You’ll just have to put up with my dry recounts until Muddy gets his travel-writing mojo back…

Sun shining, blue skies and bright, clear conditions? No wind, rain or snow? Do we dare dream of a trip to Top of the Rock Observation Deck for the full 360 degrees view of NYC? Yes, we do. And it is BREATHTAKING. I’d done it before, but this was new for Muddy and boy, was he thrilled. Being an early morning Thursday, the queues were mercifully short. We took some great photos and soaked up the incredible vista for a little over an hour. There’s nothing like looking at a city unfold before you so starkly and clearly from approximately 70 stories off the ground.

Coffee and carbs pit-stop at Dean and Deluca, then a trip to the New York Public Library corner 5^th Avenue and 42^nd St to crash a free public tour. The tour lasted an hour and was led by a bubbly Frenchwoman who was both incredibly informative and a real library enthusiast. The Library is amazing. I know the State Library of Victoria is lovely and the domed reading room exquisite, but this place could fit five SLVs and the SLV walls are not adorned with Greek marble, okay? Two eye-catching (free) exhibitions – one, a history of AIDS activism, the other, a pictorial history of children’s literature – and a Gutenberg Bible (cos, you know, they happened to have one lying around) later, had me and Muddy wishing Australia boasted more robber-baron cultural philanthropists…

Lunch was a street-side affair – the Halal Guys food cart on 53^rd Street. Oh my. Lamb and chicken gyro, shredded over rice and slathered in yoghurt never tasted so good. $6 well spent. Queues justified.

We ducked into the Paley Centre for Media, which is a TV library /archive where you can call up old shows / TV clips, news docos etc and watch them in situ on nice big computer screens. I managed to watch the Jackie Kennedy tour of the White House (CBS – 1962) referenced in Season Four of Mad Men. Cool. Muddy nerded it up with some news clips and an obscure comic book / pulp novel TV adaptation…

We capped off the evening with a 10 minute helicopter ride over the East River and Hudson, awestruck by the twinkling lights of Manhattan, Brooklyn and Jersey City. The flight was smooth and the pilot cruisy and calm. The complete tour included a South Harbour water-taxi ride and comp cup of sparkling wine, narrated by the charming, good-looking Brooklyn-born-and-bred “DC” (yes, that is his name) who was a wellspring of information about New York’s history and geography.

Highlight: the Statute of Liberty, glowing in the dark, while Ray Charles’ version of “America the Beautiful” wafted over the water taxi’s PA system. A lump formed in my throat. Why? Because, you just had to be there, that’s why.

It's Friday afternoon now, and I'm perched on the end of the bed in Apartment No 2 on the Upper West Side. It's nice and clean, and a completely different part of NY, but we miss our cosy West Village apartment already. 

Stay frosty. I know we will... 

“Get in, get out of the rain… We’re gonna move on up to the waterfront.” Day 5.

Today, we switch from Sinatra to Simple Minds, it’s been that kind of a day.

A subway ride through downtown Manhattan on the 1-2-3 line(s) got us to Brooklyn Heights for some rain-splattered promenading Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass (DUMBO) and along the Brooklyn Bridge Snow-fields – sorry – Brooklyn Bridge Park. If it didn’t look like a park, that might have been because of the two feet of snow blanketing everything.

Cold. White. Monochrome. Snow.

Bloody atmospheric, but.

With just enough visibility to see Manhattan’s exquisite skyline from across the river, we were able to take some great photos, even if Muddy and I haven’t mastered the art of the panoramic iPhoto…

Just as it started to rain, we scarpered through the lovely streets of DUMBO, scooting back up to Brooklyn Heights for lunch in a cosy little café called Siggy’s Good Food. Delicious.

We weren’t game enough to walk back to Manhattan via Brooklyn Bridge in the pouring rain, so a subway ride took us to the Financial District, and into the Century 21 discounted shopping zoo / department store. Lots of bargains, and lots of people to be crushed against… Anyhoo, we got to see the Woolworths Building – another stunning bit of NY architecture before heading back to the Village.

