Another wonderful day in the Big Apple!

I caught up with some friends whom I've met only once before for lunch and dinner. While I had the world's most bizarre waiter for lunch (among other things, he brought the Parmesan cheese for my lasagna ten minutes after the food arrived, while on another front, he called me "Peggy Sue" and lastly, when my friend was paying by credit card, he just stood behind her and plucked it out of her hands.), it was nevertheless a good lunch spent catching up with a colleague who'd relocated to New York from Asia this year, and faced the same problems I'd faced when I moved to London, namely, that of not being able to really meet people and make friends.

For dinner, another friend, R., and I went to Brazilian Rodizio Plataforma Restaurant, a Brazilian churrascaria, for dinner. The salad bar - which included sushi, sashimi, cod fish stew and asparagus risotto - was ridiculous, and, sadly, neither he nor I could consume much meat, although I did eat a pork striploin, a sirloin steak, some grilled chicken, grilled cheese and a bacon wrapped pork something or other, in addition to several slices of fried bananas (I LOVE goreng pisang, regardless of the cuisine). This was followed by a trip to the nearby Ricky's costume store whereupon I purchased the finishing touches to my costume, as well as a dominatrix whip just for the fun of it. The line was mad; it snaked around the store and I queued up for over 20 minutes. Fortunately, there were many costumes to distract us while we were waiting.

Following this, we went to a sake bar near 50th St. It had nice decor and a friendly waitress (R.'s a regular) and some damn good sake.

R. was incredibly gentlemanly, carrying my shopping bag, buying me dinner, walking me to the subway and waiting for the train with me. He was also incredibly easy to talk to. We talked about NY and London and the differences between the cities, as well as the difficulties involved in arriving in such a cosmopolitan city when you don't know anyone. We also talked about relationships; he'd broken up with his long-term girlfriend last year, just before we first met, and has been having an incredible time ever since. And, of course, for me, I'm not exactly sure where I stand, as MD called me earlier in the week, saying he doesn't want us to break up after all.

Anyway, the highlight of the day must definitely be the Museum of Modern Art. I arrived at the museum at about 3 pm and somehow managed to snag the last ticket for the Van Gogh and the Colours of the Night exhibition. The ticket, as it turned out, happened to be a ticket returned by someone and the entrance time on the ticket was 3.30 pm, as opposed to a number of people before me who had obtained tickets for an entrance time of 5 pm. I was incredibly ecstatic at being able to catch Van Gogh's Starry Night and The Potato Eaters. I also had the chance to catch the Joan Miró: Painting and Anti-Painting 1927–1937 preview (for members only) which featured a stunning painting entitled Still Life with Old Shoe and felt really blessed after that.

As for the usual exhibits, I was thrilled to see Warhol's Campbell's Soup Cans, as well as Roy Lichtenstein's Drowning Girl, in addition to a number of works by Kandinsky, Klimt and Matisse.

I can't decide which one of the three I've visited thus far is my favourite as they are all fantastic in different ways. One thing's for sure: New York has some amazing museums, and I'm not sure if London can compete in quite the same way!

Tomorrow, I plan to try an everything bagel for breakfast, before indulging in some serious retail therapy.

I had the most amazing sensory experiential day today.

On the visual front, there was the visit to Liberty Island in the morning, followed by the American Museum of Natural History where the exhibit on lizards and snakes, as well as the renowned dinosaur bones and fossils just blew me away.

On the tasting front, there was the prix fix set lunch at Jean-Georges, a three-starred restaurant, and, apparently, also a feature on ExxonMobil's travel guide for the US, which was just simply amazing both in terms of the food (the foie gras was incredible, and the chocolate cake was orgasmic) and service.

Lastly, on the audio (and also visual) front, there was Madama Butterfly at the Met Opera House. Anthony Minghella's production was a visual spectacular and Patricia Racette's portrayal of Cio-Cio-San/Butterfly was spot on. More on this some other time, but just wanted to say that while reading the sypnosis just before the show began, I found myself thinking, "Why on earth did I think there was a transverstite involved in this show?" Simple. It's because of M. Butterfly.

This reminds me of when I had a conversation with a friend earlier this week about having been told I should visit FAO Schwarz, the largest toy store in New York. I said, "And while I've heard of the company before, I always thought it was a fund, like Charles Schwab." As it turns out, that same friend thought so too.

Right now, I'm having a really bad sore throat and I'm hoping it's just because I haven't been drinking enough water today, as opposed to what it usually means, which is, I'm about to fall ill. Oh dear.

