Leaving on a jetplane...(almost)

Well, I might not have reached 365, but it's time to pack up the toys and head home. For two-thirds of our family, this year away is completed. The last week has been a slightly disorganized sort through what goes when and where and what gets left behind, and a last minute chance to do the things not yet done.

I made the most of my opportunity last Wednesday while work and summer camp occupied everyone else and went into New York city for the day. Finally made it to the Metropolitan Museum of Art but only had time for a couple of hours - you could easily spend the whole day there. The Egyptian display is incredible, but I couldn’t help thinking that much of the stuff ought to be in Egypt. I also enjoyed the musical instruments and the modern art – there’s something for everyone.

Lunchtime had come and gone before I got peckish and there wasn’t much in the area that took my fancy so I decided to take the subway downtown to feast on a Katz's Deli special: pastrami on rye. This is the deli where Meg Ryan delivered the famous fake orgasm in ‘When Harry Met Sally’, if you didn’t know that before you got there, the sign declaring the exact table at which it happened would help you out. And they are as good as you've heard… the sandwiches, not the fake orgasms, silly! They cure/smoke or whatever the process is their own pastrami and it’s delicious. A bit steep at $12.40 per sandwich but hey, it’s New York, if you want to partake in its cultural traditions, you gotta pay.

There wasn’t a lot of time left to do much else as tourist venues tend to close around 5-6pm-ish. So I jumped off the subway at 34th street and thought as it was about 4 pm, I’d just pop up and have a look from the top of the Empire State building. Me and 2000 others. The queue is very deceiving. Up the escalator to the first queue: 10 minutes to get through the security search. Then join the next queue: 15 minutes to buy the tickets. Whew! But not done yet. Join the next queue to get onto the elevators: enough time to read the entire copy of the Village Voice paper I’d picked up earlier and to stare at the back of the fat boy’s neck in front of me. Still not there. Try and work out how many miles of bank rope they need for this queue to snake through. Give up, too much maths involved. Still not there. Queue shuffles forward and heads towards a corridor, good, I think, making progress. No, we’re just in a long corridor where the queue folds back on itself then snakes around another corner. Eventually get to the elevator bank. Wait a bit. Ah ha, an open elevator. Off we go, sardine cans have nothing on this experience. But only up to the 80th floor – we’re six floors short, got to join another queue, this time one where we’re ambushed by a cheesy photographic business with a totally disinterested staff who snap us standing next to a cardboard cutout of the building we’re currently enjoying so much of the inside of. I barely had time to stop moving before the picture was snapped. Too bad if I didn’t want it taken – like the security check, it’s part of the process.

Out through more roped walkways, into another elevator and finally we’re up at the 86th floor. Have to walk through the over-crowded gift shop to get to the viewing platform outside, which is no more than about two and a half metres wide and about ten metres long each side (it’s a square). Even on a hazy day, the view is pretty remarkable though. And as I’d forgotten to bring the camera, I ended up being suckered into buying one of the overpriced souvenir photographs of the four-sided view. (The pricing policy for tourist items exists here that extortionists could learn from.)

Once I’d made my way around all four sides and had my fill, it was time to think about heading home. There are still so many things I wish we’d had both time and funds for, but I guess that at least it leaves a few things for us to do if we ever get back this way again.

For the rest of the week it’s packing, cleaning and figuring out what to leave behind. The worker has to finish off a few things before he can join us back home, but before we go our separate ways, we’re all off to holiday in California and see the rellies.