absolutum dominium

well. tt's how regis philbin, who apparently holds the guiness world record for the greatest number of hours in front of a television camera, introduces THAT frank sinatra song.

and yes. i have to admit. although i was skeptical at first about this city, tt it would be extremely overhyped and i might actually be one of the few who might NOT like it... i LOVE ny.

and since jason STILL isn't back from downtown yet, i shall attempt to do a very very LONG recap of how the rest of my days in ny have been.

28 December 2005 - Day 7:

Today I think Sandra and Bryna wanted to get some shopping done, so I decided to go around the city on my own. I had intended to stop by the NYPD, City Hall, the Statue of Liberty and Wall Street today. But all before 2.00pm, because at 2.00pm I was meeting Michael to catch the matinee performance of The Phantom of the Opera.

However, things did not go very much as planned today. For one, inspite of all my good intentions, I overslept. By the time I got downtown it was around 11.30am. For another, and the worst of all... MY CAMERA DIED ON ME!!!

As in it has become tempermental. It won't turn on. FUCK. And this is even though it has 3/4 battery life. KNN. I only found this out right in front of the NYPD city hall headquarters, when I was whipping out my camera to take photos... only to find tt the damn thing wouldn't even turn on!

So tt was it. Out of sheer frustration I decided to abandon my plans to visit the sights of NY which I had intended to photograph, and just waste the rest of my time by walking down 5th Avenue and maybe doing a little shopping. I found Victoria's Secret, but I don't understand why the HELL so many girls I know are gaga over its stuff. I mean, for one, the range is kinda LIMITED. Someone told me tt VS sold a lot more than underwear, but whoever tt is probably has never seen a VS store, because all I see are mainly bras and panties. Okay, and some bath products. For another, VS is FUCKING EXPENSIVE. I wouldn't pay $118.00 for a blouse. I wouldn't pay $78.00 either. And those are the kinds of prices tt you see on their clothes.

I also found a 5-storey Niketown, which is similarly expensive, but a trip to go through all *5* storeys. I haven't seen any other Nike store this big. I also walked into an Abercrombie and Fitch store, but it's really expensive too. Yeesh. And yet the whole of 5th Ave and all these stores are chockful of people squealing and doing heavy duty post-Christmas shopping. Like they all have a lot of money to burn.

Anyway I overestimated the amount of time tt I had. I figured tt I would need around 15 minutes to walk from 5th Avenue to the theatre tt was showing Phantom. I gave myself 40 min. However, I did not expect tt Times Square would be just a MESS of people. Walking down Broadway was like walking through a human wall... The wall was moving, but at an EXTREMELY slow rate. Plus, Michael told me to look for the Majestic theatre on Broadway, but he didn't tell me tt the Majestic on Broadway was actually located between 7th and 8th Avenue OFF Broadway.

So in addition to being almost late, I was also almost lost. Fortunately I still managed to get to the theatre on time, albeit after having walked down all of Times Square and cursing with panic. We had standing room tickets. SR tickets are WORTH IT. Even though standing for 2 and a half hours straight is damn xiong (although after the 8 hour Times Square marathon what IS 2 and a half hours?). But for $20 you get to see a whole musical, which makes it very worth the while.

And Phantom was amazing. Like Lionel said, it's an epic musical. I'd been wanting to watch it since I'd seen the movie (the older on tt came out tens of years ago, not the latest one) when I was a kid, but I hadn't had the chance before. But this was just awesome. The Phantom had an AMAZINGLY powerful voice. And the songs were sweet and well-loved, although my current fave now is "Angel of Music". And the seamless transition between the sets is just mindblowing, especially during the scene where the Phantom rows Christine across the underground lake. So beautifully done.

It was a tiring but thoroughly enjoyable 2 hours. When the musical ended close to 5pm, me and Michael decided we'd go meet Adrian, Sandra and Bryna for dinner in Chinatown. We went to eat at this Malaysian restaurant called Nonya. Chinatown is interesting because it is so big tt it surrounds Little Italy. We actually walked through Little Italy to get to the restaurant. And interestingly, it's actually the first time I'm having something close enough to Singaporean food in a long long time. I ordered curry mee with yong tau foo, but unfortunately the curry wasn't hot enough for my liking. The rest ordered hor fun, penang char kuay teow, mee siam and bak kut teh. I think the other dishes tasted better than mine, but tt's not saying tt my food wasn't good.

