New York - day 2 & 3

Well there are some things that are best done as a group, and some things that are best done alone, having spent a only one day with heather and 2 days with the group i needed a day off today.

We did quite a few neat things, but the pace that they walk at, the time it takes them to arrive at any decision and the fact that they dont seem to want to actually take me seriously and are only asking me so as to not try and sound too self absorbed is painfully obvious.

Take Last night... they wanted to get something to eat and then go down to Ludlow Street. I said hey lets to to eat in china town or little italy first and then we can go to ludlow after. At that they all agreed until I showed them on the map where little Italy and china town were, then they suddenly all did a hissy fit and say no way Jose.

But the funny thing is, ludlow street is further away from where we were than either china town or little italy and the only way to get there is to go through both on the subway map.

When I pointed THIS out, all of a sudden it was not such a long way to go after all, though it still took ages and ages for them all to get ready to get through the barriers after heather had 'left' her subway ticket back in her room ... clever or what eh.

Or the theatre ... they went to watch mary poppins while I said that i would go to watch borne ultimatum ... my film finished first by over an hour, so after a quick stop for a drink and a strip dance ( well I AM in New York !?! lol ) so then i waited for them ... and i waited for them ... and i waited for them, and after they were the very last ones out of the audience by a good ten minutes I was just a little exasperated and said that i had been waiting and all sharon could say was "well i was having a shit" - which was her way of saying I don't actually give a shit how long you were waiting for us, I will come out when i am damn good and ready and not before.

That kind of fucking nonsense just pisses me off no end, as it meant that i was waiting in a strange city, alone, with none else to contact, in a suit, in the hot and sticky post twilight hours.

So after the theatre and the final decision to go to ludlow street we all head off, only for sharon to get trapped between the doors of the subway train as she was too slow and semi drunk to get off the EXPRESS train when she had the chance. Not that she would have been alone if she had stayed on and heather and sarah were right behind her, equally slow at standing up and certainly they were all unfit should anything serious happen to them.

It is their kind that get attacked, mugged and raped as they are just too damn slow, stupid and unaware of their situation to handle themselves. they all say that they love new york, but i can't imagine that would last very long if they kept up the way they were as one of them are sure to get done sooner or later.

Lambs or sheep, and though I may be only a 11 stone weakling, I am still a wolf when compared to the majority of folk who are clearly sheep. not that they are bad people, they are not, they are good and god fearing folk, but that's why they are sheep.

New york seems just run down and ready to be demolished and rebuilt at any moment. I would say that the best thing that could happen to it would be to pull it all down and start again. i have yet to see a stretch of road longer than 200 yards where some signs of major construction or renovation is taking place and there must be more steel pipes of scaffolding in New York than in the rest of the known world altogether.

Cairo felt as if it was in the process of being rebuilt, Penang looked like it was past its heyday and was just quietly dwindling back into obscurity but new york looks and feels and if godzilla and king kong have taken a disliking to it and done their best to destroy at least some of just about everything road, street and avenue that is more than 100 yards away from times square.

The people here are friendly enough and I haven't felt threatened anywhere, though admittedly I haven't been through harlem, the bronx or central park after dark, but then again even the meanest of guys would be stupid to walk without friends or protection through what is a largely uninhabited part of a darkened city after nightfall.

I have been having a lot of fun taking sepia photos of small things that look as if new york was 100 years ago, and i am trying to build up a portfolio without people of images that could fool many people into thinking that new york really was stuck in the end of the last 19th century - not the 21st century at all.

After the debacle of ludlow street, we stopped for some food on the corner of the place, a small italian off the edge of little italy where the meals, the wines and all the menus were in italian - or at least with italian names. we stayed for a meal that had the thickest and meatiest prawns I have ever tasted, and then they said that they were going clubbing after.

At this stage sharon had had a couple of glasses and was clearly getting tired and irritable as i tried to open up a conversation saying that i wasn't sure if i wanted to queue for ages to get into a club as I had an early night and her reply was a insulting ok, whatever - and just walked away to stand at the end of line.

