Friday, March 09, 2007

Psychic Sensation in New York

Oh my goodness... the shock of this experience makes a woman who is never short of words find it hard to find any to explain... but bear with me. Lunchtime - well late lunch at 2.30/3pm - and I'm about to find this Chinese take-out place that a colleague in the New York office has recommended to me. It’s still freezing cold and if I was not a good eater, I’d be going to the crap deli a couple of doors down. But, the bloating and the wind I’ve had because of this crap food is worth braving the cold for.

Anyway, so I've literally walked out of the building and am trying to get my bearing - the whole grid system in the US still baffles me! "I've got something I need to tell you. Will you let me read you? I see a smile on your face, but you're not smiling inside are you?"

A psychic... This lady accosted me on the street. She was short, personable and certainly looked a lot warmer than I did, wearing her big fur coat (possibly made of real fur, and going by the huge office she works in - yes, Londoners out there, this psychic had an office just off Park Avenue itself). I was so taken aback that she literally took my hand and led me to this plush office. I think I was so marvelled by how plush the office was that I wasn’t taking anything she was saying in. She had her logo emblazoned onto the glass and everything was so professional. Nothing like the psychic fairs I’ve seen before. I bet some chief executives would sell their right arm to have a plush office like this lady.

All I heard when we spoke on the street was “free reading” and thought, “yeah, why not?”. But in a split second – my furry mitts had only just touched the handles on the leather chairs in the reception area – yes, reception area - before she was offering to do all this “work” for me.

Now, don’t get me wrong… I do believe that some people genuinely have a gift and can “see” things. But I also think that some of these people have excellent sales techniques. Sir Alan Sugar would snap this lady up for The Apprentice any day.

This psychic genuinely seemed to care, though. But she was also quite forceful in her approach. By the end of our conversation, I had almost had a nervous breakdown, and my free reading hadn’t really told me anything, let alone shed any light on this work that I needed doing. But what was firmly engraved on my brain was the $1,000 price tag. At this point, all comatose was shocked out of my system. $1,000 – did she think the woolly hat I was wearing was from Bloomingdales or something?

Needless to say, my refusal brought a swift end to our “session”…

…but I did bump into her again in the street a couple of days later – as fate would have it. She had come out to see her “worker” was doing what she was paying him to do. Poor guy was strapped to a sign in the freezing cold, but we all have to earn out crust somehow…

Tuesday, March 06, 2007

New York, New York...

First time in New York: at first I had a pang of excitement, then the guilt about leaving Joshua (my two-year-old son) crept in, then I justified it (well hubby will appreciate me more when I get back... won't he?) and now I'm here feeling jet-lagged and my head feels like, any minute now, it will cave in. And I've still got about five hours of work to go!

Wait, gripe one: I need to get this gripe out of my system before I explode...

Why do people have to talk so loud on mobile phones? I was way too early for my flight on Sunday - check-in was from 3pm, I got there at 2pm due to past bad experience leaving me £50 shy. When I arrived and settled down near my gate, there was only another soul there, and he was trainspotting. Then comes Miss Italy - this is not an 'is you a racialist?' comment by the way, but speaking at that volume, even the cemetry bones could distinguish her accent.

Gripe two - Heathrow Airport: what is with those noisy mini car things that airport staff use to transport old or lazy passengers around in? Why do their sirens have to be louder than all St John's Ambulance sirens put together? Do they really need them? I mean if you were hit by those 3mph things, at worst you'd be huddled up in stitches - laughter - at the thought that it had dared hit you, let alone hurt you, so that's the health and safety excuse out the window.

I didn't realise how much of a Londoner I am until I landed at JFK airport. The queues for non-US immigration was so long... and I seemed too close to the end for my liking, considering I had flown World Traveller Plus! It just niggled me that there were four members of staff ushering people to queue behind four counters - surely they trust passengers to get that right themselves? And surely one person could have done that and the remaining three members of staff could have been at the other end of the counter, killing the long queue...

Anyway, by the time I got to the counter, my way-too-big-to-be-hand-luggage bag was in tatters. One handle was broken, and the zip looked worse for wear. I felt at ease for a split second when I finally got my turn at the counter and the attendant asked me what I'd be doing in the US. She seemed half interested in what I was saying, but just as I was about to make eye contact, I realised she was not bothered one bit, she was just using that to find out where I bought my necklace from... hmmm. If you wanted to see what nonchalant and bored in a pictionary looked like, her mug would be shot right there.

JFK airport isn't a patch on Heathrow - even crummy Terminal 4, which to my shock didn't have much options for food, besides Upper Crust and Wetherspoon. What happened to McD's - weren't they supposed to have the monopoly on fast food? Maybe the healthy options they are serving up these days have shoved them down that list, but whatever the reason, I was not impressed at the £4.49 price tag for a pannini that is the size of my palm. And the smoked-out bar-cum-restuarant thing only proved to irritate by cold symptoms further. And even that was with me wolfing down a nugget meal - yes, it was a kid's dish, but that's another long story!

Gripe 3: how did it get so cold in NYC? This was meant to be my working shopping experience, but my bones have frozen to stiffness that would stop Carrie herself... even Posh wouldn't venture to Gucci in this weather... well I don't have that priviledge, I'm headed for Soho - which according to my research (yes, work has been that slow today!) stands for South of Houston. I've got shopping to be had, and I've got three more days to do it! No pain, no gain!