Dinner is a picnic on the couch with provisions from Murray’s World of Cheese on Bleecker Street, a bottle of something white and Italian and home–made hot chocolate.

“These boots are made for walking”. Days 3, 4 and 5 in Gotham City.

Forgive me, dear friends and family for compressing these three days into one, but we’re having too good - and too full - a time to sit down and chronicle our days one-by-one. Apologies for the ‘supersized’ approach…

Day Three was spent mostly on foot. And boy, did we work through the proverbial shoe leather. By my calculations, we covered about 8-10 kms in snowy, sub-zero temperatures, covering a good chunk of Greenwich Village, Union Square, East Village, Nolita, Little Italy and Chinatown with the tiniest and tingliest icicles forming on our nose hairs.

The day’s highlights include 1. walking through a snow-blanketed Washington Square Park to go book shopping at the Strand Bookstore in Union Square (“miles and miles of books” – indeed!), 2. the pastrami, mustard and sauerkraut bagel (with a side of German potato salad) from Russ and Daughters deli and 3. spotting actress Robin Wright Penn (Kevin Spacey’s Lady Macbeth wife in House of Cards) who is really really TINY, heading into a chi-chi clothing store in Nolita.

Yes, television adds height as well as weight.

Little Italy is as underwhelming as I remember, but Muddy K got to play at being a Big Man on Mulberry Street for a few minutes. Dinner was an awesome Mexican spread at Rosa Mexicano in Union Square. In a brief moment of panicked virtuousness, I ordered the ‘skinny’ Margarita. Yeah, I know.

Day Four was ‘Muddy Gets His “Geek-On” Day’, but not before I planned on an early morning civilized breakfast at the delightfully Parisian Buvette’s in West Village. We then caught the subway to 42^nd Street for a full-blown geekaganza aboard the USS Intrepid, a decommissioned WWII-era aircraft carrier – now air, sea and space museum.

There’s a space shuttle, a submarine, a couple of MiGs and a full-scale replica of one of the Mercury space capsules from the early 60s among a whole host of other stuff to whet the appetites of the hardiest aircraft geeks. Muddy’s enthusiasm was infectious, and I loved all the exhibits, but I still drew deep relieved breaths upon exiting the ‘Growler’ submarine. And I am NOT claustrophobic.

We then met up with Red K for a burger lunch, headed to Times Square for the full NY Tourist experience, watched the skaters brave the crowded rink in Bryant Park and then wandered into Grand Central Terminal. It is GORGEOUS. I had no idea quite how vast and beautiful the space is. It’s so much a part of our popular culture, and so familiar, but still so impressive when you’re walking through it.

We scored some amazing discounted books from Midtown Comics, gazed in wonder at the Chrysler Building, then headed home to get ready for dinner with Red K at Pylos Greek Restaurant. I highly recommend this place for ANYONE after good Greek food. Trust me, it’s worth the trip to NY. Red kindly shouted us post-dinner cocktails at a speakeasy, then we stumbled home full of foodly and boozely goodness.

Day Five was mostly about noodling around Midtown, admiring the Rockefeller Centre but unable to visit the Top of the Rock observation deck due to poor visibility (Tuesday was cold and overcast and there appeared to be a fresh layer of snow on the ground…). Lunch and NY cheesecake at Dean and Deluca’s hit the spot before Muddy and I went our separate ways. He, to the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) which he admitted, pale-faced and exhausted four hours later, was ‘overwhelming’ and I to run some errands and do a spot of window-shopping.

The evening ended with caviar and vodka – tasting at the Russian Tea Room on West 57^th. We are now resting our feet (and stomachs) in our cosy pad and enjoying a much-needed cup of tea.

“These vagabond shoes…” actually, gum boots, are already getting a workout. Dusty and Muddy go large in New York City. Day 2 in NYC.

Yo friends, family and thrill-seekers. Greetings from Greenwich Village, NYC, the coolest, most sweetly-gentrified-yet-still-the-funkiest of Manhattan’s downtown enclaves.

