New York

In New York freedom looks like too many choices
In New York I found a friend to drown out the other voices
Voices on the cell phone
Voices from home
Voices of the hard sell
Voices down the stairwell
In New York, just got a place in New York

Everything is larger than life, stranger than fiction and louder than a rock concert in New York. You could spend your entire life here and still not run out of different things to do. Time seems to slip by so much quicker in this city. I can't believe I've been working from over two and a half months. Feels as though it was yesterday when I landed here from the far west.

I was travelling in the subway today when New York started playing on my iPod. Being part of a freshly leeched collection, I hadn't heard the song before (I just love it when I'm surprised with good new music). Looking around at the motley collection of fellow travellers, I started smiling as I heard the lyrics.

The Irish have been coming here for years
Feel like they own the place
They got the airport, city hall, concrete, asphalt, they even got the police
Irish, Italians, Jews and Hispanics
Religious nuts, political fanatics in the stew
Living happily not like me and you
That's where I lost you...New York

Sometimes I feel this city is going to get the better of me. I feel as though life will pass me by and I won't even realise it. I'll spend weekend after weekend playing tour guide to every friend and relative who's stopping by this town. I'll see the sights so often, that I'll grow weary of them. As some of my friends would put it... I'd be institutionalised. New York would be my home, my playground, my escape and my prison.

In New York I lost it all to you and your vices
Still I'm staying on to figure out my mid life crisis
I hit an iceberg in my life
But you know I'm still afloat
You lose your balance, lose your wife
In the queue for the lifeboat

I had a pretty long day at work today. The sun had already slipped below the horizon and I was just about to leave. The last thing I did on a whim, was walk into an empty office and stare outside the window. It has to be one of the most gorgeous sights I've ever seen. It felt almost unreal to be so far above the ground, staring at a sky which was ablaze in shades of reds, oranges and pinks, looking into the heart of downtown... at the spires reaching for the clouds, at the citadels guarding their riches and secrets... at the river flowing under and the bridges stretched across it... at the planes above me and the ships below me... and wondering if all of this was real.

Time does go by very quickly in New York. But maybe that's the price we pay for the life we live. As Tyrell said to Batty in Blade Runner, "A candle that burns twice as bright burns half as long, and you have burned very brightly..." New York... you will never cease to amaze me.

In the stillness of the evening
When the sun has had its day
I heard your voice a-whispering
Come away child

New York, New York

- New York by U2