Back from New York

[shermarama]

 Blarg. I got on a plane last night at 9pm local time, or two in the morning here, and didn't feel sleepy until five in the morning here, and then the plane was full of Jewish families with small squalling babies, and then the plane landed at nine, so all in I got about two hours' sleep last night and I'm a bit zonked. Consequently I'm not going to say a lot about New York right now other than, don't bother with the Empire State Building since the queues are unindicatedly huge and you can see just as much from the queueless Rockefeller Building, Cuban Chinese cuisine is genius, the Guinness is good and often comes in real 20oz pints, not the piddly 16oz US ones, the US seems to have really got the hang of wheat beer so some of those 16ozs are still worth it, the High Line park, built on a disused freight line, gives a great perspective on things, and in fact NY has a plethora of great parks even leaving aside the Central one, and I got to meet my sister despite a Columbus Day parade coming through the middle of where we were supposed to meet, and that went pretty well. 

Now I'm back and though Brighton was lovely this afternoon in the sunshine, I've come back to lots of stuff I'd been putting off until after the conference. The half-broken boiler, finishing unpacking including getting something to put the books in, sorting out what's happening with bills, the heaps of random kitchen equipment that have accumulated and need sorting, and you know, actually writing the PhD. Ah well. That starts tomorrow morning, when I've had some more sleep. 

Comments

[noondaydemon.livejournal.com]

Wow - meeting your sister!:D

I'm intrigued by this Chinese Cuban cuisine! Never heard of it before

[shermarama]

It's come from Chinese people moving to Cuba, absorbing bits of local cuisine and then onto the US, mostly in the middle of last century I think. We had a lunchtime special of fried rice with shrimp and pork and chicken, accompanying half an entire roast chicken. (Each!) The chicken was done in a South American style, apparently, with lots of spices, and cooked slowly so it was practically falling off the bones and very moist.

[noondaydemon.livejournal.com]

Oh drool :) Sounds like a cuisine worth chasing up

[bengraham.livejournal.com]

I didn't realise I was missing you in New York by 48 hours. I'm taking a similar flight back next week... us business types tend to call it the "red eye" for obvious reasons. But I paid about £50 extra to upgrade to Premium Economy, in the hope that it gives me:
a) a better chance to sleep, since I'll be going straight into work when I arrive back at Heathrow
and
b) a better chance of an upgrade to Business class, where I would definitely be able to sleep!