New York 2 of 4

Day 1 continued:

 Following our Central Park pedicab tour, we caught a subway train to Grand Central Station which has been a film location venue for movies such as  "Witness" and  "Pelhan 123" and others. Coincidently, we rode in one of the older style train carriages which was the same model as the train carriage in the "Pelhan 123"  movie. Another time when riding the subway our carriages were more up to date but they still do not have air conditioning or electronic dot indicators showing the train route and indicating exactly where the trains located in realtime, like the ones in Japan and Singapore and Hong Kong. The other thing we noticed was thatthetrain stations ( except for Grand Central) are dirty. Many of the stations stairs are in need of repair as many steps are worn down, badly chipped or missing a tile here and there and there was a build up of 'years of dirt, grime and dust' on all the stairsways. For a nation that prides itself on being the ' top dog' in everything we thought they needed to spend dollars on repairing, cleaning and making their footpaths and railway stations thoroughfares safer to negotiate, rather than spending millions of dollars on guns and war. Enough politics! Surfice it to say, that despite this negative comment we did enjoy exploring NY and we had 2 fulfilling days there. 

Grand Central Station is a great place to visit. It is HUGE! It's architecture is amazing and there are arcades of shops within the complex. You will recognise the photographs as Grand Central has been a venue used in many movies.

Beneath the main entrance lobby of Grand Central a whole underground floor has been given over to food hall outlets, where many train travellers, New Yorker workers and tourists grab a bite to eat. The choices of menu was phenomenoal but we finally settled for a ham and cheese baguette for lunch. 

Sue and Peter left us after lunch and we again rode the subway from Grand Central Station to a station near another iconic site,  Times Square.   It has been been 20 years since we were last here and the first thing we noted was that there are hundreds of more skyscrapers than we can recall being in the same spot. Times Square is still a very busy area with much bigger neon lights, huge singnage and giant multi-electronic video screens with flashing captions and repetitive cycles of images. We stood and were bombarded by images of products we needed to be convinced to buy and breaking news flash reports were splashed over screens amid the advertisement overload. After about 20 minutes we headed up town towards the Theatre district to line up at a venue which sold half-priced tickets to live shows, each afternoon from 3pm. We joined a long cue of people seeking last minute deals.

Then without any warning, a huge black cloud suddenly covered the part of NY city where we were standing in a long zig-zag line waiting to buy half-price tickets to a live show in NY city. We think that this shower took us by surprise because the city skyscrapers are so densely packed together that any changes in the sky is hidden from the streets below. As we stood in line with other would be ticket buyers, the rain bucketted down, non-stop for an hour, but fortunately I had an umbrella and we both huddled under it. After a while we realised that we were still getting wet so an energetic entrepreneur came by peddling umbrellas for $10 a piece. He looked at Ken and said; "You need one of these brother!" and handed one to Ken. Ken pulled out $5 and indicated that's what he wanted to pay and the hawker smiled and said, " that's OK, you can have it on special". Last time Ken bought an umbrella was in Rome and it cost 1 Euro and lasted 5 minutes before the wind blew it inside out, hence his reluctance to buy another on. (this umbrella is still going strong and had come in handy several times since it was bought from a kind NY hawker)

There were at least 30 shows that we could have chosen from and we were plied with many flyers as we stood in line, waiting to buy tickets. We finally made our choice by eliminating shows we had no interest in and following a passerby's recommendation. It was a musical titled "Once On An Island" and it turned out to be a fabulous choice, but more of that later. We were so pleased to be able to experience a live show in New York. It was worth bravng the weather and the long cues - we had our tickets, were reasonably dry and we were going to see a live show in New York City where so many actors and actresses from Australia, had been given their first break into stardom- Peter Alan , Olivia Newton-John, Kate Cate Blanchett and Russel Crowe.  We also went to look at Times Square while it was still daylight and once again we were stunned by the number of "in your face" overload of advertisements and large screen placards that "grace" one's vision along the street-scapes of New York. 

