Konnichiwa

New York 2012: Central Park (Part 3)

Central Park, where else?

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We love Central Park! If we lived in New York, we would save every penny to just live next to it!

It is so different from Hyde Park which is flat. The terrain in Central Park is quite different, it can be somewhat hilly at places.

One very interesting episode happened at Central Park to show the difference in how kids are raised in Japan and Singapore.   In Japan, the schools are always bringing the kids to the local parks where they are encouraged to pick acorns, leaves, stones etc. In Singapore, schools hardly do that and the general culture in Singapore is that that stuff is dirty and should not be touched.  So Kai and Taiga were delirious in Central Park - all those acorns, autumn leaves, stones .... they were picking the "best" ones, comparing and stuffing them into their pockets.  My brother-in-law saw what they were doing and in an alarmed voice told them not to pick them up as they are dirty!  The boys were a little confused!

Below are a few photos taken over different days. We spent a few hours there on at least 2 days.

Taiga was in his element in Central Park. The pic below is one of my favourites of him.

The boys kept giving acorns to a particular squirrel because they wanted it to follow us home!

The boys saw the many artists around and asked for their picture to be drawn. Surprisingly when we were there, many of the artists were Chinese.  The boys looked at the samples and chose their artist.  It turned out they were originally from Hong Kong so I practised my Cantonese on them. Despite my very rusty Cantonese, nothing bonds faster than speaking a common "mother tongue" that is not the language of the country we were in. Here is Taiga posing for his drawing ......

 

....... and 20 mins later, getting tired of smiling ........

 ...... and this is the result, he wanted a futuristic face!

 

Kai's turn

He chose a soccer caricature.  And he made sure the artist captured his spiderman t-shirt. (He was in a spiderman phase. So we paid a lot to bring him to see the Spiderman musical where spiderman would actually be swinging over our heads. He was so excited. Then when the musical started, he fell asleep and slept throughout! Jet lag.)

New York 2012 (Part 2)

Red, white and blue ... just days before the Presidential Elections of 2012

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So one year later ... I ask the boys what they remember of their NY trip last year.

Apart from spending time with my sister's family, they remember Central Park (which they love), the Museum of Natural History (all those dinosaur bones!), the Spy exhibit which we went to, Spiderman on Broadway ...... And in Kai's case, he remembers throwing up the whole flight there and me forcing him to eat a banana which he subsequently threw up to!

Kai did indeed throw up non-stop on the flight. I felt really bad for him. But he was a real trouper about it. No complaints, no whining. He just handled it all himself, holding his own paper bag, trying to put himself to sleep etc. He is so experienced at throwing up that he did not even soil his clothes even though he was doing it for the whole long flight, I think more than 11 hours. I was so relieved when we finally landed that he could get back to normal conditions and being comfortable again. We got a cab at JFK airport and rode in to Manhattan. Due to Hurricane Sandy and the morning rush hour, the trip was unusually long. And then Kai started throwing up all over again!  A few times. I had run out of the airline vomit bags and gave him the ziplock which I was using to keep our passports! 

So I was super relieved when we finally reached Marriott.  Of course the moment we got out of the cab, Kai threw up once more. And whilst we were checking in, he threw up another time. I was getting desperate and pulling out whatever plastic bags I had in my luggage!  Tomo thought it would be a good idea to walk around our hotel so that Kai can get some fresh air. Kai insisted that he does not want to get out of the hotel (that was how weak he was!). I decided to listen to him and made the executive decision that we would have brunch at the hotel's lobby restaurant. As we were Q'g up to get a table, Kai went to a part of the restaurant that was cordoned off and laid on the sofa. He could not stand anymore. I explained to the wait staff his condition and they were very nice about it, they let him lie down.

We got our table. We did the brunch buffet. It was a very good buffet and given last year's really good USD/JPY exchange rate, it was not too expensive. I decided that Kai was feeling weak because he had no food in him, having thrown up everything. I got him some buffet stuff but he said he could not eat. So I got him some bananas and milk/juice and insisted he should at least have this. Being the obedient boy, he forced himself to do it.  But as we left the restaurant, he promptly threw them all up!!! 

New York 2012 (Part 1)

New York at night

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Here we are in Nov 2013 and I am writing about our trip to New York in November 2012! As I write this, Tomo and my brother-in-law are in New York for the marathon.  Last year's marathon was cancelled due to Hurricane Sandy and the runners were given a guaranteed place this year, so that's why they are back.

So last year, when we were still in Japan, we knew that Hurricane Sandy was going to hit. After it hit, we were watching the news to check whether the marathon was still going to be on. The Mayor said yes, but he will confirm again. Just before we boarded our flight to NY, we checked again and the Mayor confirmed it would be on.  It was a long flight. We landed.  On Friday, we went to a designated centre (Jacob Javitz Center) to register and collect the bibs. After that, we went to the Apple Store at 5th Ave to buy Tomo one of those little clip-on devices so that he can listen to music when he runs.  When we returned to the hotel at about 6pm, it was only just announced that the Mayor decided to cancel the marathon!!! 

It was quite cruel to the marathon runners to cancel after they have collected their bibs! Running 42km is very mental. From the moment they collect their bibs, they are in a different mental state all focused on enduring and finishing the marathon. And in that state, to have the marathon yanked away beneath you ..... I think the runners felt very empty that night. They were also in despair and angry. If the marathon was going to be cancelled, it should have been done way before. The mayor had chances to do it.

More than half of the occupants in our hotel (Marriott at Times Sqaure) were marathon runners. The mood in the hotel lobby was so low that night. It was very easy to spot the runner. There was also a lot of camaraderie in their shared despair.

On Sunday, the days that was supposed to be the marathon day, many of the runners grouped together and ran in Manhattan. Central Park (where the finishing line was to be) was popular. Tomo and my brother-in-law ran that stretch, to get their "closure".

Notwithstanding that, our family spent precious time with my sister's family in NY! The cousins had a great time together.