Second Life

Aujord hui maman est morte. Ou peut-etre hier, je ne sais pas.

After leaving work and after burying my mother it seemed like a good idea to get away from my previous life. My first life was brilliant; I hope my second one is better. All kids seem to take gap years so I thought why not me? So on St Patrick's Day I left England and I hope to be back by Christmas. My plans are to visit 21 cities in five continents. This blog will let those who are interested know how things are going.

To paraphrase Bill Bryson nothing prepares you for the grand canyons formed by New York's streets and avenues. Although I have been to this, the greatest city in the world, many times, it still holds me in awe.

I do not understand the micro-climate that operates deep down in these man-made canyons but the avenues always seem warm while the streets are cold and blustery. I know that I have had some of the best times of my life in New York as well as some of the worst. It is A number 1 top of the list top of the hill.

The best way to get around New York is to walk. I use the Empire State building as a touchstone and walk towards it or away from it. At any intersection in the grid system I go with the flow of the white dotted walking figure on the lights system. This act of serendipity lets you discover some great places. I started off where the bus dropped me at the Port Authority building on 42nd on the West Side and I had to get to 52nd  on the East  Side. The first event I happened on was the St Patrick's Day parade up 5th Avenue. For some reason I thought it was held on the Sunday as in Birmingham and Dublin. I knew that a lot of the Catholic church were against its being held on Monday because of Holy Week but there it was in all its glory - thousands of Irish Americans marching and dancing their way towards Central Park. What impressed me most was the Americanism of the celebration: first of all these marchers were Americans celebrating their Irish heritage. We have a lot to learn in England about heritage, multi-culturalism and race. 

The hotel on 2nd which I thought I'd booked had no knowledge of me. Were there any vacant rooms? Did I know it was St Patrick's Day in New York? Off to the internet then to find somewhere. I walked back down 2nd looking for an internet cafe and noticed a throng of what turned out to be media workers. Two days earlier a crane had collapsed at a building site on the Upper East side; this was the site. Hundreds of fire fighters and police were still clearing the debris. I felt awkward as I took some film but this was part of my second life's history so in a strange way I felt justified because it needed to be recorded.

Little did I know that I would be  following crane disasters: a few days later I would be in Miami where another crane collapsed killing 3 people. So far on this trip events have occurred in pairs. I left the scene and walked down the upper East Side and came upon the UN building. Outside there was a protest by Tibetans against the current actions by China. I was to stumble on this again in Washington outside the White House. I remember the boycott of the Moscow Olympics. Surely what is happening in Tibet cannot be tolerated by the so-called free world. From these world news events I just needed to get to my room. It was a coup at under $200 in NYC but when I got there I realised why. I always thought that all hotel rooms had,at least, 

a sink but not the Alexander on West 74th. Sharing a bathroom had its challenging times especially at 5 in the morning but at least it was warm and clean. The next city is Washington, the nation's capital and doesn't it know it.Washington is so different from New York. It is spacious; it is green; it is ordered and it is quiet. It is full of majestic and not so majestic public buildings. It oozes history. I prefer New York. On the journey I am joined for a few days by my dear lady wife whose name for the moment escapes me. One of the strangest event I've ever witnessed is the Easter Egg roll (all 15200 of them) on the lawn of the White House together with 

Bush posing with an 8 foot tall Easter bunny. This was happening at the back of the White House at the same time as Tibetans were chanting at the front of the White House about the abuse of their human rights; it's a strange world.

Then it's back to Nw York for a few days. What I love about New York is being able to walk the city and be constantly surprised. You will always find something new. I've stayed at the Hotel Pennsylvania a number of times but this was only this time that I found

the wonderful church of St Francis of Assissi which is fewer than 200 yards from the hotel. What a gem to discover on 35th Street at Easter time.. Walking New York City is definitely the best way to see it. Anne joined me for a few days in New York and for the first time in ages I went to the theatre. We saw Mama Mia on Broadway: it was tremendous. I might get into this theatre lark. From New York I'm heading for South America but first of all a couple of days in Miami. Unfortunately my flight is cancelled because of new safety checks being imposed on the airlines by the federal government. This has a knock-on effect of my South American flights being cancelled. It will be sorted. South Beach is one of the greatest places in the world. I can understand why Hockney came to this part of the world: it's the light. It makes all the pastels of the Art Deco buildings so vibrant. 

In the last few months I've become an Applehead - knew it was coming but Microsoft seems so passe and clunky. I always suspected that Apple stores were better than educational institutions at teaching computing but now I have paid my $99 for a year's one-to-one tuition I am convinced. I book 2 sessions on iMovie and you can see the results on YouTube: just search Shirt of the Villa. What I didn't realise was as well as being better than schools or colleges at education Apple stores make great discos. I arrive in Miami at the start of the tenth Miami music festival. On Thursday night in the Apple store on Lincoln The Digitalisation provided the sounds - excellent stuff - all done from iTunes. What impressed me most is that Lorreta who is dancing on the table is the same person who had earlier given me advice on partitioning my disk and managing my files on the Mac. On Friday I manage to sort out my flights to South America. So it's off to the airport on Monday for an over-night flight to Buenos Aires from where my next blog will come.