GAH! Halloween is this Friday and I haven't the faintest idea what to wear. I was thinking of dressing up as a cat, but the only cat costume I've seen so far is the Kissable Kitty costume from Ricky's near Grand Central Station. Given how cold it was today (amidst the thunderstorms and the incredibly strong winds), I'm not sure I could survive wearing that.

On another note, apparently, it snowed in London today. Snow. In October. What is the world coming to?

Back to what I've been doing in the Big Apple. I went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art today, and it is amazing. Not only does it house one of the world's greatest collection of art (I think it's the largest museum in the Western Hemisphere) but everything is so nicely and artistically laid out too. For instance, the Roman Art room reminds me a lot of the Forum in Rome, while the Chinese Art rooms featured a Chinese garden in the middle of all the art. My favourite paintings from the museum were those by Joan Miro, although the bone paintings by Georgia O'Keefe and the pop art paintings by Lichenstein and Warhol were also up there. I very much liked Damien Hirst's incredibly pointless yet really cool 14-foot shark in formaldehyde entitled "The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living". I wish I could have taken a photo of it, particularly the view from the front, but, alas, it was one of the rare pieces which we weren't allowed to photograph.

Tomorrow, I aim to conquer another two museums, namely, the Museum of Modern Art (Van Gogh's Starry Night!) and the American Museum of Natural History. That is, if my feet are still up to it. My calves are aching! I don't know if I've been walking a lot or if it's something else all together!

Two pieces of technology which are at extreme ends of the like scale for me right now:

1. My BlackBerry - It's fantastic as an organiser, but, quite frankly, I'd rather have a personal BB compared to the corporate one I am now carrying. Two days out of the office and over 50 e-mails so far. Man, I don't think I've ever managed to have a proper vacation since I received it, and I am both thankful and a bit anxious that I don't get any reception in the room in which I sleep.
2. My friend's OSIM ISqueez - Without it, my calves and feet would still be aching right now. New York is a city meant for walking, but, right now, even though I've bought a new pair of shoes, and am on the look-out for a pair of boots, what I would really love is a new pair of feet. The ISqueez does a pretty good job of restoring what's left of the old pair.

And wonder of wonders, in spite of my attempting to prop up the ailing US economy, the GBP has managed to strengthen/remain unchanged since its recovery following its plunge to a 5 or 37 year low on Friday (aka the day I left on vacation).

One of the top NY experiences has got to be walking down towards 5th Avenue from Union Square and turning left just as you hit 5th to see the magnificent Empire State Building. I hadn't realised it was there when I alighted at the stop, and the wonder I feel was beyond words.

It was almost topped by my joy at finding the little green oasis that is Madison Square Park right by the awesomely-shaped Flatiron Building.

I wonder what joys today holds for me!

"New York's not a bad place to be alone."

So a good friend tells me.

Off to discover if that's true, and judging by the sheer joy I felt at seeing the oh-so-familiar traffic lights and street arrangements, I'm thinking there must be more than just a grain of truth in that.

I will be leaving the Big Smoke for the Big Apple in a couple of hours. Instead of feeling happy and excited - as I had been in the past few days - I am feeling seven kinds of crap right now, because MD and I unexpectedly split this morning. It wasn't anything to do with us, or the differences in our personalities and characters. He and I love each other and love each other very much. Rather, it had to do with a certain parent hating me, although she has never met me.

It's not the first time I've encountered this in a relationship, but I hope it will be the last. It's not an issue I feel I can ever fight against; in a battle of girlfriend vs. mother, I am entirely aware of how the odds are stacked.

MD has proposed something else rather than us being in an exclusive relationship to get around the parental constraints. It's something my heart jumps at because I dearly want us to continue, but my head says that if this isn't going anywhere, I should just get out while I can.

I can't really think about it right now. I haven't slept in over 30 hours and I've been crying my heart out since we broke up.

I really hope this vacation will clear my head. Surely the charm and magic of New York can alleviate the heaviest of heartaches?

Say hello to Little Miss Random, CFA.

It may be three little letters (and a comma and a space), but man, it feels so good.

One fine afternoon in the office, a colleague from another team walks up to my cubicle neighbour and asks a question. As my neighbour embarks on a lengthy reply, the question-asker reponds to every set of six words with "Mmm hmm".

Just as I begin to get seriously annoyed by that sound, I get an instant message from the other cubicle neighbour, saying: "If she says 'Mmm hmm' one more time, I will kill her."

And, of course, the question asker said it again.

