Heh, tired.

Work is different here. Lots to keep me busy. Work starts around 8, lunch is just enough time to go grab it, and work ends at 6. Heh, different from the Melbourne routine, but at least it’s been interesting so far. It’s only been a week plus, but did my fair share of mucking up stuff. At least everything is fixable, it just takes time and it’s part of the learning process. I guess I’m not the kind to learn from a textbook, where you read up and just regurgitate it. Sure, understanding plays a part, but I need to know how things work inside out, so no point just knowing that if you do A then B will happen. I need to know the why in between A and B.

Still not much afterwork activity. A little too tired after work anyways. Just waiting for the weekend, and at least next Monday is a holiday, so I will take some time to catch up with stuff. Heh, life now is all round catching up. Catching up with how things flow through at work. Catching up with things happening to friends and family on the other side of the world. I’ve been getting confused with the time zones, always mistaking day for night and vice versa with what’s happening in Melbourne and Malaysia.

NYC is just like any other city at the moment. After the excitement dies down, one still needs company for other things anyway. Doing all these things on my own now, and blogging about it only conveys half of what I feel. Not much. Pictures are worth a thousand words, but still too tiny to describe feelings anyway.

I don’t know. Feeling empty at the moment. Not much optimism coming from anywhere now.

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On a side note, managed to get live text telecast of today’s UEFA Champion’s League final. It’s the first time I’ve actually “watched” it when the sun was shining brightly in the sky. 2.30pm kickoff local time in NYC. All I got was the commentator saying how Liverpool seemed to be pushing harder but in the end, AC Milan rode their luck and won 2-1. In soccer, it’s all about the finishing touch, and no amount of skillful passing (or lack thereof in this game) will amount to much if you can’t score a goal.

So the soccer season officially ends. Heh, at least next year there would be the European Cup mid month to fill in the gaps of non league soccer. Heh.

Today I decided to crawl out of the shell that is my apartment and explore NYC. I was blown away.

My basic understanding of how NYC streets work is that if you looked on a map straight at Manhattan island, most of the streets will crisscross each other, hence the term block, as everything is neatly divided into squares. The horizontal streets are just divided into East and West streets, while the vertical streets you have them as avenues. There are some other special streets like Broadway that stretch from downtown to uptown (downtown being south and uptown being north, with midtown in the centre).

Just coming out from my apartment block, there was some street festival going on, stretching quite a number of streets where you had games and food.

Heh, there wasn’t much variety of food though, as it ranged from kebabs, souvlakis to hot dogs. There were plenty of lemonade stands around, and for $1, you could quench your thirst. Waded through the torrents of people and just hit 60th street before I started going east. The reason I came out was to go see the 5th avenue Apple Store, and it’s just near to Central Park.

Central Park is like the only thing sticking out in NYC. Everywhere you go are buildings and more buildings. Here, it’s just a big park with lots of trees and I even managed to spot a traffic light. I only skimmed the southern perimetre of the park and you see quite a lot of people just hanging out. I note that people here will just speak out to you if you are within talking distance, so there’s a very informal atmosphere about things.

Got onto 5th Avenue and there it was, the 5th Avenue Apple Centre. My inner geekiness took over and I suddenly forgot I was in NYC.

What you see here is a big glass building with an Apple logo just hanging from the ceiling. There’s an elevator and spiral stares going down into the store and it’s big! Here you get to test out all the Apple equipment on sale, including iPods and the various headphones that you can buy. They even have like concierge services where people will talk to you about your computer needs and provide advice and recommendations accordingly.

I walked out and continued my way along 5th Avenue. Heh, then I realised that this was prime real estate. Trump tower was here, all the brands like Prada etc are here. Even managed a glimpse of the Rockerfeller Centre. There are also plenty of cathedrals in NYC and they are rather massive.

Also caught a glimpse of the Chrysler building (I think) and Grand Central Terminal.

Was also at Trump tower today. It’s quite surreal, all these things you just watch on TV and accept it as fact, but you don’t realise what it feels like until you actually go to the place and see it for yourself.

Heh, if you are a fan of archictecture, you’d be spoiled for choice to see buildings in NYC. By the time I’ve seen the above mentioned buildings, I was already quite tired from walking. Decided to give into global commercialism by walking into a Starbucks shop and getting a coffee. I’ve been deprived of the substance for a few days now. Heh, I think it’s something to do with Melbourne milk, but everything here just tastes bland by comparison. A small cup here costs about $3.50, which seems to be inline with prices everywhere else. Walked pass McDonalds and a BigMac meal costs $6+. Here it’s like Malaysia where prices don’t include the tax so you end up paying a little more than what’s stated on the menu.

Bought a souvlaki for lunch for $6. Didn’t really appeal to me. Melbourne ones taste better, oddly enough. Or maybe I’m just biased, heh. Finally got home and started playing WoW again. Heh, just trying to keep busy during the days and hope that time will just fly by.