Later, we adjourned back to Times Square for Coldstones ice-cream, but because the queue was so long we had to get the ice-cream from the readymade Coldstones station outside the creamery itself. We order the "Coffee Lovers" and the "Birthday Cake Remix" flavours, both of which were pretty good but incredibly heavy. And after tt it was back home for me. Going to be an early night.

Except tt due to the huge problems (read: lack of) in accomodation, Diana and Yunsong who were arriving tonight, and who were originally to bunk over at Adrian's place, were to come over to Lionel's instead.

So the night ended with them coming over. And tt was tt.

29 December 2005 - Day 8:

Today was the day where we got quite a lot of things done. I decided tt the 3 of us could all get to see a bit more of touristy New York better. Started out by going to Times Square to get student rush tickets for the musical "The Producers". The musical, not the movie. Because the box office had not yet opened by the time we got there, we decided to have breakfast at McDonald's instead. Sausage, egg and cheese McGriddle for me. Oh so sinful but oh so YUMMY. MMM. And after tt, we got the last 3 tickets for The Producers tt night too! How lucky were we???

From Times Square, we decided to go to the Empire State Building. But because the weather today was terrible - it was wet and rainy, the ESB had none of their legendary 3 hour queues. Because it was so foggy tt visibility was zero. So we wisely bought tickets for the following day early. After tt, we went back downtown first to Spring Street to get my photo of the NYPD on Yunsong's camera (since mine is gone for good), then to Wall Street to walk around the Financial District. We took pictures of the New York Stock Exchange, then we walked over to take a look at Ground Zero. After tt, we took the subway to find the Statue of Liberty Ferry Terminal, where we were told tt tickets to Liberty had been sold out for today, but tt we could get tickets for 1st Jan. So tt's what we did.

Oh and quote of the day: "Liberty is a one-way street."

Following this, we went back up to Chinatown for lunch. I decided to take them both back to Nonya. Because I wasn't really paying attention the night before when Adrian brought us there, I had to go by trial and error. Fortunately it actually worked out and we got to the place without too much trouble. And because we were here at a strange time of 3.00pm, there was no queue. Coz in NY, it seems you ALWAYS have to queue.

I ordered a roti telur this time, which YS ordered a really nice and spicy prawn mee, while Diana ordered the penang char kuay teow. But the time we were done eating it was past 4.00pm, and Diana wanted to see Central Park which I had already visited, so I decided to walk around Chinatown and Little Italy on my own and meet back with them for the musical later.

In the end, I walked from both places up to Soho, and inspite of my best intentions to refrain, I ended up buying some stuff. I bought 2 skirts from a Soho boutique coz I absolutely loved the designs, plus they were half-price. But if you compare the prices of the skirts to Singapore they're not as cheap as they would look now. It's just tt I feel like the clothes here fit me better. So I might as well take advantage of the fact tt the West doesn't discriminate against big girls as much. At least not in terms of clothes. Oh, and Soho was a nice place to browse through. Not everything was cheap though. I realise tt brands like G-Star and True Religion are FUCKING EXPENSIVE.

From Soho, I took the subway back up to Times Square to meet YS and Diana for the musical. And The Producers was so fucking hilarious!!! I don't know how the movie is like but the musical is so ridiculous and so whimsical tt it's really really enjoyable! I laughed so hard at how irreverant and silly everything was! And the play within a play! The highlight HAD to be the presentation of Springtime for Hitler - tt song still plays in my head even so many days after having watched tt musical! You have to watch it to believe it.

However, things weren't as good once we were done with the musical. Coz Lionel, SY and Eunice would be coming back tonight, and there would be NO SPACE for all 6 of us at Lionel's place, especially with his room mate over. I couldn't separate Diana and YS because both of them weren't contactable and well... other reasons I shall not mention here... and Adrian could BARELY accomodate one more; so yes, the only option was for me to go over to Adrian's place instead.

We three had a pizza slice each from the pizzeria near Lionel's, then YS accompanied me to take the subway uptown to Adrian's near Columbia University. Because of the sheer lack of space, I was contemplating sleeping on the couch in the visitor centre. Instead, we spent much of the night playing card games with some of his other Singaporean friends and eating late suppers of egg tarts and xiao long baos. Then his friend Deqi told me tt there was space in his room for 1 more person (thank God!), so I actually had a proper room to sleep in tonight and I didn't need to sleep in the visitor centre downstairs and face the possible wrath of the superintendent of the building. But nonetheless, I slept at 4.30am.

