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Today I woke up at 1.45pm - I'd slept for over 14 hours. This is something I haven't achieved since the heady days of 1st year at York, when I rightfully claimed the title of 'Biggest Sleeper on the Corridor' after consistently sleeping 12 hours plus and setting the record for latest rise at 5.35pm. A mammoth sleep was necessary as I've been livin life New York style for the past few days. There was also a girl involved, but more on that later.

On Sunday I met up with Brian, my buddy from Kabula in Austin who is working in NYC this week. I've been crashing at the appartment he uses when he's in town, and on Sunday we went for a wander around the city. We took the subway (which is nowhere near as good as the Tube - Londoners should realise how lucky they are) over to the site of the World Trade Centre. I had wanted to check this out anyway, but Brian was keen as he had been in there before 9/11 and the company he now works for (Cantor Fitzgerald) occupied the top five floors of one of the towers and lost almost their entire staff. Its a very strange place. Right now it is an empty space that is about to become a building site for the new Freedom Tower that will replace the collapsed towers. It has to be the most visited building site in the world. There were lots of tourists around taking in the emptiness. Very surreal. Up until I went there, I couldn't get my head round the events of September 11th. I'd only seen them on TV and it still felt like something from a film, but going there definitely made it more real for me. I overheard a local guy explaining to a lady that a huge tower behind me (maybe 40-50 stories) is only half the height of the Twin Towers. Suddenly imagining two buildings of that size burning, then collapsing made me shudder. It must have been insane for the people of New York. A couple of things did disturb me a little about this memorial site, things I saw that were a little too much like propaganda for my liking. In the middle of the empty space a cross has been erected from two steel girders that were left over from the debris. Now I know this is a mostly Christian nation, but I thought this symbol was just too provocative given the deep anti-Islam feeling that 9/11 produced across the world. The feeling I had that this site was being used as a propaganda vehicle was compounded by some of language in the literature that has been put up around the site. Knowing that the site would become an attraction for tourists, the authorities have put up lots of informational boards to tell people all about the building's history, the events of 9/11 and to pay tribute to those who lost their lives and the people who tried to save them. Its mostly good stuff, but its really let down by constant reference to the people who died in the attacks as 'heroes'. If you take out the fire-fighters, police and other rescuers who had to risk their lives by going into the Towers, I find this description inappropriate. The people who died were simply people like you and I, but they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. There was nothing heroic about them and to me, the use of such language smacked of trying to produce a 'them and us' attitude. I know this is just my perspective, but its things like this that make me realise why so many people have strong feelings about this country.

Afterwards Brian and I walked around a cool part of New York called TriBeCa. We were planning to visit a famous capoeira school then head to a Brazilian night being hosted by a friend of Brian's. After a couple of beers, we realised it was too late for the capoeira, then we found out that Brian's friend was in Chicago and there was no Brazilian night to go to. Our plans were in tatters, but we ploughed on like troopers and found our way to another bar. At this point the night (and my next 2 days) took an unexpected twist. A young lady approached our table and asked if we could spare a stool. I was instantly taken with her smile, and flirtily offered to carry the spare stool over to their table (they were heavy stools!). Havin thrown in a few charming English words for good measure, a flashed my smile at the 3 girls on the table and headed back to Brian. Had I been on my own, nothing more would have happened (me being the shy Englishman that I am) but Brian (being the brash Texan he is) insisted I go back and invite the 3 girls to our table. So off I strode and delivered an irresistable invitation to our table. Much to my surprise and relief (finally not chagrin) they smiled and agreed. So it was that Brian and I spent the next hour with Vicky the Puerto Rican, Christine the Costa Rican and Jen, from England. We were getting on very well. Vicky departed, but the four who remained went on to a resteraunt. Things were still going well. Christine then departed, to leave Brian and I with Jen. We decided to hit another bar and after a bit of dilly-dallying, found a nice Brazilian place where we enjoyed some fantastic caipirinhas. At this point I was quite excited. Jen was the girl who had originally asked for the stool and I was hooked on her smile. Brian was being a wing-man extraordinaire and we were all pleasantly drunk. Brian then made his excuses and left us, before calling us within minutes to say he'd found a cool place playing live Brazilian jazz. After one more drink here then a beer at a German pub Jen and I were getting on like a house on fire. As the night drew to a close we walked back to find the subway. Normally I'm crap at this stuff, but I held out and held out until the moment was just right, then made my move. Apparently over an hour elapsed before the amorous clinch ended. I had no idea. We were both staying with friends, so made our separate ways home. Arrangements had been made to meet the following day after her interview (the reason for being in NY) was over. I went to bed feeling very happy with myself!

The next day I suffered from something which I think should be a clinical disorder - I call it 'Expecting Phonecall Paranoia'. I'm sure this is common place - you're waiting for an important phonecall, time passes, it doesn't come, more time passes, still no call. The brain is racing with all kinds of ridiculous thoughts seeking explanation for the lack of phone action. On this occasion my mind came up with numerous options, most of which were highly paranoid. I had 'she clearly doesn't want to meet up again', then 'she was mugged and didn't make it home last night', then 'she's messing with me and will only call later', and 'she's gone off with the sexy older man who interviewed her'. It was fairly late on when my little brain finally got to 'being a little pissed, she wrote my number down wrong' which turned out to be the correct answer. Thankfully, I had her friend's mobile number and one call gave me the answer to the connundrum as well as the girls plans for the evening. Finally contented, I headed home to ready myself for another night out.

This evening out was highly eventful. I'm mindful that I've already written a lot for one entry so I'll keep it brief. It was Halloween in New York. This is a celebration I had written off as a misguided excuse for purely commercial benefit. I still maintain that it exists mostly to support the lucrative pumpkin industry (and by the way Trick or Treat is just wrong) but I now appreciate that its also a great excuse for people to dress up and go crazy in the dark days after summer as the cold winter approaches. People round here take Halloween seriously and there was a real buzz about the city. Almost everyone you saw was dressed up in some form or another and everyone had big smiles on their faces. Knowing that I was heading to a party where costumes were obligatory, I scoured the city for an impromptu outfit. After a fruitless search, I finally settled on a pair of white and black gardening gloves, a silver baking tray and a lot of creativity (It was a space halloween theme). I met Christine and Jen at the club and we had a great time. Jen and I picked up where we left off and everyone was happy until an unfortunate encounter with a lookie-likie for Andre 3000 (the crazy one from Outkast) left us all feeling very worse for ware. Lets just say he offered us something that had very unexpected repercussions. That was pretty much the end of the night.

Unfortunately Jen was leaving the next day, so we spent most of the day together. We sat in Central Park, walked around Chelsea and drank some very nice tea before she had to go. She lives in London, so I'm hoping we'll meet up again when I get home. Kind of ironic though that when all my hopes for this trip were around wooing American girls with my English accent, it was an English girl that fell for my gentlemanly charms! Also a huge stroke of luck that I stumbled across a girl who particularly likes beards and stubble (I haven't shaved for several weeks).

So there you go. A holiday romance for me. Today I went to the top of the Empire State Building and took in the breathtaking views. I timed it brilliantly and saw the sunset - its incredible and worth the $20. Tomorrow I'm off to Washington DC to meet Tom, who is now moved to the US. Not entirely sure what's happening, but I know Tom has a plan! I'm sure you're all bored by now, so I'll end it here.

Until the next post...