New York day 7: Saying Goodbye

It is New Year’s Eve now and I thought it only fitting that I write my last New York post today as I wave goodbye to an interesting year and an awesome trip.   On my final afternoon, I spent the time absorbing the signs, sounds, buildings and feel of New York as I looked for what makes it so alive and unique.  I have to admit that I tried my best not to absorb the smells though.

Ship Mosaic at Fulton Street subway

Platform at Fulton Street subway

It was a bit of a shock at first to see how grimy and dark the subways were!  It made me appreciate the London Underground more!  The one thing that impressed me about the New York City subway stations is how unmistakably ancient they are.  The London Underground is actually a lot older than the New York City subway but our stations are so much more modern! (Did you notice that?  I said “our”; I think my assimilation into the United Kingdom is compete).

Before I went to New York, terms like “downtown”, “uptown” and “Upper East Side” were familiar to me but I had no idea what they actually meant.  Now it is as clear to me as could be; about as clear, in fact, as my desire to to move one husband, two dogs and one-and-three-quarter cats right over there right now.

I had to get up insanely early the next morning to catch a taxi to Newark airport and so my holiday pretty much ended on the Saturday night.  The sun was just rising as we drove to the airport.

New Jersey across the Hudson River

And that was it.   The most amazing week was over and it was time to return to sunny England.

This is a recap of all of my New York and Washington posts:

New York day 1

New York day 2: Central Park and Upper East Side

New York day 2: Empire State Building

New York day 2: Times Square

New York day 2: Settling In

New York day 3: Circle Line Cruise

New York day 3: Grand Central, NYC Public Library & Rockerfeller Center

New York day 3: The United Nations

New York day 4: Both Sides of Brooklyn Bridge

New York day 4: Mets vs. Cardinals

New York day 4: Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island

New York day 5: Interlude in Central Park

New York day 5: Museum of Natural History

New York day 5: The Dakota & Strawberry Fields

New York day 5: The Metropolitan Museum of Art

New York day 5: The Museum of Modern Art

New York day 6: Day Trip to DC

An Eternal Tourist in Washington DC

DC: Lincoln and Vietnam Veterans Memorials

DC: The Holocaust Museum and Smithsonian

DC: National Air and Space Museum

DC: The Capitol and going home

New York day 7: Ground Zero

New York day 7: The Guggenheim Museum

Happy New Year!!!!!

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Wordless Wednesday ~ 5: Constructing Glory

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New York day 7: Ground Zero

Ground Zero is the site where the once majestic World Trade Centre complex once stood before September 11, 2001.  I believe that this was not solely an American tragedy and that the whole world changed that day.  The site at Ground Zero is quite chaotic though and so visiting it, I was surprisingly devoid of emotion.

If you ever visit the site, I’d definitely recommend that you visit the Tribute WTC Visitor Center too.  It only costs $10 to get in and it is definitely worth it.

Tribute WTC Visitor Center

The Tribute WTC Visitor Center is an interactive, multimedia exhibition and it has a huge impact on visitors.  There are two floors and on the first floor you walk through a timeline of the morning’s events.  Most of the people walked through in absolute silence and I am sure many people were on the verge of tears, as was I.  I had previously read 102 Minutes and so I knew quite a bit about what happened and the chronology of events that morning so I found that the exhibition had a huge impact on me.

 

“When we got out onto Church Street, it was sheer pandemonium.  I stepped over large pieces of metal.  As someone who works in aviation insurance, I realized one piece was a row of windows from an airplane” – Neil Getter, Aon Risk Services

There were audio recordings of those telephone calls and message left by people that were on United Airlines Flight 175 and other 911 calls and emergency dispatches.  It was not easy to listen to.

Jim Geiger walked down from the 51st floor of the North Tower with only his Blackberry in his pocket. Months later, the NYPD returned his computer briefcase which was found in the debris

The basement of the Tribute WTC Visitor Center was all dedicated to memoriam and reconciliation.