30 December 2005 - Day 10:

It was sheer fucking torture just trying to drag myself out of bed at 7.00am. EVERY single bone in my body wanted to stay in bed. Hell, if not for the fact tt I had arranged to meet Diana and YS at 8.00am outside the Empire State Building and both of them had no phone, I WOULD have stayed in bed and just screwed the damn $14.00. I got to the EMB around 8.10am. They got there at 8.45am.

By which time I had already given up waiting and queuing only to re-queue again and again coz they hadn't shown up and watching the EMB line increase steadily, and because I have a huge problem with people who don't know the meaning of the word "punctuality", and because I assumed tt they'd both overslept majorly and I didn't intend to spend another 2 hours just wasting my time, I decided to go up on my own. The line is a lot shorter when you have a ticket.

Anyway the EMB experience is like the Seattle Space Needle experience. Tall building, panoramic view, EXTREMELY fucking windy. But was it awe-inspiring? Nope, not really. I guess probably coz I was fucking cold, had no camera, and was not in a good mood because tardiness pisses me off, I wasn't really into enjoying the whole view. So there. I was down by 9.00am.

YS and Diana were in the queue by the time I came down. Decided we would meet at Mac's after they were done. In the meantime I decided to just walk around 34th Street a bit and maybe explore a bit of Macy's. Saw a couple of things I would have liked to buy, like this white blazer from GAP selling for $39.99, and this pair of shoes from Payless at $16.99, but I decided to be disciplined. Even when I saw a track jacket from Nike selling at $35.00.

We then took the subway to the Brookly Bridge to check out the cityscape of NY from there. That was beautiful. The bridge itself is a work of art. But because the accomodation problems ensued (i.e. we needed to find a place for YS as Lionel couldn't legally accomodate him and Adrian said tt there was no more space for him), we decided to go back to Lionel's early to use the free internet terminal to check out if we could find friends or hostels where YS could put up. Because I was so fucking drained from the lack of sleep, I concussed for an hour and a half.

Woke up coz we would be visiting the Museum of Modern Art - MOMA - at 4-something 5.00pm. It was free admission on Fridays from 4 to 8. Lionel, SY and Eunice would also be there. The line was really long when we got to MOMA coz there were so many people just trying to get in, but we got in a little after 5pm. Went up to the 5th floor (MOMA has 6 excluding the basements where the theatres are) to check out some famous pieces. MOMA has a number of Picassos, Matisses, Monets, and it even has the "Persistance of Memory" painting by Dali. And later I also found out tt MOMA houses Van Gogh's "Starry Night".

We got free tickets to watch this old black and white film "The Pygmalion" at 6.00pm, so we shortened our gallery tour to rush back for the film. Most of the people in the cinema were at least 3 times our age, but tt's coz the movie was so old. But it was really really good. It's the inspiration for the musical "My Fair Lady", and the guy who played the arrogant Phonetics professor was so funny to watch coz of his deadpanned hard-hitting insults to the female lead. Like, for example addressing her as a "squashed cabbage leaf".

MOMA was ready to close by the time we were done with the film, so it was on to dinner. By this time it was getting almost unbearably COLD. We decided on street meats again; the queue was physically shorter but actually longer this time. Which was strange. And almost unbearable because it was so cold. But the street meats were made all the more enjoyable for them. Even though we had to eat them outside in the same biting cold.

Went back to Lionel's place to see what we could do about YS' accomodation. In the end I managed to call Adrian and plead with him to let YS sleep in the kitchen. Then YS showered, packed his stuff, and we went back to Adrian's. Fortunately, this time Deqi's 2 other guests had left, so YS could also sleep in his room. That was timely, how everything just worked out. Deqi is an amazingly nice guy. I'm really glad tt he was around.

And for the first time in a few days, I actually got proper rest.

31 December 2005 - Day 11:

Sandra woke me up a little after 1.00pm. She wanted to go to the Countdown early and was shocked tt me and YS had been sleeping for so long. Diana called me shortly after she did to tell me tt Lionel, SY and Eunice had gone for a musical and she wanted to join us. She then told us she would meet us at the "Times Square McDonald's".

YS, Sandra and me then went down to Times Square for lunch. Even though I later realised tt Times Square had at least 4 Mac's, I figured tt Diana should have been referring to the one she knows - the one tt the three of us had had breakfast at 2 days before. Little did I know I was wrong.

So Sandra, YS and I had lunch at tt Mac's while waiting for Diana. She didn't show up by 3pm, so I knew it was the wrong Mac's. We went down to the one at 42nd St nearest to the subway, assuming tt she must have been referring to the first Mac's she would see when she came out of the subway, but she wasn't there. I'd checked all 3 floors.

