A Brooklyn Night

This is Paul C in Brooklyn at night. He had given up smoking and drinking which means that my memories of him ashtray at the ready, drink in hand are no longer a part of who he is. Paul is in remission and feeling good. I only spoke to Rita briefly and will try to catch up with them later. He remembers drinking with Peter W and Brett as a thoroughly good time. Not my memory. Just goes to show.

Caron and Joel came over for dinner. They seem so have sold their souls to the devil in order to keep their looks. So many people I knew were at the party on Friday night. Some who I expected to see like Helene and Rachel, George and Joan and others who I did not expect to see like Debbie and Xandra the Red Avenger. It was great fun and Charles just walked around introducing himself as Greta's son as if he was some sort of celebrity by default.

Charles has been skating at the Rockefeller Center with Ben and has found the Subway managable, so he is moving around with ease. Caron and Joel warn against getting too comfortable and letting down our guard.

We went to Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty. This trip is really worth the day. It is America splayed out. The Statue in all its glory, hope and liberal thought vs the cold reality of Ellis Island. This place was one huge detention centre, off shore, but only just. Millions of people passed through, the first and second class passengers just went straight ashore, the steerage passengers were processed on the Island. One of the most awful things was the "Separation Stairs". Here immigrants, illiterate and impoverished were segragated into those who could be useful to the USA and those who could not. Health, age, colour, politics etc were all considerations and on the stairs whole family groups were separated. Some were allowed to proceed, some were sent back and some were put in detention. Usually they had no idea of what was happening, just that they were being separated: each group for a different fate. You could almost feel the horror of it. People would have been able to hold hands and touch until the last moment. It is no different to what Australia does to day, it was just more immediate and all within about 2km of Manhattan and 1km of the Statue of Liberty.

We have also seen The Bodies exhibition from China (absolutely mesmerising), been to an Andy Warhol exhibition (huge and impressive, especially the Mao) and been interviewed for Korean television (hilarious).

Our quest is to find food that is not laden with sugar. Even the bread is sweet, and the breakfast cereal is ridiculous. So far we have found one place the makes iced-tea that is iced-tea without sugar. I have to be right on the ball when I order coffee and ready to jump in with instructions such as "no whipped cream", "hold the chocolate syrup", "make that a small". A Manhattan small is equivilent to a large in Australia, almost no matter what the product: chips, coffee, sandwiches, whatever. There simply does not seem to be such a thing as an Australian version of a regular size in food items.