By Bob Harris
Australians are given month long vacations due to their “down under” location. Jim and Natalie had been to the United States three times previously but had never visited New York City. On this trip they came with Natalie's parents, her two sisters and the boyfriend of one of them. They stopped in San Francisco then came to the Big Apple. Do you know that the east-west distance of Australia is the same as the United States? That is why they never came east on previous trips and we didn't visit the west coast of Australia on our trip to that continent.Instead of renting three or four hotel rooms, they rented a whole furnished apartment in Manhattan on the Upper East Side for the 3 1/2 weeks they were here. This made it easy for them to walk places, especially during the 3 day transit strike. They did marvel at the efficiency of the subway system which moves so many people 24 hours a day. They found New Yorkers very friendly and helpful with directions and assistance.To quote Jim, “Broadway was a sight to behold. The lights and noise emanating from Times Square, and the sheer mass of people, especially between Christmas and New Year's Day, confirmed all we had read and heard about the city. Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and Avenue Q were great choices for our first Broadway shows.” They attended four local sporting events- two football, one hockey nd one basketball game. Jim believed that they brought the local teams luck, because they won all four games.They walked across the Brooklyn Bridge (“fantastic”), visited Ellis and Liberty islands (“awesome”), took a Yankee Stadium tour, went to the top of the Empire State Building, saw a taping of the Daily Show, ice skated in Bryant Park, saw Central Park in winter, visited the Museum of Natural History, had drinks at the Rainbow Room, ate in the East Village, ate in Katz's Deli, went to Dangerfield's Comedy Club, visited Coney Island by subway, the South Street Seaport, 125th Street, and shopped and shopped so much that they had to buy another suitcase. They loved our sales. A few of the celebrities they saw were Bruce Springsteen, Matt Damon and Luke Wilson.They were impressed with the immense size of the Big Apple. From movies and television shows they had expected Manhattan to be big but the endless streets and avenues had new sights every single day. The shining holiday lights and the store window decorations were “a sight to see.”We invited all seven to our house in Fresh Meadows for dinner. They rode the F train to 179th Street and then we picked them up. One highlight of Queens was the sudden but light snowfall. There isn't snow in Sidney so even a few snowflakes were exciting. There were adults trying to catch snow flakes in their mouths.After their family went home, we invited Natalie and Jim to our house for a couple of days prior to their 22-hour flight back to Australia. They were impressed with the Panorama of New York City in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park. As we slowly walked around this illuminated scale model of New York City we pointed out famous sites and we all took pictures.We drove up Main Street so we could pass the half dozen different ethnic shops grouped together along this busy street. We ended up at a Korean restaurant on Northern Boulevard which is open 24 hours a day. This was their first taste of the multiple dishes served at a traditional Korean restaurant in New York City.They found the large houses in Jamaica Estates interesting, as well as the colonial houses in my immediate neighborhood. They compared them to the houses in Sidney, which are build differently due to the drier and hotter climate there. They found New York City “unique” with “something for everyone.” They plan to come back.Good News of the Week: The Flushing Fitzgerald/Ginsberg mansion on Bayside Avenue was granted landmark designation by the City Council, according to Councilman John Liu. The Landmarks Preservation Commission did the same a few months ago. This is the last great mansion from the Gilded Age of the 1920s. It is good that we are able to save another of the historic sites in Queens from speculators. Now, how about saving the Klein Farm!Bad News of the Week: An article in the journal Pediatrics said research has concluded that SUVs are no safer than ordinary cars for children riding in them. The same number of children is injured in accidents in both types of cars. Although SUVs are bigger and stronger, they tend to roll over more often so the size is cancelled out by the rollover factor. Some 4,000 children under the age of 16 were checked between the years 2000 and 2003 to determine this information. I have always contended that SUVs are so bulky that other drivers can's see through or around them, they use too much gasoline and they tend to roll over.
