aunty Blanche's 90th birthday party was lovely. She got to sit next to her favourite person, Dee Dee, so was very happy. Very pleased to be there with her. Happy Birthday Aunt Blanche!

It was also lobster season so we just had to...

A week or so before we arrived, this hurricane came to visit. It was a bad one causing plenty of damage. Very unusual for Bermuda. No loss of life thankfully.

7. Toronto

We've a condo in downtown Toronto which is a lovely place to stay, however we have also found that the best long distance routing from Penang is first via Hong Kong and then onto wherever via Cathay Pacific. Direct to London and Zurich going west, and direct to New York and Toronto heading east. All are very long of course but the Toronto routing really works out best for us. Only for a few days this time.

8. Hong Kong/Penang

Transiting through HK still hasn't been impacted by the troubles going on there ... yet. 

Historic.... for now

I am currently in Toronto, actually leaving for Penang tonight, and have been indulging my exercise gene not in the gym (perish the thought) rather from taking long walks in this very pleasant autumn weather here. It's a great way to get to know a neighborhood and today was no different.

My goal was a pea meal bacon sandwich at St. Lawrence Market which is between Jarvis and Church on Front Street, pardon the geography lesson but there is a point to it.

To get there on foot from where I am, you can either walk down Bay Street or go east to the various north/south streets which the map shows quite well. Even the map calls it 'Old Toronto', I wasn't aware of that but did note on many street signs the comment 'Historic Queen Street East', so let's then call it 'historic'.

The definition of historic is 'something that will be important for a very long time'. That isn't my definition, it is what I found on the internet but it is appropriate in this context for historic means something that will be important for a very long time. Examples include important buildings and one thing that you can say about the Toronto city planners is that I am starting to notice quite a few more plaques noting a historic building, so and so lived here and all the rest of it. Sadly however they are not attached to any building for such and such historic building was demolished in the last 20 or so years so that a 60 storey glass building could sit on its 'historic' spot. These plaques are on little pedestals that people can read about.

I cannot imagine what these 2 storey 'historic' buildings looked like because they are no longer there.

Throughout my stroll down to the market I walked past many of these old presumably 'historic' buildings... and to be fair, many are pretty scuzzy ... and endlessly they were shuttered and had a sign up announcing the intent to build a 65 storey something or other on this spot.

Just how many of these will need to have been built to make this area no longer 'historic'? I do wonder about all this building. I receive regular updates from realtors wanting to be my friend and help me either sell or buy a condo and apparently despite the amount of new building, there is still a shortage. It is quite difficult to believe. From my window alone I can count more than 20 new towers under construction.

Having just walked around New York a bit, I am taken with the notion that New York planners have got the mix right. You can walk 20 yards off a major north/south or east/west road and be in a treed residential zone which is just lovely. In Toronto you have endless glass buildings. What makes New York interesting is the fact that both old and new co-exist. I get the feeling that planners in Toronto will knock down anything they can.

I do hope I am wrong.

24 hours in the Big Apple

Every year for some time now around this time I go to the Big Apple for meetings. It's a great excuse to visit this wonderful vibrant city and if I have time I do try to go out and visit something new. So I planned the trip to arrive in New York on the Monday, de-jetlag and then be ready for the meetings that start on the Wednesday. This year was a little different in that Viv and I had been in Sri Lanka for 10 days immediately prior to my leaving (we returned to Penang on the Sunday!) so I basically got off one plane and rose at 4 am the following day for my hideously long but early start flight to JFK. In all it took 29 hours including layovers and the usual messing around at the beginning and end of the journey.

I am usually OK on long flights. I don't usually sleep that well but I know that and usually have a nap when I get in and am pretty much up for things immediately afterwards. Not this time and I put it down to my new neck pillow.

It is a very nice neck pillow and really does allow you to get your head in a comfortable position from where you can actually sleep a bit. So I think I did sleep a bit. Of course this would have been in between getting woken up by the flight attendants to eat or drink something (I don't usually eat or drink much on long flights as it makes me uncomfortable) which always happens at the most inconvenient times so any sleep that I did get was broken up. Still it was more than usual so I thought I'd readjust easily.