There was a whole set of incredibly inspirational audio excerpts about how people had helped each other after the tragedy and how communities had pulled together in the aftermath.  You can listen to the Voices of Recovery on their website.

Do you know the story of the Sadako Sasaki and the 1,000 paper cranes?  It is an incredibly inspirational story.  A little girl was dying of leukemia 10 years after having survived the Hiroshima bomb.  Japanese legend has it that anyone who folds a thousand origami cranes would be granted on wish by a crane and so Sadako began to fold paper cranes out of any piece of paper she came across. 

"Please treasure the life that is given to you," Sadako said before her death on October 25, 1955. "It is my belief that my small paper crane will enable you to understand other people's feelings, as if they are your own." - CNN

Her brother donated one of her original cranes to the Tribute WTC Visitor Center saying that it is a Japanese symbol of peace but to the family, it is an embodiment of the little girl’s life and is filled with her wish and her hope.

You can read more about it at CNN: From Hiroshima to 9/11, a girl's origami lives on.

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New York day 7: The Guggenheim Museum

I can barely believe it is six months today since I left New York and returned home.  I feel a little bit silly that I am still blogging about it but the good (and sad) news is that I am very nearly finished.  I think that after 26 blog entries, it is safe to say that my week spent in the US left an enormous impression on me and it was an incredible voyage of personal discovery.  I’m sorry to say though that we have in fact made a decision not to go back to New York in December 2010 as planned.  I’m afraid the third Northern Hemisphere winter in a row has made me change my mind and we’ve decided to go to South Africa rather for a sun and sand filled Christmas!  On to the Guggenheim…

I had reserved the most exciting museum for my last full day in New York.  Not only was I fascinated by the work of architectural wonder that is the Guggenheim Museum, but there was also a Frank Lloyd Wright exhibition to named Frank Lloyd Wright: From Within Outward.

If I had more time in new York, it is entirely possible that I would have sat in the lobby of the Guggenheim all day taking pictures of the interior.  It was fascinating!  Frank Lloyd Wright designed the Guggenheim and he was one of the most visionary, talented designers of all time.  I love how his houses seemed to emerge naturally from the landscape as if they had grown organically. 

Unfortunately, we weren’t allowed to take photographs in the exhibition but I had forgotten about that and taken these (luckily while no one was looking!) before I remembered my manners!  Here is an example of one of his houses:

Falling Water House - Frank Lloyd Wright [Image Source]

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This was the point at which…

… I seriously began to doubt that I’d get home tonight.  (Or why snow turns me into Mrs Scroogey MacGrinch).

This was taken at 4:30pm this afternoon.  I guess I shouldn’t complain, I got home at 6pm.  It usually takes me 15 minutes to walk from the train station but I was slipping and sliding all over the place and it took me 30 minutes!  All told, from the time I left work to the time I got home, it took two hours!

I spent most of last week sick in bed and was actually happy to be back at work today.  I’d even like to go in tomorrow so I hope the weather obliges!  Thank goodness it is Winter Solstice tonight and the days will be getting that much longer from tomorrow.

My brother is out of hospital and safe and sound back at home.  (He was hospitalised for ketoacidosis, a complication of diabetes, last Tuesday).  He is very weak though and can’t eat properly yet.  We came very, very close to losing him and it was the most frightening experience of my life.   I felt all the more powerless because I wasn’t allowed in the hospital because of my cold!! 

Anyway, I do hope hope to get back into some schedule of blogging as I am leave next week.  I have a couple more New York posts which I hope to get done by Christmas and then I have quite a few London posts lined up which should take us right into the new year.  Of course, there is the small matter of our central heating still being broken which is what caused my cold in the first place so we’ll see how much I get done aside from snuggling up in bed with a good book!  We live in hope that the central heating will be fixed by Christmas.

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Wordless Wednesday ~ 4: The Peter Pan room

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Contacting Emm

I’ve noticed over the past couple of months that people are often trying to get hold of me but struggle to find a way.  So, given that I actually like chatting to people, I thought I should make it easier.