I couldn't help it. I burst out laughing, getting a strange look from her in the process.

I guess it was one of those 'You had to be there' moments.

Unfit to lead the country, she might be, but one has to concede that she is an exceedingly good sport for having agreed to this... although I do agree. It might not be good for the campaign!

Click here for the full lyrics to the rap.

This afternoon, I watched Joey McKneely's revival of West Side Story, considered to be the best musical of all-time by more than a few renowned critics. Although it has been made into a critically acclaimed film (the movie won 10 Oscars including "Best Picture") and many songs have been ingrained into the public's consciousness even though they may not quite know where the song came from this was my first encounter with the show in any form. How did I feel about it? Well, I came away pretty much despising Maria, the female lead. I know that this is an adaptation of Romeo and Juliet, and I do generally feel for the star-crossed lovers when I watch such shows, but this time, I just cannot believe how unsympathetic they managed to make Maria.

MD explained that she's supposed to be a young, naive teenager, fresh off the boat and crazily in love with Tony, the first real man she has met. To be fair, my understanding of the plot was marred considerably by not having managed to catch the first 15 to 20 minutes of the show as MD was late. This notwithstanding, my general hatred of Maria came from watching her reaction to Chito telling her about the rumble which resulted in her brother's death. Her immediate response, "What about Tony?" I couldn't help it and just said, there and then, "Does she really not give a **** about her brother?"

To people who know me well, I am incredibly protective of my brother. As a result, I tend to react a little more negatively than most when it comes to incidents such as what seemed to have been portrayed in that particular scene in WSS.

To top things off, after they sing Somewhere, a song professing their love and wish that there exists a place for them to live in peace and happiness, Tony and Maria end up sleeping together, which is something I had great difficulty understanding. Yes, you're in love with him, girl, but he killed your brother. You may feel what you have is the real deal, but surely something's amiss?

In fact, I felt so strongly about this that when Maria attempts to fob the detective off by saying she has to go to her brother, I just snorted incredibly loudly. B****. Yeesh.

Anyway, this is not to say that I hated the show. Not at all. There are some incredible moments, such as when the ensemble sings Tonight, which had a certain operatic element to it what with different parts of the cast singing different lyrics which, when heard all together, sounded delightful. America was particularly delightful and I felt the singing and the dancing worked well with the score and just integrated perfectly. 

Stephen Sondheim's brilliant wit was showcased in Gee, Officer Krupke! and made me laugh and cheer, although I felt the rearrangement of songs by McKneely meant that the song came at an inappropriate part of the show (at a time when you felt the Jets would be mourning their leader's death, rather than clowning around).

It is nice to see that WSS still seems as refreshing as it did 50 years ago when it was first staged. There are, of course, certain parts which seem a little out-of-date given that we are now living in a world where sex and violence are so in-your-face. That can't be helped. Still, it is a classic, and everyone who loves musicals should catch this one.

As for me, I'll be renting the DVD and watching the film to see how this worked as a movie... and hopefully, the film doesn't have Maria appearing as hateful and immature as this production!

Ahead of my NY trip, I have already purchased the following and had them shipped to my friend's place before my arrival:

1. A pair of rollerblades (£140 here, $110 over there!)
2. Dance apparel
3. God, the Devil and Bob - The Complete Series on DVD

To my friend, if you're reading this - thanks a million! I owe you!

There are already a whole bunch of things I'll be on the look-out for when I get there, namely vintage wear (The Vested Gentress being particularly high on my list of labels to look out for), jeans (True Religion and 7 for all Mankind), MAC cosmetics, a sexy, classy little black dress (if not, then Vivienne Westwood's Corseted Drape Dress being an expensive back-up) and, most importantly, a warm jacket or coat.

I have been freezing a little over the last few days and it's mostly because my winter coat is too chunky for this kind of weather, and what I usually wear doesn't work too well when the wind blows or if I have had any alcohol to drink. I've taken to wearing my not-at-all flattering jumpers under my coats, but am not too fond of this option as they keep snagging on my earrings when I take them off.

In addition to shopping, there are so many other things I'm looking forward to... checking out MoMA and the Metropolitan Museum (for free, thanks to one of my few corporate privileges), the Met Opera, Broadway, Brooklyn Heights (according to MD, the most romantic place in NY), Greenwich Village, jazz cafes and, of course, Halloween!

I am not a classical music lover. I don't know how to play the piano, which is rather unusual for a Singaporean, nor have I ever figured out how to read music. If I had to learn an instrument, it would be the drums, because that features so prominently in jazz and I love the improvisation that takes place when it comes to jazz drums.

