While My Hello Kitty and I were in New York, one of the places we had to visit was Central Park. You hear so much about it from TV or Movies. Like in so many movies where they have aerial shots of New York, you’re very likely to see a shot of Central Park in there somewhere! It’s like this big patch of green in the middle of the concrete jungle that’s rectangular in shape.
The cool thing about New York is that It’s planned out in a way where street names can be used as coordinates. So if someone wants to tell you where he lives, he just has to say “on the corner of Madison and 31st Street” or something and you can look on the map and find that exact spot. So similarly, distance is measured by the term “blocks” which is how many grids of buildings you will have to pass in order to get to the place. One block takes maybe… 5-10 minutes or so to walk. Central Park runs for like… 51 blocks!
Central Park is really nice. You see a lot of people doing all sorts of outdoor stuff. I saw girls in bikinis sun bathing while lying on the grass. I saw people playing baseball.
I saw couples row boats.
I saw lots of people jogging or cycling.
Lots of mothers with strollers walking around the park and lots of water coolers for people like me who can’t last 5 minutes without water.
There were lots of people walking their dogs too. My Hello Kitty loves big dogs so when she saw one she couldn’t resist patting it in the head. The owner of the dog was Filipino and fortunately she didn’t have the dog ordered to ATTACK MY HELLO KITTY!
That’s one thing about New York. Everywhere you go, people like to ask where you’re from because lots of people there are from all around the world and they just happen settle down in New York. I initially thought New York had a reputation for “rude people” but I actually met some really really helpful people there. We would be walking the streets looking at a map and a passerby would just stop us and ask if we need help.
This other time we were trying to get into the subway but failing terribly because My Hello Kitty’s subway travel card didn’t seem to work. We were trying it for a long long time until a guy who was dressed like Snoop Dogg and looked like Akon came over and offered to swipe his card for us. In other words, to help us he was willing to pay the subway fare for My Hello Kitty. To make matters worse, once he swiped the card I saw the credit he had left, something like $8 left or something. So that guy probably had $10 to begin with on the card and he spent 20% of the total money he had on the card just to help a stranger. Such a nice guy. I hope good karma comes back to him.
Anyway back to Central Park. One of the things we wanted to see at Central Park was Strawberry Fields. The story behind Strawberry Fields is that decades ago, John Lennon was shot right outside his apartment which is the building behind me in this picture. That’s right, John Lennon used to stay there.
His apartment is right opposite Central Park so in 1985 on what would’ve been his 45th birthday, his Japanese wife did was create a memorial for him in Central Park named after one of his songs: Strawberry Fields (Forever).
It’s a mosaic mural where lots of John Lennon fans will come and leave their belongings here amongst the strawberries and flowers that were laid out into a peace sign.
Right in the middle of the mural was the word “Imagine”, probably after his song.
I don’t know how to explain but just being there at Strawberry Fields gave you a very… peaceful feeling. Heck if I ever have a memorial, that’s the exact kind of place I would like it to be. Not that I want to die anything soon or anything… don’t get me wrong… *touch wood touch wood* (please please let me live a long happy life!)
Here’s My Hello Kitty and I with the full shot of the memorial. A friendly New Yorker was nice enough to take this picture for us.
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One thing about me is that I’m very very easily influenced by things around me. Like I can see an ad for Snickers and within the next 24 hours I will crave one and go buy one. My Hello Kitty calls me the dream consumer. Just advertise anywhere and you get instant ROI from people like me going out to buy your product.
In this case, the next day after Strawberry Fields we were walking on the streets of New York when we came by this fruit stall.
I saw some strawberries and I immediately bought some.
Gotta admit that those are some really good strawberries though. Sweet and juicy! I don’t know why we can’t find such good strawberries back here in Malaysia. If I could I would have so many of them! Oh well… strawberries for you John Lennon! I shall end this entry with a tribute to John Lennon.
Here’s “Imagine” by John Lennon. Such a beautiful song! Rest in peace John Lennon! Your legend lives on!
Timothy Tiah – Co-Founder of Colony, Kuala Lumpur Co-Working Space