I think i have forgotten this before

After a very relaxed weekend, soccer cancelled and parents away so have house and new plasma TV to myself, i am back in the chair and feeling groovy. For those who are reading this and i have not contacted to say hello - sorry but did you expect anything less?

More on my trip:
After bidding the Stern's conference group farewell i was ready for a mentally draining and physically demanding flight from Johburg to London and then connecting to NY. The flights were not that bad but very long and the movies were not great - I do however recommend Hoodwinked, kids show granted but still enjoyed it.

Crashed at Jays place that first night so met him for lunch, dumped my bags at his place - yet again thanks mate - and headed out to explore the city. Whilst i have been to the states plenty of times i have never been to New York that i can remember, so my first impressions may be different from those who have never been to the US at all. First thing that really struck me was that the placed seemed very familiar to me and sitting here i realise why -I have seen so much of it on TV. It never occoured to me that the street signs, streets, taxis, blocks and even the sky line all fell perfectly into place and i guess subconsciously i already identified these landmarks/icons by where the various csi/detectives/romantic comedy had been before. I am not sure if that is a commentry on how much TV i watch or the level of influence that this city has on the global community.

The other first impression (actually by definition it could not be a first impression as i outlined my first previously but second impression just sounds funny - like listening to a clown (boom boom)) was the place was pretty clean. While i probably never went to the shadier parts of town the place seemed pretty clean given the size of the population and the pace of the place. The trains were cleaner than ours and they have huge volumes of bodies to move daily. The streets were not covered with crap - there was a lot of rubbish in bags but not shit lying around. On the first full day i had it was very bloody hot and while some streets were on the nose it was nothing compared to the stank that you find in Bangkok.

Must get back to it - hopefully can get some free time to finish off the rest.

TimeWastin:
HK - not the place to buy dodgy watches but the Aussie playing for the mighty Liverpool -great goal
Dangerous but very funny - this is why i can not ride a bike