Finally, we went to the main Mac's on 45th St. That one was a horror to get to because the crowd was a killer and the police were barricading the roads in preparation for the NYE Countdown. By the time we'd got the tt Mac's, it was difficult to get out already. YS went to check for her through the human crowd in tt Mac's, but he couldn't find her. By this time it was 3.30pm and we were almost stuck, and since she had no phone on her we had no way to contact her. And we needed to be at a good location to see the ball drop before they barricaded tt section of road. So we moved a little further down and stayed there, hoping tt somehow she would find some way to contact us, like borrow someone's phone to call me, or to find Lionel when his musical ended at 4.40pm.

So since the, Sandra YS and me spent the next 8 hours just standing in the middle of Times Square waiting. It was cold, there was no food or drink, and we had no toilet. But the cold overrode everything. But we were excited. This would be a once in a lifetime experience, to celebrate the coming of 2006 in Times Square! It was so crowded; we were enveloped in a sea of people. And they were handing out free goodie bags with all the festive goodies like the bright red coca cola mittens and the green and yellow times square hats. We were wearing the mittens and me and Sandra were taking turns at wearing the hat just to keep warm.

But to be honest, in the end the wait killed the anticipation. The logistics were great coz we weren't stuck in a human sardine can, but the 8 hour wait left us so cold and tired and hungry and our knees so ached tt even with the hourly countdowns and the appearances by P.O.D, Puddle of Mudd, Mariah Carey, Mary J. Blige, Nick Cannon and even the performance of the 2006 World Cup theme song (which was fucking irritating); not to mention the various famous people walking down in front of us and people like Carson Daly (formerly of MTV's TRL) standing close to us; and the various news crews filming us and therefore having us outrageously cam-whoring for them; by the time 12 midnight came we were more interested in counting down to the time we could leave, rather than to usher in the New Year. And it did not help tt the ball, allegedly 6 feet in diameter, looked more like a golf ball from where we stood. Oh, and it did not drop. It SLOWLY DESCENDED.

But tt said, NYE in Times Square is a once in a life time experience. Once is enough.

We got out of there pretty early. B 12.40am we were back in Greenwich having pizzas and hot chocolate/soup near Lionel's. We were supposed to meet him back at his place to go party, and we also assumed tt Diana would be with him or back at his apartment.

We assumed wrong.

Needless to say, we didn't go party at all. Diana had been missing for 12 hours. YS found her passport, most of her money, and her phone in her bag, which means tt she had gone out with just a little cash and a metrocard and was THOROUGHLY uncontactable. We spent the next few hours calling various police precincts and the Singapore Embassy for their Singaporeans In Distress programme, and YS and SY went on a 2 hour "man hunt" around all the subway stations near Lionel's place to check if maybe she had just gotten lost while coming out of the subway, no matter how small the probabilities might have been. Me, Sandra and Eunice just waited in the apartment. They came back after 4am with still no news. YS also sent her an email, and he tried calling a hospital this time.

Finally, dejected, we decided to go back to Adrian's and get some sleep, or at least let Eunice and SY, who had been preparing to sleep before we came over 4 hours ago, get some sleep.

It was only after 6am tt I managed to get some sleep. Out all night and not even to party. Talk about one fucking memorable NYE.

1 January 2006 - Day 12:

At 7.30am, my phone rang. It was Diana. She called to tell me she had made her way back to Lionel's. Just.

We were supposed to have a Statue of Liberty tour today at 11.45am, and we had to be there at the terminal at 10.15am. So I just told her to make her way there and YS and I would meet her there.

Woke up at 9am with 3 hours of sleep. Less than tt actually. But YS and I made our way down to Liberty pretty quickly. Diana got there around 10.45am. As we were preparing to board the ferry to Liberty, we asked her how she had managed to find her way back. Apparently she hadn't been lost at all. When she couldn't find us, she went for the countdown alone, and assuming tt we would all be out the whole night, she decided to just hang around outside and return home in the morning. It didn't cross her mind tt we would be worried about her or tt she should try to contact us. YS was quite mad actually, but we both knew tt she felt really bad about this since realizing tt we were actually fucking worried after all, so we tried not to say anything.

Except tt YS ended up being a little mean to her.

But tt said, yeah. We went up to the Statue, walked up to the Observatory Deck at the foot, and took some nice photos. The most photographed lady in the world. We have photos tt the world doesn't see though - of her ass. Wahaha. Yes, when I get my photos I'll present them in a photolog.

