grocery shopping

maybe im just being really picky but food here in manhattan is seriously expensive. there are many choices, dun get me wrong. being able to buy teriyaki sauce n thai chilli sauce nearby is fantastic but the prices are scary.

i felt cheated the 1st few times i bought anything. there is tax on certain items which happily are not included in the intial price tag. food is not taxed but certain items are. i have no idea until i get the bill on wad is taxed or not. pretty confusing.

they also put unit price and retail price right next to each other. at first glance, i can never understand what is the actual price. there is always a need for me to look hard to decipher the much smaller words tt indicate which is the actual price.

on the upside, just looking at the aisle for cereal can entertain me for days. there are so many possible cereals that i only hear in movies that make their debut on all the shelves. apple cinnamon, blueberry cereal and peanut butter captain cookies. its like cereal heaven. they are not as cheap as i would like but the choices...divine

2nd day in the big apple

today, we will talk about getting around the island of manhattan.

there are 3 mains ways of doing it. those i've tried anyway.

1) cab it. seriously the yellow cabs that literally just line the streets of manhattan are the most expensive but accurate way of getting to where you wanna go. they can be hailed randomly on the street. warning would be for traffic and their driving in general. they know where they are going, esp since the GPS in the car is for the passengers' benefit, not theirs. its just their nice speeding techniques that you might not like.

2) subway. its extremely easy to use though the initial induction to it may come as a rude shock. it could really use some perfume or just a good scrub. i tried to avoid going down there the 1st day because the light reminded me of some poor quality horror movie. after i finally got into it. i was horrified at the fat! rat that was running on the train tracks. my landlady said tt there was once a joke that the NY could use rats as a symbolic animal. after staring at the subway, i agree with it. it looks and operates similar to the one in Paris but the level of cleanliness are like polar opposites.

3) Walking. the grid system makes most of manhattan very easy to navigate. the downside is that there are a whole load of potholes on the roads. it takes a whole long time to walk around but its free and the weather during the day is beautiful. everything is walking distance from each other and it allows for more stuff to be seen.

the big apple

After a very turbulent 7 hour flight from london, i arrived in JFK airport which was massive. it took so long to get to the immigration. the place is clean thou having to pay USD 5 for a trolley kinda was a little stinging.

the first glimpse of NY is shrouded in dark clouds with the quaint American houses you see in movies. that was in Queens where you can see that the place seriously is clean. not like london where the markings left by the industrial revolution are still obvious. the buildings almost remind me of Wien because of their colour and roof.

the huge concrete jungle of NYC has surprising quite a number of red bricked residential areas, of which i am living in one. a condo type apartment with a slight chalet feel due to the number of trees in the area. for not really enjoying african and spanish designs, i have fell for hook, line and sinker for the manhattan apartment that i am currently housed in. the lovely wood furnishings are complimented nicely with massive rugs and lovely glass lamps. I'm in love with rustic furnishings and honestly, i would really like to grab some pieces if they could fit in my luggage. my bed though slightly lumpy, has bedding provided for. i mean the classic, slighty lacy which i will never buy on my own, which makes me feel more in a cottage or maybe loft then an apartment.

the kitchen, especially for me, makes up its small size with the sheer no. of things it keeps. there are easily 10 stainless steel pots, lovely cast iron pots and more spices such as saffron here then i ever seen in one sitting.

im also staying with a fat cat. well maybe not fat. just really muscular. she's massive, almost the size of max. her fur is also really soft. makes me feel like brushing it thou im not really interested in such activites.

anyway, i should stop rambling and get about exploring. will send up things soon!