September 11th

Good news on the apartment horizon - we should be in by mid-next week. Ahmed went and saw it (empty) on Friday afternoon and we're just waiting for it to be furnished and for the lease to be signed. Yay, no more eating out. I never thought I'd be so desperate to start cooking again. Can't say I'm too thrilled at resuming cleaning and laundry again, though.

Today we took our first trip to NYC. It's big, it's busy, and a lot nicer than I expected. The city is an hour's train ride from where we are but it's like a V Line country train rather than the suburban rattle-traps. The subway however is noisy, smelly and amazingly efficient and easy to figure out. We managed to get from Times Square to the World Trade Centre site with relatively little fuss or anxiety, but I know now why New Yorkers are so loud - they have to be to be heard around here. Ahmed and I spent the day yelling at each other and I had no idea what Yasmin was mumbling about down in the stroller. We just kept feeding her regularly and passing drinks down every now and then and she seemed ok.

Times Square was full-on today, there were stalls everywhere selling food, tourist stuff, and all manner of crafts and crap. We were hardly the only tourists either - the place is full of them. I doubt that the locals are even bother to come out on the weekend, they'd be too busy answering dumb questions from lost souls with flapping maps and puzzled looks. We succumbed to the worst of tourist rip offs buying piles of discount t-shirts with various NYC logos on them. Look out for them in your Christmas parcels.

It's a bit of a challenge getting one's bearings. Being in the northern hemisphere, north and south are the other way around. What I mean by that is (often without realising it) we rely on the sun to tell us which way is up, and up here, the sun indicates east and west differently. I have already set off in the wrong direction a few times. I'm hoping that once I get used to the landmarks I'll stop worrying about the sun. I'll have to by Christmas, with snow everywhere I'm not expecting much sun. We did meet some lovely Connecticut locals at the train station this morning on the way into the city who gave us a guide to NY city with a subway map and an inbuilt compass, and in a short conversation told us enough 'need-to-know' stuff to help us to get around all day without too much drama. Fantastic, in five minutes we got more information than two hours on the internet.

Being the 3rd anniversary of 9/11 today was an especially significant day to visit 'Ground Zero'. I have been a little cynical about what can look like an overplayed response to an admittedly nasty and violent act of terrorism, but having watched the event on CNN in Australia as it happened (I'd been up late with the baby at the time) and then visiting the day of a memorial event, I have to admit to being powerfully affected. I'm not one for public displays but both of us were quite moved by the atmosphere, the sadness was almost palpable. I put my sunglasses on to hide the fact that I was tearing-up, it was a little hard to explain to Yasmin. After that, we didn't have much energy left for a walk across the Brooklyn Bridge. There'll be lots more visits to the Big Apple.