After tt, we realised tt we might be late to meet Sandra, so we rushed for the ferry back to NYC, which stopped over at Ellis Island. Which was bloody slow.

Fortunately we weren't late to meet her. We had lunch at White Castle! Yes, tt damn burger place with the miniature burgers of the Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle fame does exist! And I've finally eaten there! But tt said... it's okay lah. Tiny burgers is a novelty coz you can eat 4 or more, but it's not tt fantastic. Tastes like McDonald's. After tt, Sandra and I went over to the Amtrak station to go buy Krispy Kremes. Finally! A taste of Krispy Kremes in the States. But coz they weren't warm and fresh-made, we couldn't see what the excitement was about. They tasted better than Tim Horton's, but tt's about the most praise I can give them.

We then decided to go back to MOMA to look at all the stuff tt we missed the first time. When it isn't free, MOMA costs $12 for student price. Sandra and I went through the 6th, 5th, 4th and 3rd floor of MOMA, and we saw many famous art pieces including all those tt I mentioned earlier, a few Cezares too... and a lot of strange stuff tt we wouldn't necessarily call art. Or at least, not expect to see it in a museum (i.e. we can Do It Ourselves).

But tt said, MOMA was worth visiting. Photos from there will also explain what I mean a lot better.

But museums tire us out pretty fast. We were at the gift shop 20 minutes before MOMA closed at 5.30pm coz we were tired of walking around and looking at art pieces. When YS and Diana met up with us again, Sandra had to leave to meet her friends at Chinatown, so YS, Diana and me decided to look for a gift for Lionel for graciously hosting us, then go for dinner.

After some fruitless searching, we finally found what we were looking for when we least expected it. But tt was all good. Dinner was at this Japanese restaurant on St. Mark's Place. Even then, the queue was half an hour. What can I say? In NY you're ALWAYS queueing.

But the food was really good. I ordered a sashimi and teriyaki beef combination set tt came with a free soup, salad and rice. And YS ordered sake to go with his food. The only thing was tt I was so fucking tired by now tt I was practically falling asleep at the table while watching him drink his sake.

They left for Lionel's place to pass him the present after tt, while I made my way back to Adrian's. Packed all my stuff, took a shower, and went down to Deqi's to sleep. But coz Deqi and Adrian were leaving for the airport for their trip Peurto Rico at 2.30am, I decided to talk to Deqi a bit before leaving. So I pretty much ust bugged him and helped him to pack by giving him verbal reminders of what he should bring, and then he let me watch and episode of "Wo Cai" except tt I have never seen this before and he had to spend the entire time explaining everything to me.

Oh, and YS came back around 12.30am. And somewhere along the line between talking to them and watching the show I fell asleep.

2 January 2006 - Day 13:

Coz I'm finally leaving on a jet plane.

I thought my flight at 11.00 am was at 10.00am. So I woke up at 7.00am, packed my stuff, and got to the airport even before 9.00am. Had to kill a lot of time eating a hearty breakfast at the food court downstairs and buying a book to read.

But guess what the best thing was?

We boarded the plane at 10.30am. The plane moved to the runway at 11.00am.

And from 11.00am to 3.15pm we were still sitting in the plane the ENTIRE FUCKING TIME just waiting.

Coz they had closed the Chicago O'Hare airport due to bad weather conditions and they didn't know when they would reopen it again.

So explains the 4 hour fucking delay.

By the time I got the Chicago, it was 5.30pm NY time/4.30pm Chicago time. And I had originally intended to meet Jason at his place at 1.00pm, but by the time I got here I was so late tt he had gone out and I had to wait in his dorm room. Fortunately he had a floormate who'd let me in.

Jason came back around 8.30pm. He was with his friend Yan Ming, also from RI/HCJC, but he'd gone to study at Vermont instead and this was his last night in Chitown. We went for a cheap dinner at this fried chicken place near Jason's place, then da-baoed the chicken for 2 of Jason's/Yan Ming's friends staying at the other dorm. We spent the rest of the night playing Bridge/Poker and talking cock over Haagen Daz, orange juice and half a bottle of vodka (didn't drink it though) till around 2.00am, then Jason and I made our way back here.

Slept around 2.45am

And thus ends my last day in NY/first day in Chitown.

How will today go? I wonder. In any case I have to stop blogging now and go wash my face. Jason should be coming back soon and we'll be going downtown soon.