Not making the most of the Big Apple


Rather disappointingly, there was no snow on the streets of New York this morning. I think one flake of snow landed on me today (or perhaps it was a flake of some other, dirty, substance) but it was still bitterly cold. I walked to the office, had another 8 hours of meetings, then went back to the hotel for calls with Singapore. Sometimes it is really atrocious to be able to work across all these different time zones. Most aggravatingly, there’s an issue with the hotel wifi so I can’t get to the corporate network, which means those calls with Singapore allow me to know about all sorts of work that I can’t do anything about until I get to the office tomorrow. Ah…
There’s nothing to eat in the hotel room apart from gummi bears and $7 tubes of Pringles, or mindbogglingly expensive room service, so I went out. I had a child’s winter coat that I need to mail back to friends in Seattle, but I didn’t manage to dispose of that tonight. Instead, I walked around Union Square, feeling alone in the dark and the cold, and ate a revolting sandwich at the Pret a Manger on the north west corner. Then I went as fast as I could to the south east corner of the square (which, frankly, isn’t that square – whatever happened to truth in the naming of public spaces?) and bought four big packets of nappies from the 24 hour Walgreens there.

That feels like a terrible waste. Just as it’s a waste to go all the way to New York and then be stuck in the office or the hotel room the entire time, it’s a waste to go to Walgreens at 9pm on a Thursday night. After all, I could have gone to Walgreens at 3am tomorrow morning, or midday, or twenty minutes before I get a taxi to the airport on Saturday morning. I am some sort of failure, basically. A nappy purchasing waster.

I went back to the hotel, feeling grotty. That is what a diet of sandwiches and hotel room snacks will do for you. Another hour or so of fighting with emails complete, I realised it was probably time for me to sleep.

I’d like to mention all the cultural things I’ve done and learned about recently, but as the closest I’ve got to anything cultural is looking through the window of the Barnes and Noble before giving up and going to buy a sandwich, I have nothing to say. I rather miss my wife and child, but at least there’s only another three or four days until I see them again.


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