New York, New York, so good they had to name it twice!

I was horrifed to see that I haven't blogged anything since I was in New Zealand- where has the time gone. After NZ I, of course, returned to the wonderful continent of Australia where I spent a mostly happy month being a bum and moving around constantly. I did the East coast by bus which is a real experience in Aus. My favourite place was Townsville, although Cairns for the Great Barrier Reef also holds a special place in my heart! The bad times were nothing to do with Australia but all to do with some of the dreadful people that I met in the hostels there- the Irish guys who took it upon themselves to rake through my back pack when I was out and used my camera to take gross pics of themselves, the drunks, the loud hostels where everyone wanted to just get drunk and shag. But a few weeks in Perth and S Australia (Margaret River, Albany, Pemberton, Denmark) with the vineyards and lovely beaches, were balm to a wounded soul. Then Darwin with its beautiful national parks, then Adelaide, then NYC!

Enough about Aus! Manhattan alone is enough to fill this page. I truly love this place. Its certainly not somewhere that is sympathetic, nurturing or caring (I witnessed that myself when I slipped and fell in the rain in the middle of the road. No one offered any assistance and cabs just drove around me shouting at me to get out of the way!) But if you are able to get around and enjoy it, it has so much to offer. The touristy things are of course things like the Empire State Building (wonderful views!), the Statue of Liberty (smaller than I thought but strangely powerful and special) Central Park (where my favourite spot is next to the Jackie Onassis Kennedy resevoir) and things like shows on Broadway. Not to mention Times Square and all that jazz. But what you don't see as a tourist are all of the tiny and out of the way things. The little cafes and patisseries in the East Village. The wonderful and comic pubs and jazz music in the West Village. The deli food in the Upper West Side. The beat and rhythm and soul in Harlem. The snobbishness and uppity manner of those who can afford a place in Midtown. The atmosphere as you stroll the streets on a warm summer night in any of those places. The tiny and inexpensive shopping options on the famous 5th Avenue. I love it. The food, the music, the bars. Oh and the free stuff- even in Manhattan. There are free Shakespeare plays and dance shows and concerts, mainly in Central Park, all throughout the summer. You can sometimes get free trials to the health clubs. And there is always a bargain to be had in the street stalls- whether its bags, boots or bell peppers, its all there!

I'm also enjoying the volunteer work that I'm doing. The Caring Community is one of the few organisations in Manhattan that looks after the interests of older people (in Manhattan, once you turn 60, you're pretty expendable and no one really cares what happens to you.) So they offer food and company and classes to anyone over 60 who wishes to come. I'm doing some work on the social work side of things, since the funding for social workers has been cut very drastically in Manhattan in the last couple of weeks. 4 social workers have had to leave this week because there is no longer funding to pay them to keep their jobs. Of course the one client group that suffers most from loss is the older people, who resent anyone new coming along and don't deal with transitions well. So I'm just doing very basic case management, answering enquiries where possible and helpingout as much as I can. Sometimes this just involves answering the phone- but it saves someone else having to do it!! And I'm working in all 4 centres in different places in Manhattan so it keeps me busy and I get around!

So thats it. Loving life in the good ol' US of A!