New York - Day 3

It was my first day of work in NY today! I was anxious, and worried about many things but it all turned out pretty well today. Credit Suisse New York is so much more different than the Credit Suisse Singapore I've come to known. The lifestyle, the building, everything!! It's pretty cool. The building is very colonial, unlike our rented ORQ. The tables and decor speaks of heritage, i.e. very old! It's all marbles, large columns and sculpted steel here. So very New Yorkian. And work life here is so much more.. relaxing compared to Singapore. The office is very much empty by 6.30pm, which was the time I left. Firstly, I hardly get to leave ORQ this early in the middle of a project phase. Secondly, if I had left at 6.30pm, I would have been scorned upon and stared at by the majority! Two very different life styles indeed. Had a short but good chat with Irina, who works in SPC Credit Suisse (same dept as me in NYC), and Singaporean lifestyle is just so so different!

Credit Suisse New York has it's own cafeteria!! And it's huge! (:
Most imptly, they sell Starbucks, and it's cheap - $1.95 for this huge load of cold coffee.

This is my own little space on 11th floor on Eleven Madison Ave. (:
Check out the "ancient" furniture and desk items!

Small portion of the lift lobby. Super posh.
There's a lot more outside the guard area, believe me.

This is my hotel, just <5mins walk away from office.
My suite is the extreme left 2 windows on the 4th floor. (:

Was a fun day. Had a good time, surprisingly. Met lots of ppl, 95% higher up than me. But it was cool. Best, ended off the day with a great italian steak dinner with great wine. Thank you God!

Excellent slightly crusty, medium rare prime steak.
Expensive, but excellent. Better yet with some beer and cabernet! (:

Feeling a bit tipsy from remaining jet lag, lack of sleep and a bit of alcohol. Going to sleep early tonight!

God bless
Dan

New York - Day 2

I guess I didn't fully understand the full definition of jet lag when I wrote the previous entry. I couldn't sleep the entire night, ended up tossing and turning, thinking about things. But time zipped really fast as I found myself going to and fro the laptop looking for ppl to chat with. Ended chatting from 4.30am til 7am thereabouts and tried to go back to sleep. Unfortunately, it was back to the cycle of tossing and turning and thinking til 8.30am before I could finally enter teletubbie land. Woke up at 11.30am, feeling lethargic, and almost ready to give up the day plans to Time Square. But finally decided at 12.30pm to go ahead with it, by the grace and strength of God! Haha, had to commit the day to the Lord!

So packed with my large Nikon DSLR and not-so-compact Fuji Finepix, I was already to venture Midtown New York, to seek out Time Square towards the North! But first, a quick trip South (200m only la) to the Credit Suisse building. Too curious, so can't help it. Took a quick pic and headed to the subway up north. LiBin, my colleague who stayed in New York, recommended a couple of food stops and I had systematically categorized them according to districts. Today's trip to Time Square could accommodate two of these food joints. Quality Meats was one of them, but when I got there I found out they are closed on Sundays!! Norma was another one and I got there they had just stopped taking names for waitlist (i.e. they're closing)!! So no quality foood today, so sad. Ended eating at Starbucks. But the frappuccino was marvellous (mint mocha chip) but the turkey sandwich was so-so. Nonetheless I got to see a bit of Central Park, walk A LOT along 5, 6, 7th ave. There was this funky annual 3rd Sunday of July closure of part of 7th ave for street sales. It was cool and I had some extra food and lemonade there. The weather was killing me! Next stop, Museum of Modern Arts (MoMA)..

Busy streets of 5th Ave

Bazaar along 7th Ave. Time square is, by now, not too far in front.

I didn't know nuts about this place, all I knew was YiLin Yoshimura-san had recommended this place, so I had better go. Haha. It costs $20 for adults to enter, so I queued obediently at the ticketing booth. Suddenly, a young lady walked up to me and asked if I was queueing for a ticket. I said "yes" and she handed me a free ticket, cos her company handed out staff tickets and she had extra!! I said thank you to her and also a big thank you to God for reminding me that He's looking out for me. So I spent 2.30-4.30pm viewing ALL the exhibits in the entire building. Some were sooooo goooooood, and amazing. Some were like "huh, like that also can ah?". Well it's art, so it's subjective. Haha. Anyway, after that, I travelled down 7th ave further until I hit Time Square at last!

My free ticket!

One of the many artistic exhibits in MoMA.

Central MoMA (interior)

Took a few photos at Time Square and was thinking to myself,"Hmm, that's about it eh?" Really nothing much to see unless you're into theatres or musicals I guess. But I saw some interesting things.. M&M's specialty shop and Hershey/Reeses shops!! Bought a few souvenirs there, not for myself of cos. (:

Time Square at last!!

Finally get to see Time Square. Haha.

M&M! They've so much merchandise in there. Monopoly, playing cards, frisbee, etc.

Hershey's and Reeses. Unfortunately, didn't go in cos I was carrying an M&M bag. Haha

Final stop of the day was an impromptu stop at Empire State Building. Hadn't planned to go there actually, but since I didn't feel like waiting for Time Square to get dark, I decided to stop over at Empire State Building to see what I could do there. It wasn't long before I queued up (again) for tickets to go up to the 86th floor observatory deck. Whilst I was walking towards the elevator on the 2nd floor, I decided to pick up the audio guide (kinda like a little portable speaker where a voice will introduce different views when you're up there). The audio, with the visual map costs $12. Or $8 for just the audio. I had actually just wanted the audio, but the kind man at the counter decided to give me the visual map souvenir free cos it was my first time to New York! Another gift from heaven! (: The view at the top was nice, a pity I couldnt wait out for sun set. It was about 7pm then, and it's about 9pm now at the time of writing and the sun has just completely set! The wind was strong, but much needed cos the weather is so hot here. I can't imagine doing this in winter, cos ppl can literally freeze with the winds up there.

