i havent wrote about NY here yet, so here it goes...(some of you might have recieved this as a seperate email explaining all I have done so far but anyhoo)

ok, New York is one of the most unbelievable places! it is now classifed as one of my favourite "hang outs" and i definatley want to go back there again thats for sure...shizzle ma nizzle fow showwa
The next time I go im definatley going to be going to an NBA game there is no question about that!

NYC cops infront driving past the WTC site in the background

4 days was perfect...5 actually would have been better but hey, we saw all we wanted to see...

ok, well, today (and yesterdays) word is ... DELAY... lets repeat that...DELAY...!

listen to this...sydney flight on air nz was delayed about 2 hrs, ok, so our 2 connecting flights would be really close to each other, we could handle that...but no...the OTHER air nz flight was delayed by an hr ...hmm, so that means, our LA flight to NY we would have no time to make it, great just great.... so we changed our flight...and guess what, missed this one too! next flight from LA to NY was 3:55, but guess what??? that was full, no way, i cannot believe this (sarcastically said) so we were out on stand by and found out the next flight would be at 10pm!!! we'd get into NY at 5am..ummm, like the amercians say "whatever" after 3 hrs to NZ 12 hrs to LA, we were feeling a bit crap...so Nadia rang up her cousin and we stayed in LA with them that night and we booked in for the 7am plane to NY (which was today) we had no other choice and it wasnt our fault...so annoying...

It all ended up really good actually cos i was driven around LA in a black shiney corvette on my own private tour!! rrrrrrrrr.....Nadias cousin drove me around and showed me Sunset Blvd, Hollywood, Rodeo Drive and heaps of other amazing places...and whoa..everything (and i mean EVERYTHING) is double the size in america, (i think this stands for the people as well...) the food, as well as the houses! the houses in the upper class part of LA are immaculate and absolutley huggge...oh, and i found out that there are about 9 californian mountain lions roaming free (but tagged- pheww) around the mountain area of LA, umm, and the corvette didnt have a roof...not looking good!

me and the Corvette

Well, we finally made it into NY with a 5 hr flight from LA, Nads friend came and picked us up (via subway!) and dropped us to a hotel nearby, pretty nice..but we took off straight away to the main city area, started talking to all these americans and i cant get enough of the black people here! they are so good looking and the guys....not bad! just came out of TGI fridays and had dinner there as well as a long island iced tea the size of a small esky..the salad was on a plate the size of what my family would share at home (hi to my family by the way!)

umm, other than seeing LA for a day (styed 10mins away from universal stuidos) and now trying to grasp the size of NYC...we are really tired and "awed" out...we are slowly getting the hang of the subway system here, by the help of some feindly americans...its really good, always on time (unlike some coutnries *cough cough choke choke* - sydney just seems so boring after LA and NY...we are all working junkies from what i can see, these people here work but try to have fun afterwards as well and by walking along "broadway" the main street, its obvious that they make the time to hang out and party

Nadias friend, Remy took us out to a cute little Jazz bar in New Jersey near where we were staying, there were about 8 people there all up and we just wanted to listen to music and chat...we ended up talking to these 2 guys..one was a Continental Airlines pilot and the other was a New Jersey Cop, I was so excited cos I have always wanted to know what these 2 occupations are really like behind the scenes and you should have heard how many questions I kept asking each of them! oh, and the cop gave me a "get out of jail card free" type of pass, looks like a library card with the signature of the cop...then the cop gives it to whoever he wants, family, freind whatever...and if they get pulled over or arrested for any reason...they just flash the copper the "card" and they are free to go...ummm, HELLO!!!! connections...if only I had someone here with this type of card..haha, couldnt stop laughing at this, i was so amazed...

me infront of Madison Sq garden with NO NBA GAMES ON!! aghh! I have my 25kg backpack on and not too happy in this pic

oh, and apparently pilots get very bored while driving/riding a plane, 80% of the time its in automatic pilot and they have nothing to do! its basically the taking off and the landing that is the hardest part and thats just like playing a game on the computer, you know the plane games, so there ya go!

We went and saw the statue of Liberty as well on the Staton Island ferry...it was pretty good, but i thought it would have been bigger! this was given to America by France because they didnt want it apparently!

The infamous Statue of Liberty

As everyone knows, im a HUGE HUGE HUGGE basketball fan, and when one of my U19 bball boys told me about "Rucker Park" I had to go...we didnt know it was in the middle of Harlem at the time though...so, Nads and I caught the train to 148th Street (the last stop for that line, so we were way away from Manhattan)

Well, we started walking trying to find out where this place was...i seriously felt like i was in one of those true American films! it was like "Friday" where they are all sitting down on their stoops talking and looking out on the street...with their music blaring and it felt so unreal...there were all black Americans and totally "in da hood" we were the only lighter coloured people!

We came upon a girl with tight red top and bike pants and i tapped her on the shoulder and basically scared the fassolia out of her! she turned and looked at us cos we werent what she was expecting! she scared me a bit but she helped us find where we wanted to go, we finally saw RUCKER PARK...i was pretty excited, not everyone can play on these courts, u have to be VERY talented, nba scouts come and watch for new NBA recruits...they had rap music playing but unfortunatley no one was there, they play after 5pm 3 times a week...
we took some photos and walked back towards the station (pretty damn fast too!) we came across the same girl we asked directions from and she came up to us and says something like "damn, what ya'all doing round here? ya'all know this da hood, dis da ghetto know what im sayin' dis is it!" and were like "umm, yeah ummm yeah, well, ummm, *nervous giggle* umm, well, yeah" and she started talking to us and walked us down the block to the station, she was really cool and was introducing us all to her "stoop" freinds, and they all wanted to hear our accents but we were a bit too scared to talk..haha even though we shouldnt have been, its just a stereotype, so this girl showed us around "her hood" where she went to school and where they hang out and then wanted to give us her number if we ever wanted to come back! we were like, umm, no we are leaving tomorrow...but unexpected things work out amazingly!

well, here it is, after all that, RUCKER PARK! imagine the rap music playing in the background

we sat in the train in silence all the way back to Manhattan..(and me with a huge smile on my face!..)

The Empire State Building was amazing! it cost a bit but was well worth is as you can see by the pics i took...it was 84 floors about ground and the lines were absolutley so long! we made friends with these Texan people and they were a crack up so the time went by a bit quicker!

Amazing view from the Empire State Building

on our last night we went to a nice little bar in Manhattan and it ended up being run by an Irish man from Dublin! he gave me a few names of nice places to go and visit, so we stayed in this bar till about 2.30am playing darts!! Nadia was amazing at this game! we were being taught by this sev mart who is there a lot of the nights practising, and she nearly beat him...! i sorta sucked..lol i think ill stick to basketball..(well, TRYING to play anyway)

I couldnt resist, I had to put this pic in, it ended up being one of my favourite ones of New York. I was walking down the street and saw this bunch of tourists obviously lost, this pic shows the friendliness of the typical New Yorker, happy to help you out! ... I thought this was so cute and had to take a photo which turned out great! i still chuckle when i look at it...

Trouble with Directions Ma'am?