The starting time for the show was not until 7pm and as it was about 5pm, we decided to have an early evening dinner before the show. We chose an upmarket Italian Restaurant and we loved the freshly cooked Italian dishes and the coffee was the best we have had so far on this trip. To fill in the time before the show we wandered around the area and came across a church with a billboard announcing a weekly prayer meeting for the world. We went into the church and were surprised that it was in a former theatre. It was a magnificent Victorian theatre-building with chandeliers, gold-coloured trimmings, tiered seating and a massive stage area where the choir was assembling. We spoke to a girl sitting next us, and she told us that this prayer meeting is held every week on a Wednesday evening from 7pm to 9pm. Our show began at 7pm, just up the road, so we were only able to stay for 30 minutes but we enjoyed the fellowship time, prior to the commencement  of the meeting where people greeted one another, were able to chat and go the front of the church to ask for specific prayer. There, the elders in the church would pray for those who asked for it. We went forward to ask for prayer for our Bible Study ministry and for the lecture series I will be giving beginning in a couple of days from time. The fellow who prayed for us had not heard of High Seas Ministries so we filled him in. He assured us that he was going to remember to pray for us over the next few weeks too.  How sweet are the bonds we have as Christ-followers all over the world- we are all indeed one in Christ Jesus no matter what our creed, race or background. We left  for the theatre, blessed and having taken time out in this extra busy city to "be still and know that He is  indeed, our God." 

The play, "Once On An Island", was written in response to the ever growing number of disasters occurring around the world: from the unrelenting storms and earthquakes in Haitii and other places, to the refugee crises in Syria and around the world, the horrific tradegy in New York and hurricane Katrinna in New Orleans. However, the director's note adds " that sadly there will more to add to this heavy list as it seems that no person or place is immune to the power of the gods" I would add that God is still Sovereign , it is not surprising that there are wars and rumours of wars, natural disasters and people have more concerned for themselves than others or the environment for we are a fallen generation, the world is not the way God designed it and Revelations speaks of the decay and chaos of the last days. 

The director's note summarises the play with these words:  it is my hope that the story of Ti Moune might inspire any person, regardless of age, gender, race, ability, sexuality or circumstance to become a catalyst for change; that through how they give and share love, you might inspire the tearing down of walls and not the erecting of them." 

" Once On An Island" is the story how one tiny insignificant girl who becomes myth and legend for survivors of a wounded and healing island and how caring for the natural resources, loving and caring for others and especially giving aid to those who are affected by natural disasters can echo and reverberate long after across the generations. The cast was almost entirely Afro-American actors and the 9 year old girl who played Ti Moune was a joy to watch. The play was performed in the round and we were in the second row from the front so we felt like we were almost on the island because the circular stage area was covered in sand with a reticulating water course, palm trees, an old rowing boat, a truck, clothes hanging from rope lines strung about and a live goat and hen were just part of the sets used. We throughly enjoyed the negro songs and especially the sweet powerful voice of the mama who was round and jolly and wore a headscarf and big bib-apron for most of the play. We would loved to have photographed bits of the play it was strictly forbidden so we took a photo of a painting about the play instead. 

After the show, we headed back to Times Square to experience it at night. It was similar to our last visit years ago: flashy night lights, neon signs, massive screen shots, wall to wall crowds of people with their heads tipped up skyward, traffic noises competing with the screen background sounds and police sirens. There was a festive air of excitement as people crammed the streets to view the ever changing news flashes, the gigantic vividly coloured advertisement screens and constant, melodic chortling of the evening hawkers with their enticing treats to eat or mind-blowing contraptions to sell. In contrast there was a strong police presence among the throngs of teenagers and young adults and we baby boomers were in the minority. After a while we decided to walk back to the ship. We felt safe even in the dark backstreets of NY because there were usually people chatting on steps and near their apartments, a policeman on the beat or shift workers heading out to work  so the streets were never deserted even at 10pm .

We think that an add for Manhattan mini storage sums up why we'd not want to move to New York. We enjoyed Cen
tral Park for its' peacefulness and beauty and loved the excitement of walking the treats and seeing a live show but living in this busy, congested city is not for us. 

When we arrived back at the ship we were going to flop into bed but as we passed the Princess a theatre we noticed that the later show was about to start so we took a seat, intending to stay only a few minutes but the show was fantastic. You'd think that we would have been ' all showed out' but this was New York that never sleeps. The show was a very gifted local NY jazz band with a very gifted  female soft toned soul singer, a male tap dancer and a fan dancer. We stayed for the whole performance and didn't want it to end. The audience of our fellow passengers felt the same and a standing ovation was given at the end of the show.

What a "cherry on the cake" this show was!

See New York -3 blog for our second day in NY experiences,