New York I love you, but you're bringing me down (part 2)

Got up a bit earlier this morning as I wanted to make the most of our last day in New York. Went for coffee at the nearest Starbucks and came back to confirm our hotel transfer to the airport in the morning. Our flight leaves at 6.00am and when I rang they said they would pick us up at 2.10am. Excellent!

I broke the news to Ros who stated "well we're not fucking going to sleep then!".

It had been raining when I went out for coffee so I grabbed my leather jacket and figured 'that will do', and we made our way to the subway - off for a visit to the United Nations. We caught the train to 5th Avenue, but we had to walk the rest of the way to 1st Avenue.

At the UN, we had to go through security as tight as any airport but once inside we quickly arranged a guided tour. We were all given headsets that we could hear the tour guide through and off we went. First point of interest was the room where the Security Council meets. And did you know that they meet every day? And that because of that, all 15 members (delegates) live in NYC? The guide spoke about how members are elected, and which members have veto power etc.

We moved onto the General Assembly meeting room, which by the way, is now represented by 193 delegates since the independence of South Sudan. This is the room you always see on tele. The meeting is held in six languages, and if your country sends representatives that don't speak any of the six languages, then you must provide your own interpreter. Each seat has an earpiece and you just turn the dial to 'tune in' to the language of your choice.

Th guide went on to show us work that the United Nations do, and how it functions. Things like clearing land mines is high on the agenda, peace corps in Haiti, school in a box, etc. It made me want to work for them, or at least re-think my career choice. I really do feel useless since I left social welfare.

For those of you who are reading this, do me a favor? When you finish reading here, promise me you will go to freerice.com and play a game or two.

Thanks.

Anyhow, by the time we finished up at the UN, it was raining pretty heavily, so Ros decided to buy an umbrella. I decided I wouldn't bother. I may have looked like a drown rat by the time we made it back to Grand Central station, but meh, whatever.

We headed back to Times Square and grabbed lunch from Chop't. Then Ros headed off to find a Pandora store, I walked around for a bit, found a plastic headscarf in a shop and then walked around with that on my head before waiting to meet Ros. When she saw me, she said I looked like her nonna. I said I didn't care what I looked like....however, she has just now demonstrated what I looked like by tying it around her head, and I have to admit it looked pretty dodgy, but very funny.

Because it was still pissing down, I suggested that we needed to sit down inside and eat a piece of New York cheesecake. Ros asked the security guy standing near us where we might find a good slice of cheesecake and he told us where to find the best, just a few blocks away at 'Juniors'. He said his mouth was watering just talking about it.

And it was pretty darn good. Really light and fluffy and yummy! I also ordered coffee, but I don't really know why. It was the size of a large soup mug and tasted like shite. Ros ordered a hot chocolate which was the same size except had a mountain of fake cream on it. At least the cheesecake was divine.

Because the rain was relentless, and neither of us were dressed for it, we decided to go back to the hotel and have a nap (rather than explore Greenwich Village). And after I slept for five minutes, and was raring to go again, I decided to go get a pedicure. Whilst I was there I decided I may as well also get a manicure. All set for Vegas now!

Grabbed a slice of pizza for dinner at the corner cafe, and solved the world's problems by 9.00pm and now we're just getting ready to get up at 1.50am.

Or stay up.

It is still raining. New York I love you, but you're bringing me down.


And don't forget, freerice.com....





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