Department Stores in NYC

I tell you, all of you who know me well, you know that I simply cannot blog about all the departmental stores in 1 post. So I shall just give you a brief intro to each store, and I shall introduce them. and since this is the first

Like singapore, there are many levels of department stores. In America, Ralph Lauren is like the Raoul of Singapore, upscale yet affordable. and Tommy hilfiger, apparently doesn't exist in high fashion dictionaries. Or maybe I'm not paying too much attention to him. In this land of rarefied names, nothing is too exclusive to be even inside a department store.

Let's start with the John Little's of New York. Macy's. To call it John Little's is really an insult, as the term would be more befitting that of Kmart and Walmart. Even Target isn't that bad anymore. But it's the closest departmental store chain I can compare it to. Imagine that John Little's had ralph lauren. And Louis Vuitton That's how far the comparison is. Macy's proclaims itself to be the biggest shopping centre in the world. and holy shit, Can you imagine a whole freaking block of building all housing just 1 shopping center? I got a calf ache just by walking from broadway to the exit on the other side. That's how big the shop is. And the fact that I'm a hardened shopper with a declining fitness level due to laziness to go to the gym sort of evens out and makes me a normal person.

10freaking floors of shopping, and guess what, the place is divided into 4 sections. Basement is food and supermarket. 1/6 of the building vertically is male. about 1/6 of the remainder is the accessories and jewellery department. And the rest, is FEMALE related stuff. ie. clothes, bed linen, clothes and more clothes. Let's start with the accessories floor. When you go in, its just miraculous. You see rows and rows of bags and rows and rows of people. These are not shoppers. they are assistants to help you shop. to look for that perfect bag amidst this handbag swamp. It's crazy. Belle asked me to find a handbag for her, and i can tell you, This scene at macy's represents the microtip of the iceberg. Everywhere in New York you will find and see handbags after handbags. and the scene repeats itself the next row with tons of pearls, diamonds, rubies, emeralds and etc etc etc.

and you'll be wondering, when is this going to end. Never. next we go onto the concourse level, where its the beauty section. Let me just indulge here, it has like practically everything. sisely, estee, clinique, max factor, MAC, shisheido, aveda and whatever god conspires to create as powder for the face appears here. Wait, you must be wondering, where's the men's stuff. well, these scenes are all repeated on the men's side.

I really don't know about clothes, especially female ones, cos I'm not that insane to go up 10 freaking stories, of which like 7 are dedicated to female clothes. And for god sakes, there's like 1 theme for every level. sportswear, loungewear, lingerie and nightwear, workwear, formalwear, hipwear, brandwear. it's just madness. level after level of female clothes. I mean, how do you finish shopping? I just barely conquered new york almost all the guy places, but if you're a girl, i tell you just give up. there's even a jimmy choo, stuart weitzman, manolo blahnik and roger vivier ( the original inventor of the high heel) here.

Now to the guy section. I'm not particularly impressed with macy's not because it has what you call the wallstreet curse. It would seem that in New york, each department store has a niche. When it says it carries DKNY, it doesn't carry DKNY everything. For example in macy's and most of the other departmental stores, they tend to cater to the more uppercrusted old neckties potbellied executives. and thus, their men's section is almost wholly shirts, ties, suits, pants and sports coats. There's like nothing else. even a polo tee is considered a rarity. where are the T shirts and the jeans? Apparently, streetwear and hipwear is for other speciality shops like Lounge, Scoop and others. btw, I saw cameron diaz at lounge the other day.

but yeah, back to it, its huge. I mean I can't describe more but just imagine, tons and tons of suits, tables and tables of shirts and designer corners where you have the store within a store concept, similar to takashimaya back in singapore. unfortuantely, nothing that was on sale caught my fancy, and thus i came from macy's empty handed. The only shops i came back from that were fruitful were actually bergdorf goodmans and barneys new york, which in my opinion are the best of the best. for gods sake, they had like half a floor dedicated to prada. thats like how superior it is. and for the guys side, they had the usual guys fragrances, colognes, cosmetics and everything. but the nice thing about macy's was, everybody is so friendly. I felt so bad I didn't buy anything cos it's pretty much the most reasonable of all the department stores.

As for food, I didn't really explore, but it's not really like some gourmet's paradise. The main attraction of this place is simply the shopping. And lest my memory leave me, the food paradise shares half its level with the young men's section. with things like rocawear, tommy bahama. hugo boss and dkny jeans is the highest it goes to. but still, like almost 1/4 of the shop is dedicated to ralph lauren and polo ralph lauren and its jeans company.

I think it must be quite boring for you now. Honestly, macy's was really boring for me cos I'm not impressed with what else they had. there's like ralph lauren on every corner of new york that I can't even be bothered to even step into a shop since it's so freaking accessible. But I think I'll head towards macy's come memorial day and try to pick up something there, cos I like the little big plastic paper bag with the red star and the word MACY'S

The Stars and Stripes

As I got conveniently reminded/scolded that I should be sharing my wonderful fantastic life in New York City with you guys, I shall now retrospectively blog my entries since april 10th. The reason I didn't blog for so long is because I have so many things to do and so many things to see.

Honestly, I must add, this is not going to be very much different. So now, Today's topic. Famous Personalities.

Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center is one of the foremost, if not top cancer center in the continental USA and possibly the whole wide world. As part of a medical school, it is part of the Weill Cornell Medical School.