That didn't work this time as for some reason I have been consistently waking up around 3 am every morning (a week later still the same) and around 3 pm each day I have felt incredibly sleepy. It is bugging me I can tell you. But for the purpose of this post it did mean that on my one day at leisure in the Big Apple I was up with the larks, probably before them actually, wondering what I should do for my day's adventures.

Luckily it was sunny so whilst brisk it was a great day to walk the streets. But first breakfast.

Now I love corned beef hash so a proper New York Jewish deli had to be the way to go and luckily courtesy of Mr. Google I chose Sarge's at 548 3rd Avenue, a great midtown diner.

I expected a normal person sized helping but did note in passing it came with 3 fried eggs and home fries. It was a huge bucket load of really fantastic corned beef hash, so much that I couldn't eat again for the rest of the day... except of course that I did so should really say that I shouldn't have eaten for the rest of the day rather than couldn't. Go there. Sarge's is wonderful. Ridiculous portion sizes though so be warned.

I had some shopping to do, tennis related, so thought I'd see if I could find the tennis shop belonging to a guy I'd met a few years ago at a tennis camp, Woody. He had a couple of shops, one on 35th near Macy's and the other at Flushing Meadows, the home of the US Open. His shop is called NYC Racquet Sports (website: www.nycracquetsports.com so do visit) and is well stocked. Woody was there as well busily stringing racquets. Lots of them with people coming in all the time to get him to do theirs.

Woody told me though that his business and by association all of retail is being seriously harmed by the internet. As I had just ordered some tennis shoes from Tennis Warehouse and am an enthusiastic shopper on Amazon, I really didn't feel I could say much and did feel rather abashed about the fact that my shopping choices were adversely impacting my buddy's business.

It did make me think about the rights and wrongs about this and it is a tricky one for small businesses like Woody's cannot hope to compete on price and choice with the likes of the big internet retailers and I'll focus on Tennis Warehouse for now. Every piece of inventory that Woody holds he has to pay for out of his precious cash flow and it cannot be as large. It is simply too much money. Tennis Warehouse has hundreds of pages of stuff with dozens of different suppliers. Not everything they advertise is in stock so for those items they have to go out and source them before sending it off to the buyer. We the buyer are OK with that if it is the specific thing we want and we ... important point here ... do not blame them for not holding that particular item in stock. But if we do go to a small retailer like Woody and he does not have that specific item, we roll our eyes and go somewhere else. The likelihood of us returning as a result of this is lower too. We have been disappointed once so why try again when there are alternatives? So we the buyer now have double standards when dealing with the small retailer and that is before considering price. Really difficult for the small business to compete which is really tough as what they do provide is service and advice. You don't get that from an internet retailer. When I was in Woody's shop, probably a dozen people came in with racquets and he discussed with them each time their requirements. One particular lady hadn't played in some years and told him she wanted string tension to be 59 pounds. Apologies to non-tennis players here but for the racquet she had, recommended tension by the manufacturer is 54-55 pounds but regular players would chose 52-53 pounds tension. 59 pounds is like playing with a piece of wood. Woody calmly and quietly said all this and put her right. If she starts playing again she will thank Woody for his advice... or rather should but in all probability will not which is a shame. This is what you pay that little bit extra for.

I left Woody with the intent on changing my buying behavior immediately in favor of the small business. Then I went and bought coffee from Starbucks. Grrr.

The day really was glorious and for some reason I suddenly realized that the UN HQ is only a few blocks away from my hotel.  It is down by the East River and is probably a thriving place bubbling over with interesting stuff. So I walked the few blocks until I found the building and looked for the ticket office opposite.

I was surprised for the UN is one of the most important global organizations bar none and one would have thought that there'd be oceans of visitors. It was virtually empty. No lines. I was greeted by the security guard who had a nice chat with me... oh nice, Bermuda, eh. That's great. Love to go... all that sort of thing before he ushered me through the door into the ticket office. Sorry deserted ticket office. I joined the line, or rather would have done had there been a line but there were those line divider things in expectation for the crowds. Just in case. The lady behind the counter called out "Next" and I went up to the counter.