This is officially Day Two of our 14-day trip. What can I say? It’s been wonderful so far. Despite a long and arduous flight (flying United Airlines is truly a brutal experience), we managed to get to our cosy 5^th floor walkup apartment in the West Village from Newark, NJ at a decent hour on Valentine’s night. We had a chatty cabby for company - the man took an inordinate interest in Australia’s export economy and Dr Muddy was happy to fill him in on Australia’s economic mosaic. Nice work, Dr K.

Red Karpitz and Tiffany Lamp were kind enough to meet me and my good man Muddy and help us settle in.  Thanks, guys!

Our apartment is adorable. Essentially a tiny, pre-war one/two bedder with bendy, slopey floors and a parallelogram doorway, a miniscule bathroom (we brush our teeth in the kitchen sink) and 1930s ceilings, it’s also delightfully decked out with assorted original artworks, curios, built-in bookshelves groaning under the weight of a lifetime’s collection of favourite authors - and really really really QUIET. I mean, we, hear, NOTHING. Surprised? So were we. No sirens, no street noise, no apartment sounds. Incredible. The occasional burst of noise – hissing and burping - from the ancient heating system is an odd bit of aural punctuation but that’s about it.

And the apartment is close to EVERYTHING.

Day One was spent walking the High Line – the raised railway line now transformed into a park-cum-walkway from which people enjoy the best views of Chelsea and the Meatpacking District– and getting snowed on! Thankfully, Muddy and I were prepared, with hoods, hats, waterproof jackets and sturdy boots.

We hung a right, headed towards Pennsylvania Station for a much needed warming coffee and pastry at Zaro’s Bakery, a pit-stop to buy gloves for me, and a squizz around – watching the passing parade of Penn Station ‘street life’ is interesting. We then emerged back onto the windy, snowy street and headed past Madison Square Garden towards the Empire State Building for our Art Deco architecture fix (but not before stopping at JC Penney’s for Muddy to pick up a couple of nice discounted neckties).

The lobby of the ESB is full of exquisite and ornate detailing – the product of recent restoration work – but we passed on the observation deck as we’re saving our sky-high viewing for Top of the Rock at the Rockefeller Centre.

We then headed South on Fifth Avenue towards the Flatiron District, Muddy almost giving himself whiplash with all the head-turning and neck-craning. It’s his first day in NYC and he’s feeling right at home (“It’s like Melbourne on crack! And everything is so close.”). We spotted the Flatiron Building, that peculiar pie-wedge shaped building opposite a snow-drenched and slushy Madison Square Park, took some happy snaps, then did a u-turn back North along Madison Avenue towards Jim Hanley’s Universe, a comic book emporium where Muddy K could get his first of what will no doubt be many pop-culture fixes in Gotham City.

Doubling back towards the Flatiron District along Madison Avenue, we stumbled into an antique and reclaimed furniture store. Spread over two levels, this place puts all those secondhand “industrial” furniture stores in Melbourne’s inner North to shame. This place has EVERYTHING, and at rather good prices, given where it is located. The young Frenchman who worked there, took great pains to show us some of their more outré pieces. Noice.

Back in the Flatiron District, we did a food and wine pit-stop at Eataly, the destination Italian food emporium Guy Grossi would give his left testicle (or indeed both testicles) to own/run. Red K and Tiffany L and joined us for a stand-up express antipasto, wine, beer and cheese experience. Again: Noice.

Now an Awesome Foursome, we strode down snowy and windy streets to Doughnut Plant in Chelsea, picking up an assortment of doughy goodness for ‘afters’ and then wended our way to Chelsea Market.

An early Sangria-lubricated tapas dinner at Tia Pol in Chelsea (slow-cooked pork, lamb skewers and crispy Squid – yummers), followed by doughnuts, Port and conversation back at the temporary Venetian-Karpitz Manor capped off a marvelous first day in the snow-dusted Apple.

Day 3, we brave the slushy East Village streets for some Jewish, Italian, Chinese and Bohemian vibes. Should be delightful.

'Filotimo' is not an abstract concept - good manners mixed with emotional intelligence go a long way in this world.

