So much to see

It is said that New York is a city which never sleeps. From the sound of the traffic outside our apartment at 3am this would seem to be true. The city is always abuzz. There's no more vehicular traffic than Sydney, but the big difference is the number of people on the sidewalks. At 10pm its like Pitt St Sydney at its busiest.

There is so much light. From the dazzling neon of Times Square, to the Empire State Building whose rooftop lights change colour and are diffused by mist into a simmering haze. The Empire State Building is just down the road from us on 34th St. The street is the eponymous thoroughfare of the 1930's film Miracle on 34th St, named after the world's largest department store, a Macy's, two blocks down from us.

Highlights: I went back to Metropolitan Museum of Art. Saw rooms full of Van Gogh, Renoir, and several more works of Georges Seurat, whose Sunday at La Grande Jatte is my favourite painting in Chicago. Incredible to see world famous artworks such as Van Gogh's Irises up close enough to see the texture of the paint.

We heard one of my favourite musicals, Rent. Ro and I loved it. Michael found it a bit overwhelming. I've grown to love a lot of the songs which I didn't resonate with when last I saw it in Sydney, such as Light my Candle and No Day but Today. It was great to see it on Broadway, here in New York, a couple of miles from where it was set. Like watching Jaws by the beach. Or Flying High on a plane.

Yesterday we saw the headquarters for global evil, I mean capitalism, Wall St. The armed guards with machine guns, the road barricades and sniffer dogs helped to cement the impression that the wealth produced here is not to be shared evenly. Michael was keen to see it. We also saw the 9/11 hole in the ground, Ground Zero. A strong sense of propaganda abounded - the deceased and named as "The Heroes of 9/11" - they were just office workers who died tragically. But they died with a cafe latte in their hands in airconditioned offices, not slowly of starvation, poverty or preventable diseases. Around 2000 people died in Manhattan on 9/11. Around 2000 people died in Africa the same day, and every day since, largely because of the kind of work

done by people who work in places like The World Trade Centre. I scoffed at the signage saying

"These towers were an icon of prosperity and progress, belonging not just to New York, but to the whole world".

Aside from my cynicism about this though, we saw some spectacular arcitecture at the old, southern end of the island such as the Supreme Court building, pictured.

Then we walked across the Brooklyn Bridge, to, unsurprisingly, Brooklyn, a whole different world of bohemian art gallerys. There is an area called DUMBO - Down Under Manhattan Bridge Overpass which Rosemary really wanted to see, and it was well worth the visit.