She asked me how many, I said one. She asked for my ID and I provided my Bermuda drivers license. She didn't know where or what Bermuda was so I explained. She entered my details into her 'system'... yes the bloody 'system' again ... and told me that Bermuda was not one of the options in her pull down menu. I said in that case why not just put in Great Britain as Bermuda was a colony still. She said she couldn't do that because I gave her a Bermuda ID, not a GB one. I didn't have my passport. So she went over to a colleague who gave her a book and I must say I was very surprised that such a book should exist for it was a book alphabetized by country showing all types of acceptable ID. I was looking at it upside down but it looked like it had drivers licenses, passports, social security cards, and a bunch of others. She couldn't find Bermuda. Mind you I think part of that was due to her inability to figure out that Bermuda would come after Belgium in alphabetic order. I tried to point it out but instead she called for a supervisor. He looked at my ID and said 'yeah Bermuda, well that's OK'. He'd never been there either but had heard of it and most importantly he was able to find it in the book once he figured out the alphabetic thing. In fact the picture they had on the page was a Bermuda drivers license very similar to the one from me that he was holding.

In all this took around 20 minutes to complete and at conclusion there was still nobody else in line. I just cannot imagine what would happen on a busy day.

I don't know why but I still thought that there'd be others jamming up the public parts of the UN building but I was welcomed through the outer gates, personally greeted through security and made my way pretty much alone still into the main hall where I nearly jumped out of my skin as I thought they had a statue of Johnny Barnes right in front welcoming all and sundry. I was wrong of course for on closer looking it was Nelson Mandela. The main meeting room was also less than half empty and it looked like not much was going on.

And I have to say that was my experience of the UN HQ building. It was all rather disappointing that on the one hand nothing much appeared to be going on, debate wise, and on the other that there were not crowds of people visiting one of the most important buildings in the world. It made me rather wonder if the UN really is becoming something of a nothing really and running that thought further along whether being Special Ambassador to the UN was actually a positive career move. During the Soviet era, I think it was probably a bit more important, but now? Well I don't know.

All in all though it was still a great day to be strolling the streets of this wonderful city. And yes by 3pm I was really dragging my feet!

OK on replay they don't look the same but they do both have their arms outstretched to greet you! Sorry guys.

Bits and Pieces

I've been very bad at writing these last couple of months since coming back from Japan and New Orleans.  Its not that I've not been away, I have, just laziness that's all.

Back in October I went to New York for a board meeting and headed off to Toronto for a few days with Ali whilst Viv who'd gone to see Dee in Boston, met me in NYC before heading down to Florida and the Villages with 3 girlfriends from Bermuda.  Then I went to Cayman for 2 weeks of business in November/December (weather was unusually poor too!) and now I am in Toronto again having spent 2 days in New York on the way up here.

It's minus 15 heading to minus 30 apparently!

Not sure why but each of the trips weren't real blockbusters in that there was much to remember as the first two were mostly work despite Viv's presence and I really haven't got into this one yet.  So far its been work related so maybe that's it.

What a great building Grand Central Station is.  Certainly both grand and central and very, very big

I did get to go to Connecticut though, Greenwich to be precise.  I've been ticking off states for a few years now and thought I had another one then remembered a few years back I'd been to Yale with Ali for his participation in the US Junior Squash Tournament which is in New Haven… which is in Connecticut.  Rats.

For some reason in the last year or so I've had this idealized thought that I wouldn't mind spending a couple of years towards the end of my working life in London or even New York.  I'd not done this for more than 30 years so have a rose colored rearview of life in the exciting big city.  It really is too but going to Greenwich, a mere 45 minutes from Grand Central Station brought back to dreary reality those mind numbing years of commuting first from Southend then doubling up to more than 2 hours each way from Herne Bay.  Years spent on the bloody train that I'll never get back.