Whine time.

Some of you may be aware that recently, my work email address was temporarily deleted. This meant emails sent to me bounced back to their senders as 'undeliverable', I could not retrieve any emails or view my calendar and I was deleted from the online staff directory. I had to have my entire email account and profile restored from the last backup which was by then, ten days old, so about ten days' worth of emails and calendar entries have vanished from my work account.

I lost a total of eight hours of productivity - essentially one full day - as a result of this mess. A mess that could have been avoided if a colleague had paid better attention to his task.

His task was to complete a one-page online request on my behalf to upgrade my email from an old rusty hunk'a junk platform to a newer one and NOT tick the box that says 'delete current account' before I can actually be upgraded. But that, dear readers, is precisely what he did. (This information was not volunteered by the otherwise most glorious helpful IT help-desk jockey - I had to dig around and place a few special calls to find out why this happened and who was responsible).

When I called my colleague to let him know what he had done and to ask that he (a) check he hadn't done this to anyone else and (b) pay closer attention with future requests, did he apologise? No. Did he acknowledge the enormity of his error and the massive inconvenience to me? No.

However, he DID admit that the reason he ticked the wrong box was that he was probably balancing a few things at the same time. Like what mofo? Were you using a mouth-operated pointer while juggling with both hands? Were you distracted by the wallpaper of pretty kittens on your smartphone? Or was the sound of the two loneliest brain cells in the world bouncing around in your skull so loud you couldn't concentrate?

I would have happily accepted any explanation if only he'd had the good grace, empathy, emotional intelligence and manners to just say 'sorry' straight off. Simply, sincerely and with genuine remorse.

If I had caused something like this, I can only imagine my reaction - mortification, shame, embarrassment, guilt and an offer of a tray of home-baked brownies/cupcakes/cookies and a coffee as a token of apology. Instant. Knee-jerk. My hands would be reaching for the flour and butter right after I'd hung up the phone. Extreme, but typical.

His (non) reaction made me think of the Greek concept of 'filotimo' (or 'philotimo' - Google it), that complex, nuanced collection of virtues comprising empathy, grace, generosity, hospitality, consideration and a fundamental, implicit understanding of the 'why', 'how' and 'when' of righting wrongs, whether large or small.

People who embody this quality aren't necessarily better people (I suspect I am a far, far nastier person than my deadbeat colleague), and a person who truly embodies 'filotimo' would not indulge in anonymous character assassination via blog (See? Told you I was nasty).

However, there is something truly dispiriting about people who display these random manifestations of thoughtlessness. Are they stupid? Somewhere on the autism spectrum? Were they not raised right? Are they twats? Or all of the above?

Start your new year with a punch - make mine a Bellini.

There's nothing as inviting as the sight of a bowl of punch at a party on a warm and balmy night. A big glass bowl overflowing with booze, ice-cubes and fresh fruit, veggies or mint, accompanied by the communal spoon and the row of empty cups recall the wassail bowl at a viking banquet. I remember childhood parties where there would be two punch bowls - one with booze for the grown-ups and a fruity, grog-free concoction for the kiddies. The latter for some reason always had chunks of canned pineapple floating in it...

To celebrate this party tradition, let me share with you my recipe for a Bellini Pack-a Punch. I served this on New Year's Eve to great acclaim.

You will need:

1 x retro punch bowl with glasses (serves 12)

2 x bottles sparkling wine (Don't splash out - go cheap and even better - Italian!)

1 x bottle peach liqueur or peach Schnapps

1 x bottle soda or plain sparkling mineral water

6-8 x white peaches (use yellow if you can't find white)

1 x freezer tray of ice cubes

Generous sprig of fresh mint

Method

Wash, stone and chop peaches (Don't peel). Blitz in a blender with a little water until pureed and frothy. This should be like a thick juice.

Mix all the liquids together in the punch bowl until well-combined. Once the froth settles, pour in the ice-cubes and drop in the fresh mint.

Always make sure you stir thoroughly before filling cups as the fruit and booze finds its way to the bottom of the bowl.

Enjoy.