Made it to America

After a series of minor (but nonetheless irritating) hiccups, we have made it to America. The land of opportunity, of freedom, of ... exceptionally bad service, as it turns out.
We had our false starts in Oz in terms of getting off the ground and that voodoo has continued as we establish ourselves in Connecticut. (Disclaimer: I am very much aware that, whingeing aside, we are part of the priviledged minority who are able to move around the world with relatively little hindrance, for which we are grateful.) However, why take all the fun out of complaining?
We spent our first week in LA visiting family, which was great. Being such a widely dispersed bunch, its nice to see each other as often as we can. It was Ahmed's first visit to LA and my third, and his first impression matched my continued one - ugh! What a barren city. Dry, polluted, hot, sticky. It seems its not just the celebrity culture that's vacuous - the whole city is empty of soul. Granted we were housed in the suburbs, but the best way to see how the other half live, is to go where they actually live (not just nearby in the tourist spots). I'm so glad this posting wasn't to LA, coz I'd be looking for a flight home real soon.
First impressions are often the strongest but also the most skewed by conscious or unconscious comparisons with one's romanticised 'home', but after three short stays there, my first impression has only been reinforced. Driving along concrete freeways, you look out of the car (or SUV or Jeep or Hummer or other ridiculously large vehicle) windows and see nothing but scraggly palm trees dotting the landscape like dishmops stuck in the ground by the handle.
It is a great place to buy cheap consumer goods, but there's more to life than 'products'. And general daily living is not, in fact, cheap. Housing is wildly expensive and very poor quality for the money, but cars are less expensive than in Australia, a lure for the car-mad husband. I suppose we could always buy a very big car and live in that. LA is a great place to see the odd and unusual. Ahmed cracked up at an enourmous RV (self-drive caravan thing) towing a 4WD along the freeway. This is a family on holiday - or one that can't afford a house.
After a week in LA doing the usual stuff - Disneyland, San Diego Zoo, Costco (a family favourite), and naturally, with a teenage sister-in-law, the mall - American Airlines transported us to the other side of the country. They even managed to bring all 6 of our suitcases...but decided to leave the kid's carseat behind. So we were stuck at the airport waiting two hours for the next flight which may or may not have had the carseat. As luck would have it, Ahmed found it at another terminal, but we have still not been contacted by American Airlines as to its possible whereabouts. I should have been suspicious when I noticed they had a permanently established 'service' (and I use the term very loosely) counter for dealing with baggage issues. Our driver confirmed that the airline has the worst reputation for baggage, scheduling and overbooking. No kidding? When we checked in, we three were seated separately - Ahmed on the left rear, me on the right front and Yasmin on her own. And their complete lack of interest in resolving the problem didn't help. Fortunately the passenger that was seated next to the unsupervised 3 yr old took umbrage and made a fuss (in an American accent) and we got seating rearranged. I took his cue at the baggage counter and did my 'nana but it didn't seem to penetrate the glazed look of indifference on the staff. Perhaps a bit of time in New York will teach me how to get results.
For now Ahmed is at work, and we are sitting in possibly the worst 5-star hotel (I don't know - I've not stayed in many, there could be worse) trying to keep ourselves amused. The world of travel has, over the last few years, evolved to accomodate the business traveller exceptionally well. But for the families dragged along behind its a case of self-reliance and make do. I am breaking one of my rules and letting Yasmin watch ridiculous amounts of American kid's TV as there is sfa else for her to do.
The food so far is disappointing. Actually woeful wouldn't be overstating it. In LA we ate Mum's cooking and fast food franchise product. Mum's ok, fast food predictably bad. For some reason everything I ordered came with this (apparently) digestable orange polymer masquerading as cheese, either on it, in it, or around it. It took me a while to remember to ask for 'no cheese' as I kept forgetting it was actually a food product and not some sort of bizarre garnish intended to add colour and interest to otherwise predictable food. It's not till you get away from home that you start to realise what Australian food is. Comparison is inevitable and a useful tool to prevent one eating things that are pretending to be food but are much less palatable. It seems that American food is hamburgers, hotdogs, pizza and fries, plus a bunch of other stuff bastardised from neighbouring countries (pancakes and syrup from Canada, nachos, tacos and burrittos from Mexico). Away from California, it seems things are not a great deal better. When we arrived on Sunday night we couldn't even get a cup of tea and a biscuit - the kitchen had closed 10 minutes before I ordered and 'everything was put away'. Five star service? I think not. On Monday night we ate in the hotel's restaurant and were served reheated steak and chicken meals. I asked how Ahmed knew his steak was reheated - he said it was cooked, but not warm. I wasn't surprised when later that night Yasmin threw up the chicken dinner she'd had. I was grateful the lobster ravioli I'd ordered had not had any ill-effects on me. It could've been ugly! Monday was a US public holiday, so we gave the lunch restaurant a go on Tuesday hopeful that the regular staff may be back on deck, but it's the same kitchen so no difference, but the staff appeared to have a clue. However, lunch there on Wednesday saw the same staff frazzled, clueless and struggling with a 2/3 full restaurant. This does not bode well. We are going to try some of the 70-odd local restaurants from here on. We thought the Chinese/Japanese place over the road was ok, but it wasn't recommended by a local. That could mean several things: there are better restaurants; it was just a lucky day for us; the locals are so used to bad food they can't tell good anymore... I might have to come up with a rating system of comparison with Melbourne restaurants.
Hopefully there'll be news on an apartment soon - Ahmed has a car, we have internet access (in the hotel - maybe not in the apartment for a while) but we have no home, no 'stuff', no toys, no kitchen, no laundry facilities... at the risk of insulting the genuine, we might call ourselves corporate refugees.