Newer looking but still suburban trains...

I may rethink that idea some more then.

East River over the Queensboro Bridge

I flew to TO our of La Guardia which still took 45 minutes from Manhattan and is a real dump. I guess its a domestic airport but still its an appalling mess.  Certainly for a city of New York's stature.  Really flying these days isn't that glamourous and definitely not comfortable.

And then I saw it…

OK I know this probably is not a reference to Jefferson Airplane, but it was to me

2016 really hasn't been that great a year for the old rockers that I grew up with.  First Lemmy from Motorhead, next David Bowie and most recently Paul Kantner.  Lots of people I know felt glum when Bowie passed but PK's hit me most.  I'll write more about it in my next post but will leave you with a great memory.

Gangs of New York

Its been a couple of weeks since we got back from New York and with a couple of hurricanes getting in the way have only now got round to writing about it.

I do like New York, its a great world city.  Only on Friday I was reading an opinion piece suggesting that because of its even greater diversity, London has just regained top slot in the race for the #1 city of the world, a place held for the last 50 or so years by New York.  I don't disagree with that of course (being partial) but that still doesn't do anything to detract from NY's allure for me.

We arrived on a Monday in late October around 11 am so I organised a walking tour of lower Manhattan titled after the movie of the same name that is the title of this post.  That movie was a historical classic, and of a time when the city (and country) was changing from an old world colony to a new world polyglot.  Before this period (the 1860's) America was all about old world colonists.  After it was all about immigration, massive growth and a really new world country.  The Civil War being the devastating catalyst for speeding things up even more.

So I found Alex.

It was a Living Social thing that gave me the idea but none were available so the fallback of Google found Alex (see website www.Alexstours.com).  Timing was right so we headed out immediately and found the church assembly point AND the oldest pizzeria right near by... called Lombardi's and opened in 1905 (see website here).  The pizzas weren't as great as in Chicago or St. Louis but still pretty nice and as it was an icon, the place was jammed.

Lombardi's Pizzeria

However Alex didn't show up at the allotted time.

So I called him and he gave me a whole bunch of stuff about how his 3 different online calendars weren't working properly and said "sorry" an enormous amount of times ... and then said he could be there in 30 minutes.

It gave us the chance to consider where we were.  Its beyond Greenwich Village down to the unnumbered cross streets and south of Houston (which is one of the subway stops nearby) --- incidently Houston is pronounced HOW-STON not WHO-STON because of its Dutch ancestry and the spelling change from HOO-STON which in Dutch pronunciation is HOW-STON.  OK?  Well that's what Alex told us anyway.

It was a brilliant tour and it all comes down to Alex, a young 20-something with an outrageous French accent who conducts tours in English (father is English), French (mother is French), Italian and German (no idea about the last two).

I am so impressed by young people who have a vision and guts to start up their own business and give it a go.  (Alex incidentally plays jazz in a band and that night had a gig but despite this was very casual about continuing on and on).

He was also very knowledgeable (or at least it seemed that way to me) and had a high speed delivery that made me feel breathless and certainly obviated the need and opportunity to ask questions.

So onto the tour, well it all takes place around Five Points, a part of NY above the financial district but below where the rich folks lived.  Once you came off the boats from wherever, you ended up in Five Points.  There were Italian, German, Polish, Russian, you name it nationalities but predominantly the Irish.  They all hated one another but it was only the Irish who hated themselves too -- "You're from Cork, you B*&*^*&".  That sort of thing.  So there were umpteen gangs that were initially set up for self-protection but soon morphed into criminality as well.  So 'protection' was not only from the other nationalities but also from your own gang.

Five Points in the old days -- called so because it was at the junction of 5 streets

Take the tour yourself to find out all the good stuff.  There is so much I could write for ages but I loved the story about the firemen the most.  As all the tenement buildings were essentially wooden construction, fires were frequent and devastating.  Hence the need for firemen.  However the gangs owned the fire stations (which were usually the gathering points for the gangs) and were a good profit centre.  The city paid only the first crew that got to a fire so there was a race (and often battles) to fires.  Also enterprising entrepreneurs may even set the fires and then set an upturned barrel on the nearest hydrant so no competing fire brigade could attend the fire.

