New York after Sydney

I am writing this entry from JFK on my way to Hong Kong after having spent a few days in New York for work. This was perhaps my fifth time in the Big Apple and certainly it has been very different from all my other visits.

All the other times were for pleasure, from London, when I was all about the Big Smoke and the big cities.

This time was a business trip with important meetings and the promise of fun in between.

Firstly, the trip from Sydney is much more epic than the pond cross from London. Door to door it takes about 25 hours, and the time difference is 14 hours. It's is a journey through space and time. Travelling with Qantas and American Airlines helped me feeling absolutely destroyed, defeated and awful by the time I touched down.

I spent the first three days managing a ghastly jetlag that I cannot even begin to describe. It was like being submerged in cold water and trying to make sense of the was going on above the surface. Or like being very hangover on repeat. 

Given that I had a few monumental meetings on the way just meant that the whole first half of the trip had its fair share of fear (TM) and anxiety. The low point was going to bed at 10pm one night, and then waking up two hours later and not being able to fall asleep again. Torture.
 
The other thing that I realised is that how used I have become to the sea breeze and the feeling of space that one gets in Sydney - New York suddenly felt dirty, fat, unhealthy and overwhelming. 

Having to work and try to impress all the big bosses when the only thing I wanted was sleeping and eating comfort food didn't help.

So, if you had asked me on Tuesday I would have told you that my trip was being painful. You would have probably thought also that I am a massive wingy wingey bang bang. I was.

However, as the jetlag subsided the 'switch' happened, in other words that magical spell that means that nobody can leave New York without having fallen in love with it. A lovely dinner at Buddhakan with Jx2Sx2, a fun night in Brooklyn, catching up with DJ, a run in the soft afternoon light in Central Park, an afternoon walk in Chelsea meant that I am leaving with wonderful memories of my time here. Again.

New York is one of those places with a massive personality and a lot of secrets to tell. I am a total outsider there, but the city makes you feel like you want to get to know it better.

In the past I always had that 'destiny feeling' that I would one day live there. It did not happen this time. I guess times move on and life stages take you in different place. I feel excited about being 'East' at the moment and quite excited about going back to that part of the world.