New York

I’ve just returned from a weekend in New York. I flew from London to JFK on Friday and flew back overnight last night (Sunday night-Monday morning).

Midtown Manhattan is much cleaner than I remember from my last visit (which was before 9/11) and it was really wonderful see that amazing city again. I was really there for meetings, but had a chance to walk the streets and do some shopping (I bought a really nice pair of shoes for 90 bucks at Florsheim - it was such a pleasure to be served by someone who could engage in an educated conversation; in London shoe-shop staff are nothing like as articulate).

My hotel room (shared with a colleague) was a corner room on the 31st floor and had a view of the East River in one direction and the Empire State Building in another. A tremendous storm of wind and rain struck New York on Friday night and persisted part way through Saturday. The hotel room creaked and I swear the building swayed in the wind, which gusted up to 60 mph. The rain lashed down and the streets were running like streams on Saturday morning.

My colleague and I breakfasted both mornings in a diner on 2nd and 44th. On Saturday morning we were amazed to see Keith Best, the Chief Executive of the Immigration Advisory Service, whom we both know. So we sat and talked with Keith over our pancakes, bacon and eggs over easy ($8). Keith was in New York on World Federalist Movement business.

Saturday night was Hallowe’en and there were some strange sights walking the sidewalks - angels, devils, ghosts and ghouls. And a brightly decorated bus filled with party-goers, who were leaning out of the windows shouting and gesturing at pedestrians, zoomed past as a group of us were standing on the sidewalk drinking double-shot lattes from Starbucks.

After the meetings finished Sunday lunchtime, three of us took off and walked over to Times Square. On the way we saw an extraordinary parade of about 20 NYPD police cars, all lights flashing and sirens going, turn left from 42nd into Madison Avenue, drive to the next intersection but two, make a couple of lefts and drive back down Fifth Avenue. We got some pizza in one of New York’s less salubrious eateries before heading on to Times Square. On the way back, not finding a Starbucks where we could sit down, we sat at a cafe table on the mezzanine level overlooking the main concourse of Grand Central Terminal drinking hot chocolate (two of us) and tea (one of us). Grand Central must be one of the grandest and most beautiful of railway stations anywhere in the world. It was heaving with people that Sunday, many of whom were there for the wonderful food market, restaurants and shops that make the Grand Central building such a pleasure.

I now regret I didn’t take my camera. Sunday was a delightful autumn day. A cold wind whipped around corners, but there was still some warmth in the sun and I kept seeing wonderful shots. I took some pics on my mobile, but I can’t figure out how to get them off the phone and into my computer - the phone isn’t a bluetooth device.

My colleague and I flew back overnight, arriving at Heathrow around 8 this morning. It was a long way to go for a weekend of meetings, but great to be back in New York, no matter how briefly.

Technorati Tags: New York, Manhattan, Empire State Building, World Federalist Movement, Hallowe’en, Times Square, Grand Central, railway