One of the old fire stations

These days 1 Police Precinct, City Hall and the Criminal Courts is on top of what was Five Points -- that says something!  Clearly it was so troublesome and after the multitude of riots, the worst being the 1863 version covered in the movie that the city fathers felt that bulldozing the whole place was the best solution.

Five Points today

We ended up after more than 3 hours pretty weary at the Staten Island Ferry right at sunset so felt that cocktails and dinner would be the best way ahead.

This we managed at Harry's in the financial district (see website here), a great steak house that made wonderful Negroni's, a personal favorite!

Tuesday was meant to be our shoppping day as everyone is on sale in New York, it seems all the time these days however after dragging ourselves around the 5th Avenue Uniqlo store, we ran out of energy so decided to go to the movies instead, passing the ticket office on Times Square along the way where we bought tickets for Les Miserables for that night (incidentally we made the movies too!).

I saw Les Miz in London 30 years ago and it was pretty much the same show, pretentious, dark and Jean Valjean having a pretty hard time of things, year after year.  Victor Hugo himself apparently didn't think much of either Marius or Cosette so constructed very superficial characters for them.  However Epernine and Gavroche were great characters and received strong, if brief coverage.  It must be difficult though for any actor to make any part his or her own after so many years.

I won't go into detail about my business meetings but will note that this year's restaurant choice was another simply magnificent steak house in old New York.  Thank goodness, they keep on coming.

By the way, do you know why they call New York the big apple?  Apparently it stems from Harlem jazzmen who in conversation always referred to getting a gig as getting "a big apple" so at some point along the way, those jazzmen's slang went viral.

So Big Apple and of course Alex, thanks.  We had a great time!

"Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow…"

New York at Christmas time is just great.  The stores are all decked out in their Christmas finery and people are in holiday mood.  The Rockefeller Centre's ice rink is full, there's Christmas activities going on all over.  And as for us, Viv had organised our seeing the Rockettes at Radio City Music Hall in their Christmas spectacular.

Rockefeller Centre Christmas Tree

It was a business trip for me but business would last only a morning so I'd asked Viv to accompany me for the weekend.  We wanted to shop, watch movies, go to shows, shop, eat and socialize. Not necessarily in that order but that was just about the plan.

We stayed at the Langham Place Hotel on Fifth Avenue near the Empire State Building in mid-town where the bellhop told us that every store was on sale -- the hangover from the Thanksgiving Sales and the current pre-Christmas sales.

Sales used to be after Christmas and the January sales, nowadays its constant. This isn't good.  Trouble is that the US recovery has been relatively jobless -- at the end of 2012, 75% of US output had been recovered but only 21% of the jobs.  Companies simply aren't hiring enough people and those that are hired are substantially under-employed or on contract.  The headline rate may have declined to 7% but factoring in under-employed and those that have given up looking doubles it -- this is why the discount stores and dollar shops are doing so well.  And why even big name stores are on forever sale.

First thing though was another subway trip to Chelsea Market in the Meat Packing District to eat lobster with Viv and again just like last time it was great… once I'd walked Viv around the block a few times to get my bearings, that is!

Trouble with eating a late lunch like that though was that it pretty much killed any appetite we had for later on.  Still we were able to hit a past favourite restaurant Carmine's at Time Square for a cocktail and appetizer and finish off with some ramen noodles at a place called Sapporo.

So we're ticking all the 'eating' boxes then!

Next day was my meeting just off Wall Street.  It's always a great feeling to be where the action is.  Trouble is after 9-11 most of the big finance firms moved their main offices to mid-town so these days there's a few rep offices on Wall Street as well as the NY Fed and NY Stock Exchange, but that's pretty much it.  Goldman Sachs as usual bucked the trend and built a new building further down Broad Street beyond where my meeting was, but everyone else was in mid-town.

