New York - we're there!

We made it! After 28 hours, door to door, we have arrived safely in Manhattan. The flights didn't end up being too bad, and Kyan was a perfect little angel, except when we were leaving LAX, when his little body just couldn't stay awake any longer. Thank goodness for the pickup at JFK; we had 10 pieces of luggage and a baby to carry. Public transport was never going to be an option.

Day 1 (11 Sept) was spent generally seeing Manhattan. We did Ground Zero (which was a dud event unless you were a survivor or family), Times Square (including Toys'R'Us for Kyan), the Upper West Side and Central Park.

Day 2 (12 Sept) was reconnaissance day. We went out to Brooklyn to see if Park Slope was anything like my research said it was. Well, it looks as though the internet was spot on. It's a lovely area which will do us very nicely, if we can afford what's on offer. The streets are lined with beautiful big green trees, and the housefronts look like they're out of Sesame Street. A very pleasant neighbourhood, which I can certainly see ourselves in for a while. If you're interested, look up 11215 on Google Earth/Maps).

Day 3 (today 13 Sept) was quieter. We finally shook the jet lag, and for a change, Kyan didn't get up at 4am, like he did on the first two days. We had a relocation consultant talk to us this morning to give us the low-down on how this place actually works. It was a very interesting and useful conversation. Some things were new to us, but even the things that weren't were great to know coming from a local rather than relying on what we read or heard somewhere.

Tomorrow, we're hunting for an apartment, probably the most critical task of our three weeks. I don't hold particularly high hopes of finding a great place, but something secure and clean will do.

Hopefully, we'll have a free day on Friday and do a couple of touristy things then.

I hope you're enjoying the blog so far. I'm certainly enjoying being here to be able to do it.

Internet access is very scratchy at the moment; I'm lying in the floor typing this into my PDA using a 'borrowed' internet connection. I should have that resolved in the next couple of days, so send me an email and say g'day.

By the way, the Eno incident involved tipping an almost full jar of Eno into a half-full sink. It's not one of t ose treasured memories you hold onto forever, but it was certainly fun at the time.

Stay safe and well. mjb.