Beware of the crazy people, it is a full moon in a big city!

I'm not going to write a lot today as I have quite a number of photos to post, plus it is late and I'm exhausted. I have had a few emotional days as well as physically exhausting days. Yesterday I went to Central Park to clear my head with Tracey and Lily. Lily was gorgeous as you could tell she knew that part of town! She moved like a crazy little thing. It was fun. We walked all over the place...Central Park becomes a sort of "woodlands" in one area and a beautiful open lake in another and then a huge lawn for baseball games. It truly is an amazing place. And it was so wonderful to walk a dog through the park...one of my many many dreams fulfilled. Whilst it wasn't my own puppy it was still fun. Last night I finally got to see Courtney, Alicia and Alaina. It was really wonderful, but also quite surreal to see the girls I went to high school with in the Big Apple. It is a bizarre mixture of feelings to see them and feel great, but also know they will only be here for a short few days and then feel sad about that, almost pre-empting their leave. Oh it's a funny thing I'm doing isn't it?!

But anyway, we walked through Times Square, got some yummylicious Tasty D-lite and then finished our trip at Rockefeller Centre, passing by Radio City Music Hall where Hillary Duff was performing a sell-out concerts. Alicia and I tried to get in the background of a filming of some sportscasters however I don't think we succeeded. We also tried to get a lift in one of the many limos back to our respective homes however somehow think that also wouldn't work!

Today we met at the early hour of 10am (YES I have become a New Yorker and stay up late and sleep in late!) to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge, which was simply gorgeous...the views were beautiful. Brooklyn Heights is a gorgeous place, very leafy with beautiful brownstone buildings. It did take a while to find a bathroom though! We walked for ages to find somewhere that would allow us to use theirs without sitting down for a meal. However in New York that is very normal...NEVER drink too much if you're heading out for a day trip and not too sure of where you are going, cause you'll be walking with a full bladder for a long time! After managing to find a restroom we walked to DUMBO, Down Under Manhattan Bridge Overpass, it's a funky industrial area right on the water.

From there we travelled back to Manhattan, walked through SOHO and down to Canal street and Chinatown. Lots of Dolce and Gabanna knock off bags and sunnies. Courtney was a natural at bargaining and loved it! Though there were so many people shopping and so many people trying to make us buy stuff...especially short old asian people with laminated catalogue's of bags they were not allowed to show in store...they would come up to us all secretive and ask if we like. I left with Alicia to take her back uptown as she wasn't feeling the best and found out there was apparently a raid on these illegal bags...crazy things happen when it's a full moon.

So much for not writing a lot! I'm going to add photos and go now...

View of Midtown from Central Park

Little Lily...awwww

Various pics from Central Park

Not sure what, but something was happening around Strawberry Fields!

First at MM's World, then to Hershey's across the road

Radio City Music Hall

Views from the Brooklyn Bridge

Near DUMBO, this was under Brooklyn Bridge...the lighthouse looking place is an ice cream shop! Alicia and Alaina are taking a well deserved rest.

Imagine me, pulling a little dog down the street in the pouring rain

So it has been a week since my last post. To be honest I haven't been super exciting as I've been working quite hard on some storyboards for the short film "Cupcake". So I've been busy busy busy in the apartment with the air con pumping. Though the beginning of the week was actually quite cool...especially by Queensland standards! Plus it was wet. And this city really cant handle even a small amount of rain. So again we had flooded basements, streets covered in water and me walking (rather dragging) little Lily down the street to do her business. Fun times though!

I am having fun meeting lots of new people, eating at cool new places, and randomly staying out til all hours of the night. I figure when you don't have a job, you can do stuff like that every now and then. I did have a job interview on Thursday for my favourite store to work as a part time retail assistant and am waiting to hear back from that. Just like apartment hunting, getting a job here is extremely competitive. As with American Apparel (which incidentally I was offered full a time position but turned down as I only wanted part time) to get this position I would need to go through two separate interviews. This first one was a group interview and you have to jump in so quickly or you wont be heard, as Americans LOVE to talk! Plus I had to undertake an "online survey" which really was a disguised psychology quiz. All this so I can sell clothes. Good ones though, it is my favourite store after all.