Outside the NYSE with my business partner, Robert

After the meeting we went for lunch to a terrific chop house called Harry's on Pearl Street, all wood panels, starched table cloths and waiters in aprons.  Americans do chop and steak houses really well I think.  Far better than we in Britain but that may be because of the cuts of meat they work with -- particularly steaks -- but also because they give you very large chunks of meat too!

Still ticking the 'eating' box!

But the real excitement was when I discovered that Delmonico's Restaurant was just round the corner.  It may not mean much to some but if you read stories of old NY or watch movies depicting that era, the bigshots always end up in Delmonico's to eat.  I thought the place had closed long ago but no, it had reopened within the last 10 years and was trying to recover its place as the premier fine dining restaurant in NYC and the entire US -- for Delmonico's was the first fine dining restaurant in the US when it opened its doors in 1837.

Be that as it may, the rest of Viv's and my day was elsewhere -- in fact shopping and the crowds, most of whom so it seemed like London were speaking a language other than English. It seems that the great big cities of the developed world have become more and more cosmopolitan.

But first thing first.  It was cocktail time!  After yesterday's debacle when we walked around looking for cocktail bars recommended by the Concierge without luck, we decided to stroll up 5th Avenue as the snow was filtering down and arrived at the Peninsular Hotel where we decided the Roof Terrace was the place for us!  It was freezing however the hotel had set up heat lamps and provided blankets for the hardy cocktail bunch, us included.  The ice in our Negronis did not melt!

The forecast for Saturday was a blizzard and as we woke up we discovered that 'they' had got it dead right.  Blizzard it was!

This was shop till we drop day and we gave it our all to shop at all the big stores -- most if not all were on sale.  Macy's were 50% off with another 20-50% more off at the till.  We did a lousy job though as the crowds were immense and whilst we did buy some things, it was nowhere near what we'd thought.  But we did get to walk in the snow through Bryant Park where a winter Christmas village had been set up.

Very lovely it was too with people skating, strolling and generally getting in the mood.  There was a big Christmas tree too of course.

Bryant Square

The key event of the day though was the theatre, namely a show called A Prairie Home Companion which was the showcase of Garrison Keilor.

Viv's dad loved Garrison Keilor's Tales from Lake Woebegone, an imaginary country town with stories rambling along endlessly but entertainingly.  Viv saw the show advertised so that was it.

The Town Hall Theatre set up for the radio broadcast.

Now we hadn't realised this was to be a recorded live radio broadcast for PBS stations and the US Overseas Armed Forces Network.  The 1,377th such weekly show in fact!  Our first such live broadcast. It was a fabulous show even though choreographed into 2 one-hour blocks.  There were singers, great music and musicians, an opera singer, comedy skits and of course Garrison Keilor's weekly update from Lake Woebegone.  Great stuff!

As the show started at 5.45 pm to be ready for the 6 pm live broadcast, it was over by 8 pm so I'd booked a table at Delmonico's for 8.30 pm.  Being so far downtown, this meant a long subway ride but we made it although the snow was immense.

Great steak too but as we came out, the snow had ended as the temperature had gone up 10 degrees so it was now hammering down with rain!  Talk about getting wet!  But what a great day.

Our final day was all around the Rockettes at Radio City.

Viv had booked the 11.30 am show -- they do 5 each day!  My goodness they have to be fit… or have 2 sets of Rockettes.  Located near Rockefeller Centre, Radio City is yet another magnificent piece of 1930's art deco Americana.  It looks nothing much from outside alongside the other skyscrapers but when you get inside it is immense!

These days everything's in 3D

If you like singing and dancing and lots of fun, you'll love the Rockettes.  It is a real institution as our show was jammed like all the others Viv had tried to book us into and everyone in the audience was really into it.  Great stuff again.

The wurlitzer guy in Radio City

As our flight was at 5 pm, we only had time for lunch at Cipriani's in Grand Central Station before heading for the airport and home.

Grand Central Station from Cipriani's on the balcony

Wonderful time.  Merry Christmas New York!