New York 2009 -- 2010 Part III

Here's Part I and Part II if you've missed them.

~*Day 7 (30th December)*~

It was a whole day out with Iris, one of our Singaporean readers residing in NYC who has since become our personal friend. We all had fun touring around the financial district, taking a ferry to get as close as possible to the Statue of Liberty, learning more about the heroes of 911 at Ground Zero and feasting on Cuban dinner in the evening. At night, we headed for Brooklyn to stay over in one of our friend's apartment.


Sights around the Financial District...

The kids couldn't comprehend what we were doing and rushed forward to touch the cube. They might have been thinking in their little brains that the adults were crazy attempting to lift the cube without touching it.



A very beautiful church




New York Stock Exchange










Next, we hopped onto the Staten Island Ferry to catch a glimpse of the Statue of Liberty for free. Hehe... I would really love to enter the monument pedestal one day and visit the musuem there as well coz my lovely neighbour-friend said she was so enthralled in the museum that she spent almost half a day there. One day... one day I might just go back to NYC again but with the hubby and I wish to explore all the 5 boroughs, maybe even doing some state hopping and road trips.




On the ferry, cyn and I decided to go up to the deck. Char passed on that as she was afraid of the cold.




It was really cold with freezing winds blowing right into our eyes. We could hardly keep our eyes and mouths open. I told cyn that after my 20+ years of life, I finally understood the Chinese idiom 唇亡齿寒 (chun wang chi han). Literally translated, it means when the lips are gone, the teeth would be cold.














When we were exiting the ferry terminal, who should we see but a "hip to be square" yellow dude!








After the ferry ride, we proceeded to Ground Zero.





When I was reading all the notes written by the loved ones of the deceased, a tour group happened to be there as well. The tour guide was pointing to the photographs of two brave firefighters --one significantly older than the other-- and relating a tragic tale of how a family lost both a father and a son on that very fateful day.

I felt a tear at the corner of my eye and tried to shut my ears to avoid crying in public.


Rebuilding the place
Dreary grey




Colours the kids saw






After that, we spent an hour at the kids' "playground".



Could any kind soul tell me the name of this kids' "playground"? Many families and nannies would bring the kids here where the kids could just spend hours running up and down the stairs while the adults sat on the benches nearby and spend some me-time with themselves.








Time to go out in the freezing cold again!




I love the candidness of this... how we all turned unanimously and stood upright just as cyn snapped this.




For dinner, Iris recommended a great restaurant that served Cuban food. It was a looooooong walk there but there were many sights to see.


This lighted number board tells the time.




Cuban dinner at Cabana






I've not tasted Cuban food before so I do not know how authentic it was but the food was quite delicious.



There isn't any photo of Iris saved for that one up there as she doesn't like taking photos. Instead, she was always offering to help us take pictures which explains those few group pictures in this post.


Precious babes




After dinner, we bade Iris goodbye and proceeded to our friend's apartment at Brooklyn.

A real christmas tree greeted us when we reached there.



It was really lovely of him to have insisted on buying a real xmas tree to welcome us as we don't usually have real trees here in Singapore. It was the most gigantic tree i've ever seen in a home.


I LURVE THE BATHROOM!




The dresser reminded me of those celebrity make up dresser with those rows of light bulbs. They provided lots of heat in the cold winter night which makes bathing/showering a really relaxing affair. There was also a magazine rack packed with all the juicy celebrity gossip magazines and every girly magazine you could dream of. Of course, there were guy magazines too but who bothers about them right? LoLz





I totally understand why his fiancee could spend 3 hours in here!


~*Day 8 (31st December)*~

While the whole of New York was out on New Year's eve, we spent our day lounging indoors.

It snowed briefly in the wee hours of the morning. Not including the little flurry experienced in Chinatown, that was the first time I witnessed falling snow in my whole 20+ years of life. Ya ya I know I very suaku. So many kids around me have already been to so many snow countries when they were mere babies.




After it stopped snowing, I was raring to go out and step onto the streets blanket with freshly fallen snow. Cyn and char was too lazy to pile on the many layers to go out so I laced up my furry snow booties (cyn's actually), shouted out to cyn and char that I was going to explore the neighbourhood on my own and bolted out.






Hmmph! Someone before me had already stepped on the first snow on this flight of stairs.




Snow-laden streets. What a pretty sight!




I slipped into a gated alley and left my mark on the snow. How very thrilling!




I love cyn's comfy comfy snow boots



A Caucasian couple walked past me while giving me an acknowledging nod and muttered to themselves, "These Asians have got such cute boots."

Really? I mean Caucasians do wear cute furry boots too right?


More pretty sights







I hate walking on slushy streets.




I almost lost my way as I did not take the same route back home. When I saw the familiar santa at the door, I knew I was safe.



When I'm with someone in a foreign land, I tend to be highly dependent on that person who knows the place better than I do. However whenever I had the chance to go solo, I would always enjoy the spontaneity. I love being lost in a unfamiliar surrounding with no map, going where my heart tells me to and experiencing many new things in the process. It's exhilarating.

As for the rest of New Year's eve, I did not get wild and crazy at Time Square to celebrate and to catch the time ball. Instead, I had such a excruciating pain in my head with uncomfortable nausea that I could do nothing but to sleep the discomfort away. I slept a 7-hour afternoon nap from 5am till midnight. Apparently, all the adults slept too and coincidentally, we all woke up at 12am to wish and hug one another to the brand new year ahead.

It was a feeling better than partying at one of the world's most happening NYE venue. After that, we watched Sex and the City on TV till 5.30am while lying on the couch and falling asleep intermittently to the soothing music of auld lang syne (SATC version).


~*Day 9 (1st January 2010)*~

The snow had melted the next day and the streets were wet with slush.




We had lunch at Cody's American Bar & Grill. Food was good but portion was AMERICAN. There were simply an overflow of fries that I got quite sick of them.




One last look around "our apartment" for that short period before bidding it goodbye, never to see it in my life ever again.






The kids wanted to write thank you notes to Uncle Ray too seeing mummy do it. Jase's wrote everything on his own while askign us how to spell certain words, whereas char had some help with me holding her hand to write. Thus explaining why hers look a lot neater than Jase's.



It was back to Manhattan where I shopped shopped shopped at Forever 21, Old Navy, Sephora and the likes.


Back at RMH, Jase was imitating what he saw on tv and unfortunately, I got dragged in too!



Sorry for this long delay. There were simply too many stuff to settle and too many errands to run after I got back from Maldives. Part IV would most probably be up after the Chinese New Year.