New York Apartments

This is what the apartment looks like. The lounge room has the small table shown in the photograph and one armchair. It really is the size of a large corridor. Just as the serving size of food does not relate to Australia, the size of the apartments does not relate, except perhaps if you think about living in a caravan. The only TV shows where I have seen apartments in Manhattan that approximate real life is Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, and those apartments look quite big compared to what we have seen. The trick is not to own anything, and this is quite a paradox in the city that sells everything.

Naoli and Ben pay $500 per week. The front door opens directly into the lounge room, they have a reasonable sized bedroom, a small bathroom and a kitchen that is seriously no bigger than the average Australian linen cupboard. They have never cooked in the oven and do not intend to. Their apartment is actually bigger than the one we are staying in.

Suzie, the owner of the apartment in which we we are staying has a dog. In fact, the canine is the accesory of choice for New York. Now, there is one bit I did not understand. So I asked. "What do the dogs do all day in these tiny apartments, especially when people work 12 hours per day or more?" The answer is simple. The first thing you do is take your puppy to dog school and learn to "crate it". Now let your imagination provide you with a picture of a dog in a cage with a bowl of water and a squeeky toy and you have got the idea. Every day millions of New Yorkers get their beloved child substitutes and put them in a crate. Not just toy pomeranians and yappy lap dogs that deserve it either, but big labradors, all sorts. The people can go out to work happy in the knowledge that the dog is not running all around the apartment wrecking things. Then, of course when the humans get home the dogs are very happy to be let out of the crate, taken for a walk and patted. Well a dog might be man's best friend but I don't know if the feeling is mutual.