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New York City, NY

The inscription on the Statue of Liberty reads “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breath free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shores, send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me. I lift my lamp beside the golden door” so when this wretched, tempest-tost huddled mass awoke in the Big Apple today, she knew she was in the right place!

Determined to start today on a positive note, I put on a song that had become the anthem for our previous trips – New York City by They Might Be Giants – I’m getting ready, singing along when I get to the line “… the streets are paved with diamonds and there’s just so much to see but the best thing about New York City is you and me…” Stop the song! OK, maybe I’ll get ready in silence today.

In previous entries, I’ve spoken of being dragged on various shopping expeditions with my sisters, well today was my turn. To carry on yesterday’s theme, this superhero needed a new costume or two so with that in mind, I made my way to Bloomingdales to avail myself of new jeans. I’m pleased to report that on the earlier advice of my sister and my trusty sales assistant, Fanny (who incidentally, served me last time I was in NYC), I have now joined the skinny leg jean revolution! The only question now is whether or not I can team them ironically with my Chinatown New York t-shirt and mix it with the hipsters in Williamsburg – we’ll have to wait and see!

Off to Fifth Avenue for more consumerism, I temporarily forgot my mission and was waylaid with a spot of site seeing – it’s hard to miss the Rockefeller Centre and Times Square though, they do tend to assert themselves. Back on track, I went into Sephora to look at all the lovely makeup I didn’t need and in an act of confused restraint only bought another red lipstick and lipliner which I later discovered, I already own. At least I’m consistent with what I like.

Next stop – Macy’s which threatened to be a total washout until I found the ‘seasonal wear’ level and walked away the proud owner of a DKNY trench and a cute-as-all-get-out swimsuit. Back on the street on a high from my purchases, I decided to go into Victoria’s Secret for the first time ever to see what all the fuss and sitcom references were about. Obviously I can’t tell you too much or it wouldn’t be a secret anymore but I’ll say this, it’s very pink and very disappointing!

Time for a coffee break, during which the sun set and the light came on at the top of the little building I was under – The Empire State – tonight it was green. I couldn’t resist the urge to have a quick rummage through the surrounding souvenir shops which only proved what I had suspected – we cleaned them out of all their best ones years ago! Once a great mecca for the avid snowdome hunter, its now all flatpanel inserts and glitter! Still, you can get about 20 ‘I (heart) NY’ t-shirts for $5 and 300 postcards for 25c – this is only a slight exaggeration!

Not being a natural born shopper, at the end of the day, I was now also tired and poor – time to look for Lady Liberty’s lifted lamp and pass through her golden door.

(As an aside to all this frivolity, I should mention that the news broke today of Osama Bin Laden’s death – it was plastered everywhere I went and was all anyone was talking about. The temptation was to go down to Ground Zero and witness the celebrations but there was just something a little too… American dare I say, about the rejoicing at a violent death no matter how deserving you believe it to be. I opted instead to give it a wide berth.)

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