The best way to contact me is to leave a comment on my blog.  The reason this is the best way is that I have a general rule to reply to comments before I post a new post!

The next best way is to send an email to missus dot emm at gmail dot com.  My job and corresponding moods vary greatly from busy and harassed to bored and talkative so please bear with me if you don’t hear an answer straight away.

Meeting up, getting together, having lunch

I am always keen to meet up with people (and don’t worry Mum, I’m pretty street savvy so I do hope I won’t get stalked or anything like that!)  If you find yourself in London or ever want to spend a Saturday afternoon running around taking photos then feel free to drop me a line.  If you’re in the London Bridge area, you’re also welcome to take part in the national campaign to get me to take more frequent lunch hours!

Blogging tips

A lot of people contact me asking how I’ve done this or that on my blog template.  I’m always happy to answer questions (and might even start up another blog in the new year for all my tips and hints).

Guest posts

I’m always happy for other bloggers to write guest posts and the HostelBookers post on New York Hostels is a great example of this.  In fact, I’d love someone to post about Italy or Portugal as I struggle to make up my mind which to visit next year.  I have three conditions though which usually chase potential guest bloggers away.
1). Your post must have pictures or photos and can’t just be text.  As you can see from the photo above, I am just about unable to make a post without a photo.  It can’t just be video either.
2). It is fine if you are endorsing travel sites or tools (or even your own blog) but you must make your post relevant to this site and of course, interesting to my beloved readers.  
3). I will need to see and edit your post before it goes live.  If it is tacky, spammy or offensive in any way, I won’t post it.

I do like to do guest posts on other people’s blogs too but I often find I go blank when trying to think of a subject so it doesn’t often happen!

Advertising on this blog

This is always a possibility but this is a not-for-profit blog that is primarily written as a hobby.  If you do want to advertise or push your product, it must take none of my time or effort at all – I definitely don’t do endorsements or paid posts. 

The best way to advertise a similarly not-for-profit blog would be to follow my affiliate links to CMF Ads or Entrecard and you can then advertise using the slots on the left hand side.  Neither of those programs requires an actual buy in and you can use the credits you earn to advertise.  I don’t accept ads from paid or non-relevant sites on my blog (unless you’re a good blogging friend of mine).

Blogrolls, link exchanges

The best way to get on my blogroll is to introduce yourself and comment on my blog.  “Meeting” people and getting to know them means I inevitably go over to their blogs and start reading them.  My blogroll feeds from categories on my feed reader so shortly after I subscribe to your blog, it will show on my blogroll.  My favourite type of blogs are photography, travel, expat, city and regional blogs.  Oh, and media and political blogs but those go on my media and political blogs.

Offering me a couch to sleep on when I visit your city

I thought I’d sneak this one in.  And why yes, that would be lovely, thank you!

Just Saying Hi

You’re most welcome to drop me a line just to say hi but because of the aforementioned job / mood situation, I’m often not in a position to reply to messages straight away.  Don’t be offended, I’m just like that.

Snail mail

Drop me a line if you’d like to send me a postcard or anything of the sort.  Naturally, I am more likely to give my address to people I know!

I think that’s all!  Hopefully this should reduce the number of “contacting missus emm” and “contact emm in london” queries I’m seeing in Google!  And hopefully the people that did struggle will now be able to say hi.

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Wordless Wednesday ~ 3: Remembrance

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Weekend Snapshots ~ 1: Winter?

Sometimes I see something that I’d love to share but don’t really have a whole story for.  That is why I started taking part in the Wordless Wednesday group and I thought I’d occasionally share a little something on a Sunday because I often want to show people a snapshot of my weekend.

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Despite being exceptionally grumpy on Wednesday, I have to concede that it is not quite winter here in London.  This was taken in Bexley on Saturday and although chilly, it was a beautiful, sunny morning.  We woke up this morning to a soaking wet and grey day; a typical one where I get nasty little looks from my cats as if I purposefully arranged a soggy day to irritate them.  But now as I sit in bed enjoying a cup of tea, I can once again see beautiful blue skies and sunshine outside.