But I digress. I am currently listening to what MD feels is the world's greatest recording of Verdi's La Traviata, as sung by Joan Sutherland and Luciano Pavarotti and conducted by Richard Bonyge in 1979. I certainly am not one to be able to comment on these things, not having grown up on them, unlike MD. But it sounds wonderful and the flutes and violins just sound as if they are dancing throughout the faster pieces (such as Dell'invito Trascorsa and Libiamo, ne' lieti calici) and it just sounds wonderfully infectious. And the ending of Un di felice, eterea when the whole cast sings in unison just completely blew me away.

The only other opera I have watched is Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro and it was also an enjoyable experience, and, as it unexpectedly turns out, was a turning point in our relationship, a point which will be elaborated on some other time. MD and I were meant to watch Mozart's Don Giovanni a few weeks later on account of it being the dream cast (Simon Keenlyside as the title lead and Charles MacKerras as conductor) at the Royal Opera House, but he and I were both unexpectedly sidelined by work. Such is the nature of our work. Thankfully, Don Giovanni is now available to be watched online, courtesy of the ROH.

In any case, I will be heading to New York for the first time in a couple of days. MD and I have spoken, and I will, in addition to wanting to catch a show on Broadway, now be purchasing a ticket to Anthony Minghella's production of Madama Butterfly at the Metropolitan Opera featuring Patricia Racette as Cio-Cio San, although, as MD and I both acknowledged, the plot of the opera itself was pretty weak. To be exact, he described it as "s***" while my response after reading the sypnosis was "That's it? That's IT?!"

I can't wait!

Amidst all the financial turmoil - which is now spilling over into the real economy - who would have thought that I'd have managed to find happiness in one aspect of my life? MD and I have only been together "in title" (as a friend put it) for a few months, but, already I'm much happier than I've been in previous relationships. Given how strongly he and I feel about each other, my feelings about the relationship itself veer between terror and joy.

He makes me happy. Very, very happy. At the same time, I'm scared because I don't think I've felt this strongly about someone so soon. We have mitigating and unusual circumstances; we see each other everyday and it's weird when a day goes by without one of us talking in some way, shape or form with the other. I guess that explains in part why our relationship seems to have progressed rather speedily.

Of course it makes me feel uncomfortable. I'm a little paranoid that something burning still strongly and brightly just means it'll burn out sooner than it otherwise would have had we allowed it to slow down. MD's been wonderful whenever I had these mini-freak-outs, reminding me that we started out as people who got along incredibly well and that, if anything ever happened, we'll still be great friends.

At the same time, it feels natural for us to be planning things to do together months in advance. Neither he nor I have any fears that we won't be getting along and all that jazz. It's such a novel feeling.

Right now, I just feel so incredibly happy and blessed that we're together, regardless of what the future holds. It's early days yet, as we like to say, but they have been wonderfully happy days.

It's so nice and sunny today, it's unreal. Thank God there's one more weekend of warm weather amidst all the freezing temperatures we've been enduring of late!

Is there a more perfect way to cap this wonderful day off than enjoying a nice roast duck dinner at Four Seasons with MD?

Bedrock's 10th anniversary at Matter was simply incredible. John Digweed was in fine form and I hated having to leave so early at 5.15 am when word on the street was that he would spin a ten-hour set ending at 8 am. At the same time, in spite of the tremendous amount of fun I had, I acknowledge I couldn't have lasted much longer, having fallen asleep a number of times on my feet even if, just a few seconds before that, I had been dancing my heart out. I think my sleep deprivation has reached serious levels and it's starting to happen more and more often now.

Diggers is one of my favourite DJs of all-time. Not only was he one of two who got me started in clubbing (the other being, of course, Sasha), but he's been great at ensuring that clubbing, or at least his sets and music, were kept accessible in a time when club prices were soaring; Bedrock nights were started to allow poor students to enjoy a quality night out at affordable prices). I'd been to Bedrock a couple of times (at least twice as far as I can remember) and I'd always had fun. Moreover, he's been in the business for years now and he's always been rated among the best DJs in the world... and he really is! Not like those DJs who rest on the laurels of glories past (*cough* Oakie *cough*).

Anyway, when I got there, after queueing up for 45 minutes in the ticketholders queue and a further 10 minutes for the cloakroom, I went straight for the packed BodyKinetic Dance Floor and proceeded to dance for the first hour entirely sober. I wasn't even bothered too much by the constant stream of human traffic. That's how good it was.

