Sail Re-edit. Hilariou-osity, humourtastic, so Haha-licious.

Another funny vid from the girls at Nanalew. See the rest of their videos here. As much fun watching two girls play with a hosepipe you will have all week.

Stare at the red dot and the blue circle will dissapear.

Honest truth, I'mma doing magic.

Pops-tickle Stick Bomb

HOW, HOW, HOW, HOW, HOW, does this work, awesome man, Where can I buy a pops-tickle.

The Royal Suite

Stumbled on another amazing suite. This is the royal suite and was residence of The Duke and Dutchess of Windsor. The room is immaculate, crystal and gold everywhere and all the furniture is either restored or original period antiques. 

The suite consists of two rooms, a living room, and dining room. The chandelier on the right is entirely made out of crystal with intricate blue roses.

There is more gold in the bathroom finishings than in most jewellry stores. HA HA HA I can dream!!!!

Staten Island.

I had to go to Staten Island to go view some apartments. The ferry is really easy to get to with three subway stations all stopping either right on top or basically right on top of the terminal. If you doing the tourist thing then this is a great idea for a Sunday morning. Battery Park is located right next door and is currently being used as an urban farm. There was also some kind of market going on. The park is also where you can catch a ferry to Ellis Island or the Statue of Liberty.

Tourist Tip: For the best view of Manhattan let everybody get on the ferry before you, the ferry heads straight out of the terminal and doesn't change direction. Simply step onto the loading ramp and turn around, you'll get an awesome view without frantically fighting for a seat on the upper decks.

It is so strange that so much happens on such a small piece of land. The new World Trade Centre buildings are the buildings with the cranes on top of them. Another place I would like to go see.

How to find an Apartment in NYC.

Apartment Hunting 101

I'm one week into my hunt for a room and no further to finding one. It seems counter intuitive that it would be so hard to find a good apartment when there are so many offers available on so many different websites. Finding one that is within my price range and reasonably close to work is tough.

Where I am looking:

Manhattan: The Island. Expect to pay for the convenience of living on the Island, with rooms starting at about $800 if you lucky and averaging at more than a grand unless you find a roommate who can split room costs, it is just impractical for students who are just settling in. There are better offers further between Harlem and the Bronx that have easy access to the Subway systems and are worth checking out. Also don't expect reasonably priced rooms to be furnished. A good resource to finding properties in Manhattan can be found at www.corcoran.com

Queens. To the west of Manhattan this Burrough is a great place to start. Fully serviced by subway it is within good travel times for Midtown. Astoria is about half an hour from Midtown by subway and seems to be the starting point for many immigrants I have met so far. I have heard quite a few people say Astoria is the new "up and comer" in the city and is very reasonably priced. Traditionally a Greek neighborhood the influx of students makes finding a room that is furnished easier than other places. Unfortunately most places I've looked at are snatched up before I even get a showing. This is still my first choice destination.

Jersey City. Twenty minutes from Times Square by bus with rooms going for as little as $500 this is also an area of great interest for me. I'm a bit scared of travelling to Jersey because I'm not exactly sure about the bus routes yet but I will find out in good time. Being out of New York also means the cost of living is less and if you can get a room close to the river you can get an awesome view of the city.

Staten Island: I'm not really sure what convinced me that this would be a good idea but against the warnings of everybody in the office I decided to see for myself. The prices are good starting at about $500, you can snatch a whole apartment for just less than a grand. The problem is the commute. The ferry leaves every half hour during peak times and takes half an hour to get across the channel. Add that service ends at 11:30PM and you won't be able to stay any later than that in Manhattan if you want to get home. Also imagining the ferry in New York winter seems insane but I take my hat off to all those that make the trip every day.

Brooklyn: I cant exactly tell you why but I tend to gloss over the ads for Brooklyn, it is probably totally uncalled for but I get a sense of weariness. I will have to start looking here and plan on spending my next weekend exploring Brooklyn so I can get over whatever this nonsense I have in my head behind me.

Resources 

Craigslist:

1. Make sure you have a working American number as many people do not respond to just emails.
2. Use the posting ID as the subject in your reply emails because when you get a reply you have no way of telling which advert the respond is referring too. Which becomes a problem when you have sent out 25-30 emails in one sitting.
3. I'm not sure but it seems that people don't remove their ads when they have filled the position so expect a lot of null and voids.

Padmapper.com

1. I really enjoy using this site and their slogan is "Making apartment hunting suck less." so at least they understand it sucks. This website is great because it pins all the adverts from craigslist, gumtree etc onto a Google map of your search area so you can see exactly where and how far the rooms are. They don't have a filter for holiday/short term rooms so expect to do some digging to find what you looking for.

Easyroommate.com

1. Another great resource with lots of ads, it allows you to email the advertiser without upgrading. It also notifies you if your email has been read so you know if you don't get a response to remove the room from your list which makes things more convenient. 

Nyhabitat.com

1. This is the only professional agency I am using and I am keeping them in my pocket as a last resort. Professional and quick they are just too pricey for me. They charge the first month's rent as the commission but a colleague of mine used their service and was very happy. 

General tips

1. Beware of sliding scale rent structures. The first 3 months rent will be $750 and then it will jump to say $1100 and if you signed a contract without realizing this you could be in some serious trouble. 
2. Try get a room with utilities included, this generally covers your water, heat, WiFi and cable. If utilities are shared you might find yourself paying utilities for the whole apartment if 3 roommates decide to move out at the same time. 
3. I only learnt this tip today from one of the hot kitchen chefs at the Waldorf. If using an agency ask if there are any "Fee Paid Apartments". This means the commission is paid by the landlord. I will try this tomorrow and let you know how it works out.
4. The NYC Affordable Housing Center has some great tips.

Occupy Wall Street

Follow the live feed here: http://www.livestream.com/globalrevolution

Like almost everybody in the city I heard the buzz about the group of protesters in the financial district during the week. Today I had time to go investigate after spending the morning in Staten Island apartment hunting. First I walked down Wall Street which was covered with NYPD and K9 units but could not find any activity other than tourists taking pictures. I remembered that they were in a park and turned around, walked down Broadway and came across the camp.

I spent about an hour walking around talking to other people, listening to the grand standing. The camp consists of a haphazard mix of furniture, tarps, plastic bags of belongings and what I assume to be tents packed away for the day. The media has been quick to point out that the effort is without focus and apparently leaderless. This is however a grass roots campaign that has just begun to stumble and walk.

The movement's website features a video found on http://wearethe99percent.tumblr.com/. Watch it, It explains in pretty plain terms why the protesters are angry.

This woman was standing at the entrance to Liberty Park, greeter to the masses and face of the cause I guess.  Message is pretty clear and reminds me of Animal Farm by George Orwell. 

The grand standers are not allowed to use megaphones, which for a country as free as the States seems a bit rough. Instead using short sentences everybody within earshot repeats the message to those behind them and so forth. It is quite haphazard and fizzles out often but they are adamant and make it work.

I had to giggle at this, Only in New York.

Protesters making posters to hand to the crowd. I ran out of battery almost as soon as I arrived so I couldn't take photo's of any of the signs but will get some snaps tomorrow.

I left at about 4 o'clock and I heard that people had begun to gather at Brooklyn Bridge Planning to cross it and move into Brooklyn Bridge Park. 400 protesters were subsequently arrested. Here is a vid I found of the actual arrests on the bridge.

I've also heard Veteran Marines are on the way to the Liberty Park to help protect the protesters from any further police intervention. I think the events on Brooklyn Bridge incident will have caused quite a stir and expect this to be a much bigger story tomorrow, I am going back to see what is going on and will post updates.