I can clearly see that she was the worse for wear, and that she was taking her frustration out on me that had been building up after a long day with the others, but still to have it show so clearly that she feels she can say whatever to me and get away with it is not a good sign.

You might say that it is good as it shows that she has enough trust in our friendship that she is ok with taking a few liberties, but right then and there i looked at it like she is prepared to make an effort for everyone else except me, so i just said my goodnights and walked away.

And i walked ... and i walked ... and i walked ... all the way from ludlow street back to my hostel. A journey that took me just over 2 hours, starting at 1am and with the temperature still a muggy 72 degrees making walking breathing stuffy.

After half an hour i questioned my logic of not taking the metro. after an hour I could feel my feet start to sting with each step. after an hour and a half i decided that this was good practice for my epic journey next year but after the 2nd hour all i could then feel was the throb of my inner and outer legs begin to ache with the effort and strain.

It is true that new york never sleeps, and there were rats, cockroaches, invalids, fruit sellers, party revellers, taxis and street sweepers still at large when i got back to my hotel around 3.15am.

I can also say that i must have passed about a dozen hookers, or else it was just a coincidence that there were groups of 3 or 4 coloured girls standing on street corners, making no effort to go anywhere and standing idly by chatting on mobile phones were who i can only guess at their pimps - though looking nothing like puff daddy ... damn MTV, arghhhhh.

The next day I woke up at about 10, too late for a trip to boston, but early enough to go walking around. It was still fun doing it on my own, although there were a lot less photo opportunities to have me in them at the same time. I found a few places that I had wanted to see, walked like a local without really looking at the map and didnt do the souveneir thing until after I had been to the cinema for a second time - rush hour 3 ... another great film.

It is weird that in new york they have entire streets like the korean road or little brazil, where it is a real home from home if you are of that nationality with all the shops, shop owners and even signs are primarily in that language. Nice if you are feeling a little homesick.

What i was a bit surprised about, but only a little, is the dispelling of another myth, that all americans love the british accent.... either than or I have no british accent. As no only do most of the people i have met have no idea where I come from, but even after they learn it they made little or no extra effort to be nice or friendly towards me for being british. In fact, I am still pretty sure that I have been bumped for extra when i have made a few purchases specifically because I am a non New Yorker.

It worries me that in my hostel they made me switch rooms and leave my luggage in the main reception throughout the day while one was being cleaned and the other evacutated.

Worried more when i spotted signs on the inside saying that if you were staying in new york for more than 30 days you could apply to work there ... what a result for someone that is in their final week of working - a whole stack of suitcases left unattended by their owners for most of the day ... and what a headache for anyone trying to claim compensation should anything happen to them - as if you cant claim for loss of money that was left in your own rooms safe, what chance have you got when you have to admit that you left the entire suitcase just seconds away from an always open door where the public could get it!?!

It was funny when i was in the korean internet place writing this up, i had only been here a few minutes when this dark skinned and thickly dreadlocked rasta comes walking in the place and asks why the toilet is all locked up.

No sooner did he get the news that it was always locked up than he got all agro and started going through the motions of,"do you know who i am, i got friends, i got people ... a lot of people, we gonna come down here and rule you ass, we gonna kick out all you imposters and make mo money than you eva dreamed of".

It was quite a mini tyrade but all for nothing, and as the streets name was nicknamed "korean way' I dont expect that the owner was particularly scared or intimidated despite the thick accent and mean disposition.

New York is a place where the refuse of the world could easily hide out for awhile, but anyone with manners, style and class would most likely stay away from the rural areas as much as possible. It could be a great place with the right group of friends and enough money not to need to work, but other than that I wouldnt come back very often if i had my way.

The subway is pretty good, but then again its got some entrances that are hidden, some that you have to be careful which was you enter it from, as they dont always have underpasses or walkways to the other platfoms and i once found myself having to exit the entire place and walk for a few blocks to give my swipe card a chance to refresh and then try again from the correct side.

There are lots more black, asian and latino people here than I first though, and certainly if i am not mistaked the average white male on the streets are now outnumbered ... though to be honest about it, they would be all at work or at home and equally the native americans were here first so its only right that the whites from europe are outnumbered in at least a few places still in america.