Waking up in the city that never sleeps

When I open my eyes I am surrounded by huge flashing billboards. It reminds me of Piccadilly Circus – but the taxi’s and traffic lights are yellow and I can hardly fit my hand around my regular soda. There’s no mistaking it, this is New York!

My colleague Abigail and I are lucky enough to do our sightseeing around Manhattan on the seventh of March. Why lucky? Well, this is the one day between the bomb at the US military recruiting station in the middle of Times Square (see picture) and the weekend snowstorm.

There isn’t much evidence left of the small bomb that destroyed the door of the recruiting station, except for a burned poster that says: “Are you army strong?”

The police simply suspects vandalism, not terrorism - and while no one got hurt a local security guard says everyone here was “really scared when it happened”.

As my eyes scan the scene I notice a billboard and forget all about the news events of the day: “Lipstick Jungle: new series starting soon”.

Now that’s something to look forward to. ‘Lipstick Jungle’ is a novel by the same author who wrote ‘Sex and the City’. Let’s hope this series will be as good.

Abigail and I pass by Macy’s (the largest store in the world), Victoria’s Secret and the Empire State Building. It’s a cloudy, misty day and so we decide to leave the view from the top for next time.

The people here look content. And why not? They are all young, sexy and successful judging by the labels they wear. A giant limousine passes by as we walk down Fifth Avenue. Could that be Sarah Jessica Parker?

It starts to rain and we head for a trendy bar to have a Cosmopolitan cocktail. Anything to help us imagine that this land of dreams is ours, for just a moment.