After that, I was rather thirsty and headed for the bar where I was served within an incredibly fast six minutes, opting for a bottle of water and a double vodka Red Bull to see me through the rest of the night. I went to the first floor balcony hoping to get a better view. Much to my surprise, there weren't too many people around the area overlooking the main dance floor. It was clearly crowded but there was enough space for me to dance the way I like to dance. I liked it there so much that I remained there for the next three hours, just taking in the visually stunning light show, the clearly enthralled crowd and, of course, Digweed's sheer genius. I thoroughly regretted voting for Carl Cox over Digweed in the DJ polls. What on earth was I thinking? Clearly no one rocks it better and harder than Digweed when he's on form. Enough said.

Digweed promised us a journey through ten years of Bedrock and he delivered us a set which was at times ambient, at times dark and at times just epic. At one point, he dropped a harder, techier version of Apollo 440 - Liquid Cool (Deep Forest 's Ice Cold @ The Equator Mix) which Sasha pretty much introduced to the world by playing it on Radio 1 in 1994. He also dropped the M.O.D.E. remix of Bedrock - Heaven Scent to end off the night, so I've read, which I really would have liked to hear on a professional sound system given that rates as one of my top ten clubbing tracks of all times.

All in all, it was a thoroughly wonderful night, only capped off by my taking the Thames Clipper to get myself on my merry way home. Matter still isn't the most convenient location in the world and it's doubtful I'm likely to go there when it's really cold out as it's even colder out there as a result of it being right by a massive body of water, but, all in all, the two nights I've been there, Carl Cox being the other one, have been good fun.

It's almost as if the UK has declared war on Iceland. The relationship between the two nations worsened when Alistair Darling threatened to take legal action to save British lenders who had deposited their money in Icesave, an instant-access high-interest Internet account offered by Landsbanki. Then came the seizure of assets courtesy of the application of the UK's anti-terrorism laws.

I guess it's safe to say that the relationship between the UK and Iceland is decidedly frosty. Hee!

It is rather depressing to watch all attempts at bailing out the beleaguered financial system fail miserably. After four large central banks cut rates by 0.5% in an unprecedented co-ordinated move today, overnight commercial paper rose by 0.56% to 3.5%, indicating that markets still haven't unlocked themselves and that it'll take a lot more than what's been done in order to restore liquidity and confidence in the markets. Given how much has been thrown at this problem which, to my mind, looks more and more like a big black hole every day, I'm not sure how much money central banks can continue to pump into the system.

Markets are irrational, just like women, I told a friend. Part of me feels that the media has played a major part in causing this run on the financial system as a whole. I'm not sure whether that's fair of me to say that, but I would say that if I didn't have the financial knowledge I have, I would most likely believe everything the press has been saying. I'd probably be keeping my money in a metal box hidden beneath the floorboards or something like that.

I'm definitely not saying banks aren't too blame. Of course they are. Banks make bundles of money coming up with complicated structures which are in no way tangible and yet worth billions of dollars. Unfortunately, new innovations in the financial sector cannot be tested in the way cosmetics and drugs can be. If something fails, it'll fail spectacularly. No two ways about it.

Right now, I can't figure out if governments needed to have responded a lot earlier than this, or if they should have done nothing at all, though I do note that for politicians and everyone else, it is much much better to be seen trying to do something, as opposed to doing nothing, even if the latter would have resulted in a more favourable outcome.

Back from the craziness that is the closing weekend of Oktoberfest in Munich.

I didn't acquit myself at all and am, in fact, thoroughly ashamed of my incredibly poor show, but am looking to make up for it at one of the Oktoberfest celebrations in London just to prove that I'm not such a lightweight who only managed one litre of beer, fell asleep at the table before noon and threw part of the beer back up shortly after it moved into the PM, even if it was freezing cold and rainy and I can't take beer usually.

No siree. I did no such thing.

Damn! Sinfest's been outdoing itself lately with Tat's take on Wall Street and the presidential campaign. My favourites so far have been this, this and today's.

On another note, check out SNL's parody of Katie Couric's interview with Gov. Sarah Palin, using Palin's own words. Tina Fey looks so much like her, it's unreal.

Amy Poehler as Couric: You went to the UN for the first time. How was that experience?

Tina Fey as Palin: Oh, y'know it was just amazing... so many interesting people. Though I have to say I was disheartened by how many of them were foreigners. I promise that when Senator McCain and I are elected, we are going to get those jobs back in American hands.