But MSKCC is a world onto itself. This is how big this place is.

On my first day in clinic, I can't remember when it was exactly, but I get people from all walks of life streaming in. CEOs of BIG NAME institutions. I mean BIG BIG institutions. I guess for patient privacy, which is really a big thing in this place, i won't disclose what institutions but well. Thats how big time this place is. You also have people coming in, holding book that the doctors here have written, bestsellers mind you, and practically begging to be treated. Well, its fair to say that this place has mainly wealthy people, but thats not to say that all patients here are supermillionaires. Its not like NUH private wing, where you just see designer bags the whole day from indo tai tais who want plastic surgery or breast implants or vagina tightening surgery ( not sure if its offered there though)

You have people from all over the globe flying into this place to seek treatment. People who drive all the way from the west coast to seek treatment. Everybody comes here for treatment, the rich that is. And guess what, this place is an academic institution, but the senior cons/cons ( they call them attendings here) are paid a princely sum of 260000USD per year. before taxes. I don't think that includes bonus. ands thats just PUBLIC practice. Seriously, singapore has a long way to go in terms of doctor renumeration.

well, the patients themselves aren't the only big people here. the doctors are as well. My gosh, you just type their bloody names onto pubmed and guess what, AT LEAST 50 articles come out. And if you type into google or yahoo, you have citations, awards by various societies of medicine/surgery/boards etc. and they are just so famous. I mean, I joined my first attending, who's this french guy who perfected the most popular laparascopic prostatectomy technique used in the world right now. I mean, his bloody name is everywhere when you type prostate on emedicine, cos he simply invented the gold standard with his friend back in france. That's how big the people here are. Just one person is enough to highlight to you how bright the stars shine in over this side of the atlantic. And the best part of them all, they are so bloody nice. NOT LIKE THOSE STUPID singaporean surgeons who just scowl and make tons of noise and tell you to get out of their way. even the most unfriendly surgeons here just keep quiet but don't mind if you scrub in with them.

of a short note, i just scrubbed up with the chief of surgery in the hospital and holy shit, he has simply no airs, and he explains every thing and he has finally allowed me to regain my confidence and inspiration to do surgery again. I have been feeling rather lost regarding my career lately, not just because of the diathermy smell, but the idea of the quality of life. But over here, i was just so impressed by how they are such nice people, even asking a full question ( Can I have the mosquito PLEASE?) when requesting for surgical instruments. They treat one and all the same. Even the attendings requested that I call them by first name. Which is in great contrast to the japanese/Oriental patriachal ideas that rank and status must be respected. Oh my gosh, its so nice and cool here. I'm in love. Stipes here are not pulled over here. and they are just so friendly. Ever think that your a/cs and cons will like lunch with you and TALK to you as though there wasn't a generation gap? I'll talk more about the cool stuff they do over here in the next post coming tomorrow.

P.S. So what if there's a V Tech masssacre, so what if this place is less safe than singapore. so what if the subway here breaks down more often, i can tell you, new york is just a city to fall in love with. and maybe live here forever.

P.S. my first post shall be about work. Unless you so love to hear me detail my shopping trips which will come due later, after I have fully explored the entire place to my leisure.

Take The Quiz Yourself!

Well, I'll do a little travel blogging since I'm still up.

What a long flight. 24 hours divided up into Singapore Frankfurt and Frankfurt New York. I'm pretty surprised by both airports. It seems that Changi is still way better than them. They are so spartan. But JFK was a night airport. I like it as its really really big. But its true what they say in the USA, everything you do, theyleach money off you. Even at baggage claim, the trolleys need to be hired for 3 USD per trolley. WTF?

Anyway the first day in NYC was pretty uneventful. Checked into a hotel and spent much of the time getting used to the place and its subway. It's quite cool now, considering that I'm now on 6th Avenue. Easter was today and I bloody missed everything as it took me about 4 hours to get everything done.

I'll report back as soon as possible. In the meantime. I must say this. H & M is so bloody cheap. my gosh. a Long Sleeved shirt for USD 30? M gosh. Thats like f***ing fantastic. I'll think I'll die in this place. There's just so much that I gotta do and see around. My apartment is settled already. So for the rest of the time, I'll have a few department stores to go to. Bloomingdales, Macy's, Saks 5th Ave, Bergdorf Goodman's, Barney's, jeffery's New York. And who can forget Rem Koolhas' designed Prada. Oh well, I'll just take time off work each day to look at one store at a time. Since it's quite convenient anyway with a unlimited subway ticket. As for buying, I doubt if I can get anything. reason being, Having to bring almost a full luggage for 2 months, i don't have space for anything else. Sigh. Will see how it goes along.

One of the best anime openings that I have heard. DAMN AWESOME........

Bleach. I am in love.

You've been hurt by unhealing pain and sadness
Together let's carry each other's indelible pasts
Don't give up on living

I took your hand.

Will I lose them one day
I want to protect you and your fading smile so
even if the resounding voice that calls me should wither,
Even if it's scratched away by the winds that blow with time

I will find you

You've been hurt by unhealing pain and sadness
Don't say things like I can't laugh or I hate people
There's meaning in everything to happen in the unseen future
For now, you're fine as you are, I know a time when u'll
realize it.

You and me, 2 have spoken
One day, we'll understand each other.