New York New York

Salaam,

So a week in the Big Apple is where I've been and alhamdulilla I had a fantastic time out there. The trip was for a media conference my team was hosting so it wasn't all play, but still good nonetheless

I departed on the Fri so I could spend some time sight seeing with a friend who I met whilst out in Jordan. So Fri night I arrived at midnight at JFK airport and then took a taxi out to Connecticut where my friend lives. The thing about NY and the US is that it is Actually like how you'd imagine it would be; from the images we see on TV and the things we read about the place, its all true; Manhattan (where I stayed) is just full of towering building, like in Canary Wharf, but Every where, the city itself is full of all kinds of people from differing backgrounds, then the famous yellow cabs everywhere, the classic scene of the steam shooting out from the manholes (gross) etc etc..it's all true

My friend lived in a middle class area with the typical large detached house
with white picket fence at the front. I met his family and some of his friends
who came over all of whom were incredibly hospitable. There happened to be
another bro from the UK out there who had moved to NY a month ago for work so myself, him, my friend and another guy spent Saturday doing the sites including the statue of liberty, empire state building, Madison square garden, NY central mosque, WTC site, Rockefeller centre and a few other things as well.

Another thing I've realised with my travels is that things look a lot smaller in
real life! From my disappointment with the pyramids ("they're big, but I
expected Big"..lol) to some of the things I saw in the US - for example the
statue of liberty is pretty big, but for some reason I expected it to be HUGE.
Anyway, on the sightseeing front I think that was one of the highlights. On the
Sunday I was just going to do some further sightseeing, but by chance it
happened to be the 50th Puerto Rican Parade day (similar to the Notting Hill
Carnival in London) so I went out and checked that out. The atmosphere was crazy and it was all very cool and surprisingly without any alcohol which was good. I also happened to see Jennifer Lopez and Ricky Martin both who I think are Puerto Rican and were at the parade, as well randomly ending up next to the Liverpool striker Harry Kewell and his wife who used to be in Emmerdale

In terms of work, it was actually pretty busy; basically Mon to Fri we had
presentations on 9am until 5pm and then I had to rush back to the hotel to type up the notes and send these out. After this, at around 7 we had to take the
clients for the evening "social" events. All the clients were actually very
safe and we did some pretty cool things in the evenings (e.g. go to a NY Yankees baseball game and the Gordon Ramsey restaurant) so it was all pretty good fun.

On Fri we only had one thing on so took the chance to do some serious shopping. I ended up in Macy's which is their equivalent of Selfridges I think, but, as with all things in the US, ten times the size (according to the sales assistant it's the biggest store in the world). Anyway, given it was Fathers Day that weekend, there was a 50% sale on and given that £1 = $2, it meant I could take another 50% off so that a $100 pair of jeans became £25...!! So yes, as I said, I did quite a lot of damage there...


And then on Saturday morning I was back in the UK. Alhamdulilla I had a great time out there, and wouldn't actually mind going out there again (although it's one of those places which is OK in small doses, but not really suitable for long term living I think). The conference is annual so should be going back next yr iA, and on the way back we were discussing the possibility of doing an Asian trip sometime in Feb to cover India, China and Japan so that would be awesome if I got to go along. So alongside the business class flights, 5* hotels and lots of fancy events, I seem to be finally finding the "glamorous" side of Investment Banking..!

Pics to follow iA

Ws