See? Evidence.  According to Wikipedia, it makes more sense to regard winter as taking place from Winter Solstice to Spring Equinox because those are the coldest months even though meteorologically, the winter solstice should equal mid-winter.  This is all very confusing for my South African brain where I considered summer to start mid-August and to end on my birthday in May. 

By the way, I’d like to state that I don’t often spend the whole of Sunday in bed in my pyjamas but that would be an outright lie.  I often do it.  I have made a concerted effort to spend less time on the internet lately though, especially on weekends.  That is going pretty well.

Today, however, I am consciously spending the day in bed as my back is really sore.  I have an old whiplash injury that flares up from time to time and I went for an emergency remedial massage last night and so my back is tender from all the work my therapist had to do.  She is really good though and I must go more often.  This is her website: Tranquility Spa.  She deserves a medal for being available at short notice in the evenings.

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So back to yesterday then.

We went through to Bexley to watch Planet 51 at the cinema (which I reviewed over at Emm Media). 

I’ve always found this little display fascinating and it makes me wonder how many more unexploded bombs and fragments are lying around England.

Hmmm.  Is it time for an afternoon nap yet?

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DC: The Capitol and going home

It was getting on in time and soon I would be catching a coach back to New York.  I took one last look behind me to remind myself just how far I had travelled that day.

There was a big event happening at the Capitol that day so I was disappointed at first to not be able to get a photo of the buildings without a big, white marquee in the way!  But I was son lucky enough to get a clear shot.

I began to walk up Pennsylvania Avenue North West just as the sun began to set.  Washington, DC really is a beautiful city and I would love to visit again one day.

I walked past the Newseum which is quite a new attraction and somewhere I will definitely visit on my next visit to DC.

The Newseum is a news museum and I was there at a very historic time as it was the day after Michael Jackson died.

I walked past the US National Archives and the United States Navy Memorial.

 

I was quite excited to stumble upon the The J. Edgar Hoover FBI Building too and you’ll be pleased to know that your intrepid South African / English expat wasn’t arrested for spying as she happily snapped away at the building. 

The Old Post Office Pavilion was as picturesque as I’d always imagined.

 

I took five minutes to look at Petersen House where Abraham Lincoln was taken after he was shot.  He died there after being shot at the Ford’s Theatre which was located across the street.

My last stop before boarding the coach was the souvenir store where I bought a nice, thick FBI jersey for the ride home.  The air conditioning was so high on the coach that I had frozen on the way in that morning!!

The ride home seemed to go a lot quicker than the one in but my iPod ran out of battery about 90 minutes from New York.  Tragedy!!  I then got speaking to two lovely people from Ohio and that passed the time.  The man amused me as he had once dated an Afrikaans girl in Ohio and he repeated some things that really, really made me blush.  The Afrikaans culture is generally more conservative than English culture in South Africa but what he repeated to me was absolutely outrageous!  Seriously, I could repeat it here in the knowledge that none of you would know what I mean but it is that bad that I won’t!

We passed Baltimore on the way back which was exciting for me because my favourite TV show ever was based there: Homicide: Life on the Street.

Later on once the sun had set, we passed over a massive water way.  It was either the Memorial Bridge at Delaware or maybe even the Susquehanna Bridge.  Probably the former?  I don’t know.  All I remember is that the bridge seemed to go on forever over the water and I had never seen a river that wide in my life before.  It was dark and eerie too and just fascinating.  Reason #264 to go back to DC next time I visit New York!!!  Actually, judging from this video, I think it was the Susquehanna River that I was crossing.  It was amazing.

I got home that night at about midnight I think.  Having left at some ungodly predawn time that morning, I have to say that I have never been that tired before and I don’t think I’ll ever be that tired again.  After dutifully putting my beloved iPod on to charge, I collapsed into bed and slept through my second last night in America.

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