I also went along to a Dapple Cities gig in Brooklyn. The band were great though Tim did give us the wrong time and we only made it to half the gig...but the bar it was in was sweet. Upstairs it had two bocci ball alleys and gorgeous furniture, downstairs it was a groovy quirky performance area with weird random portraits on the walls, a bookcase unit full of crazy items, like a stuffed two-headed chicken, a big foot print and some sort of dinosaur claw. Strange things to find at a bar, but they certainly kept us intrigued.

In one week I move to my new place. It's very exciting. Tonight Courtney, Alicia and Alaina (high school friends) arrived in the city and we are going to have some fun! So my next post should be a lot more interesting a juicy!

Tracey took these of a cool car in our street

The view tonight from the rooftop...The Empire State Building is all done up

You cant get a coffee til 10 in the village...so stay in bed

The village is a place for creatives. People like me who work into the wee hours of the morning bending to their creative will. So good luck if you happen to find yourself out and about before the early hour of 10am, because there is nothing open. Except maybe the 24 hour supermarket and pizza deli. Well my week has been quite busy and exhausting. Unfortunately I have come down with some sort of chesty cold so have been a little down, but cheery at the same time as I managed to finally find a place to live for the next 5 months. And it is in a wonderful place. It is in Greenwich Village, just a little west from where I am now. One block away is the Wha? Cafe where Jimi Hendrix played his first gig. 2 blocks away is the beautiful Washington Square Park. My place is sandwiched between a vegan cafe and a bong shop. It is a small one bedroom on the ground floor (so no five flights of stairs to scale everyday!) It is lovely.

During the week I have encountered a hoard of Dominican Republicans, it was Dominican Republic Day and there was a massive parade going on down 6th Ave near Times Square. Tracey had just arrived so I thought it would be great to take her out to Times Square for her first day in NYC. I did not, however, know that this parade would be going on as we were greeted by a sea of latinos wearing red white and blue and making a lot of noise. It was incredible. It took us a very long while to navigate the crowds to make our way to Times Square. And once we got there, it wasn't any better as the crowds were just as bad! There are so many good things about visiting New York in the summer however the crowds can be a big con. But if you can handle those, the immense number of free concerts, summer days in the park and trips to Coney Island make up for the people.

We also ended up in an office in Brooklyn, aiming to get a deposit back from a broker I had decided I didn't want to deal with. The office was in an old, run down building with no signage and was barely accessible. I'm so glad I decided not to go with them! It's strange how so many things here can be just a little bit dodgy.

I also realised that I got lucky with the dogsitting gig. I met a lady yesterday who was dogsitting a "wiener" dog and had a dog-stroller to take the dog out daily. Yes you read this correctly, she had to take the dog out in a powder-blue pram. Man am I lucky...Lily just doesn't like to go out in the rain and she loves to bark at the telly.

Dominican Republic Day

Our detour took us to the famous public library...Ghostbusters anyone?

Lily is obsessed with these little beasts...they're so cute

Cool building near Spring St, SOHO

Washington Square Park, just 2 blocks form where I'm going to be living

Brooklyn Bridge, a storm was coming in

Shots in the dark from a walk through the financial district with Dappled Cities Fly (Tim's band)

The subway stations have gorgeous signage and mosaics

Today there was a market along 6th Ave between 14 and 23rd streets...cheap food and stuff. I got a memory foam pillow for 10 bucks!

Coney Island - physically it's not an island but it's definitely a place all on it's own

I'm going to let my many pictures tell my stories this time. It's 12.30am and I should be getting to bed but I wanted to post a blog. My last few days have been fairly eventful. I have fended off the advances of potential landlords, sung karaoke in the depths of an underground japanese bar, visited the strange and wonderful land of known as Coney Island and finding myself in a rockabilly bar with a mexican tattoo artist from queens. It's been a roller coaster (for a few minutes of the last few days, it literally was a roller coaster).

Coney Island was so cool. It is exactly the way you imagine the place to be should you have seen even the tiniest glimpse on TV. A haven to freak shows and ancient rides, the place is the holiday getaway trip for the whole family. The Cyclone is the famous roller coast there. It's having it's 80th birthday this year so we needed to celebrate it. And it was both the most fun but scariest ride I have ridden ever. I do believe the carriage lifted off the tracks at more than one point. Talk about an adrenalin rush. We also rode the wonder wheel which was bought by a street cleaner in the 1920's who saved up all life savings to buy the wheel for his wife as an anniversary gift. It made the ride so much more special to hear that.

Ok, photo time...more stories later! The first two are from a train station in Brooklyn. The rest are Coney.