South Manhattan. Can you see the green park in the middle? Just left of that, the shortest building, is Credit Suisse. And my hotel is just slightly below the park, towards us.

After all the day's excitement, and walking, finally decided to head back to the hotel. Decided to stop by a convenient store to store up some water for the week, some fruit bars and mint gum. Not hungry, probably cos of the remaining jet lag, but will pop some bars if I am! It's been a great day, but I'm anxious about tomorrow. It's going to be a packed week and I expect high stress this week.

God be with me. Still missing everyone.

Dan

New York - Day 1

Hi folks, it's 1:10am here in New York on Sunday morning. Think the lovelies in church should be just done for service. I'm already feeling like I'm missing lots. (:

Anyway, I've got a long way to go before I can head home to see you folks again. Lots of work to be done, and lots of food to taste (hope I get a chance to). Think I will need to slowly plan out my itinerary. Lazy me hasn't started planning anything yet. Think I will do Timesquare later today. (:

Not much of jet lag though, the business class in SQ really rox! Oh wait, before I get to the good part, I must detail the painful part. I was at T3 from 8.30am for my 10:50 flight. Part of the reason why I wanted to go so early was to check out T3, and also the exclusive Kris Lounge. Guess what? My flight was delayed twice, once to 1400, another to 1530! So now I'm really quite familiar with the inside of T3 cos I was pacing back and forth, in and out of everywhere, including the Silver Kris Lounge. Quite zzzz, cos that's 5.5hrs of precious weekend time in New York gone from silly engineering faults in the plane. Anyhow, back to the good part. The business really rox! I slept like a pig for 10 consecutive hours on the flat bed seat. And I got to watch a couple of cool movies - Spiderwick Chronicles, Rabbit without Ears (european), Ah Long Pte Ltd, 21. All goood. Not to mention the food was way better than what I've had in economy. God rox! (:

Taken from a quiet corner of the Silver Kris Lounge

Lunch appetizer on board flight - Lobster!

So here I am, finally, in my comfy hotel - The Carlton on Madison Ave. My home away from home for the next 13 nights. They upgraded me to a suite by the way, God rox again! (:

24 hrs later, can barely manage a smile

Other half of the suite.

Missing everyone lots! Love you all.

Dan

Fly fly away

Hey mates! For those who haven't been informed (with last minute info), I'll be flying off to New York on business trip tomorrow! Will be away in NY from 19-July, back on 3-Aug. :)

Yes, strictly business.. but will take time off to enjoy myself, so stay tuned to this blog space for Dan's NY business travel adventures. :)



Btw, dun think i'll bother to visit the old lady up there. See how lah!

High & Invincible, Weak & Ever-reliant

I prayed.

Sweeeeet.

Thanks.

(:

Wow Wow Weekend

It's been a most unbelievable weekend for me, and I'm feeling so so happy. :))

1) Sat morning, woke up early to prepare for Phin and Su Linn's wedding. Afternoon, the wedding itself. My first time co-leading worship for a wedding. WEDDING! A couple's most memorable day in their lifetimes, how impt is that? Hence, a slight element of stress there but thank God it was great. The wedding was great! The couple was awesome. I was momentarily blinded there. They were so cute can? What a pair, and what a sweet sweet matrimony. Congrats my mates!

2) Sat night, karaoke with church folks for first time. Was majorly expensive, but I think everyone was high on the wedding so no matter. Fun fun fun. The song selection was mayhem, and the people singing went berserk. Isaiah for one, was mad on his ING song. Vanessa was bouncing on the sofa with Matz. Shalom was.. just being Shalom. Let's do it again!

3) Sun morning, prepared sermon notes and slides til 4am. Woke up early in the morning and zipped to service to pray. First time preaching in the English service, and I thank God His message was heard clearly by the congregation. Hopefully, it wasn't just an "entertaining" sermon as some described, but truly something life-changing for those who needed it. Another checkpoint in the race we run for Jesus through this lifetime ya?

4) Sun afternoon, relaxed after a somewhat sapping weekend with card games and chilling with chilled out ppl. Having a few laughs, just missing the kopi (or some smooth ice-cream). Best part came when we visited Wong Yilin Yoshimura-san at Mt. Alvernia. Thank God mother and son, Jayden Shoichi Yoshimura, are healthy! My first childhood friend-turned-mother! And the baby is sooooooo cute and active! Looks a bit like Danny so far, whom I think will make a cool dad. Pastor Ruhanna from Medan dropped by and shared some words of wisdom with Yilin and Danny, and prayed for the baby. Learned a lot of things just by being there, so blest!

5) Sun evening, chill-out part two at J8 with churchies for dinner, coffee bean and movie at Yishun 10. Watched 9pm ZOHAN show. Almost fell asleep halfway, lame jokes a plenty. Warning, not recommended by yours truly. Spend your cash on kungfu panda. Or shaolin girl, which I suspect is nice. :)

All in all, a most blessed weekend. And a lot of FIRSTS for me. Happy to be here. Happy to be loved. :)

Thank you Lord.

Kung Fu Panda - "Who! Hai ya!"

Just came back from a long day in church, teaching Foundational Class, and hanging out with the guys for Kung Fu Panda. It's super hilarious! I was at one point with my mouth open wide, laughing so hard but no sound was coming out cos I was laughing til I became breathless. The show is so super cute and funny. Highly recommended. :))