REPOST - Postcard from the Edge

Its hard to believe it has been 10 years since that fateful Tuesday morning in September but the emotions are still raw and events still fresh in my mind. A decade later, I still find it hard to piece words together to describe that day and find myself speechless. I did find my post from 11 September 2009 which captured the emotions then and now. So here is the re-post of 'Postcard from the Edge':


It is strange to think how a quiet Tuesday morning can start with your biggest worry being the fact that your roommate took too loooooong in the shower finishing all the hot water and making you late for work. As the day progresses, this concern completely evaporates as you wonder if you will ever get to shower again. You are also griped with panic and fear that the very roommate you were snappy with earlier in the morning over a shower, may be buried under the rubble of her work building. As night falls, you are still coming to terms with the very bitter realisation that the world is not a kind place after all.


We did survive that day and the months that came after. My roommates, our friends, coworkers and families all managed to pull through. New York survived. The city was completely shaken but bounced back more resilient, more vibrant and (strangely) friendlier. But not everyone was so fortunate. Over 3,000 people perished as result of the September 11 attacks. It took just one fateful day to change the world forever. Eight years on, I'm still in awe and still lost for words at the complete senselessness of the event. I'm also trying to remember what New York was like before 11 September 2001 and then I find a reminder in a drawer at home. A postcard:

Postcard from the Edge...of Manhattan: The New York Skyline at night before 11 September 2001 with the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center seen clearly

We laughed, we cried, we fought but we were there for each other. The dear roommates from Steinway Street, Astoria, Queens, New York
(Left to Right ) Nabyna, Wendita, (Me) & Laurena
I just hope they don't kill me for publishing this picture online

Art Garfunkel - Heart in New York

When I was around 4/5 years old, my father played the Simon and Garfunkel - Central Park Reunion Concert album everyday for about a year. Many of their songs were inspired by or are about New York. It is no wonder I fell in love with New York city then and forever. 

Postcard from the Edge

It is strange to think how a quiet Tuesday morning can start with your biggest worry being the fact that your roommate took too loooooong in the shower finishing all the hot water and making you late for work. As the day progresses, this concern completely evaporates as you wonder if you will ever get to shower again. You are also griped with panic and fear that the very roommate you were snappy with earlier in the morning over a shower, may be buried under the rubble of her work building. As night falls, you are still coming to terms with the very bitter realisation that the world is not a kind place after all.


We did survive that day and the months that came after. My roommates, our friends, coworkers and families all managed to pull through. New York survived. The city was completely shaken but bounced back more resilient, more vibrant and (strangely) friendlier. But not everyone was so fortunate. Over 3,000 people perished as result of the September 11 attacks. It took just one fateful day to change the world forever. Eight years on, I'm still in awe and still lost for words at the complete senselessness of the event. I'm also trying to remember what New York was like before 11 September 2001 and then I find a reminder in a drawer at home. A postcard:

Postcard from the Edge...of Manhattan: The New York Skyline at night before 11 September 2001 with the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center seen clearly


We laughed, we cried, we fought but we were there for each other. The dear roommates from Steinway Street, Astoria, Queens
(Left to Right ) Nabyna, Wendita, (Me) & Laurena
I just hope they don't kill me for publishing this picture online

Busta Rhymes in Concert: When New York Comes to Accra....at New York prices?!

It is official: one of New York's finest sons, the hip-hop veteran Busta Rhymes will be performing in Ghana on September 12th. Well, at least that is what the spread in the Daily Graphic newspaper said. Sponsored by the telecommunication giants MTN, Busta Rhymes is bringing his unique brand of Brooklyn-infused hip-hop to Accra. Given his Jamaican parentage, Busta Rhymes could probably trace his ancestry to our fair shores but that is another matter. Anyway, according to the concert poster I saw, it will cost GHC 80.00 to attend. That is approximately $55.00. *Yikes*. This concert is clearly not targetting the "ordinary people" circuit but then again since when have concerts by international superstars targetted anyone but the elite? Even for the elite, isn't GHC80.00 a tad steep? As much as I love remnants of a past-life in New York and still lament not attending the Wyclef show last year, would I pay GHC80.00 to see Busta Rhymes in these current times? Would you?

Taking Time Out to chill in Accra

My friend El has now been in Ghana for exactly one week and for some reason thinks Accra is a cosmopolitan and vibrant city. He was even impressed that we had a branch of the world-famous Patchi chocolates. In fact, I had no idea we did but a visit to the Accra Mall confirmed that we do have a Patchi store as we found it tucked away to the left at the mall's Game entrance. Their chocolates are deliciously amazing by the way. I'm still hard-pressed to believe that Accra is so hip and happening but just being at the Accra mall on a Sunday afternoon amidst swarms of good-looking and vibrant people, has inclined me towards agreeing with my friend.

Finding a copy of Time Out Accra in a hotel store has further fermented my appreciation of the fact that Accra is definitely a place on the move. Back in my New York City days, Time Out New York was the definitive guide to all the happenings in the Big Apple; the concerts, the events as well as the best places to eat etc. It did great reviews and included how much a meal at a hot-spot like "The Russian Tea Room" was likely to set you back. So it was with much excitement that I bought my first copy of Time Out Accra full of glossy and colourful pages that really bring the city alive. Well, it was actually El that bought it for me but lets not get weighed down with technicalities! The magazine is filled with features, sightseeing options, what/where to eat , where to stay and where to be entertained.There's even an amusing section entitled "Pigdin Buster" that gives a few words in pidgin translated into English. So if you hear someone describing something as Awam or Azaa, you would know exactly what they mean! Time Out Accra is not only a must-have for visitors but also for natives of this fair city. Check it out!

Aint that America...

I will not deny that unlike some people, I love America. After a 3 year hiatus it is actually good to be back in the land of the free. It is great to watch weird, voyeuristic reality tv and my new favorite is the absolutely tacky but interesting Real Housewives of Orange County (see picture above). Alas, due to the credit crunch, there are fewer ads on TV for free credit cards and car loans. Some things still remain the same on American TV, Fox News is still skewering all liberals (poor President Obama) while CNN and MSNBC are still flying the left of center media beacon. One other thing I love about America is that customer service is amazing and strangers will strike up a conversation with you on the bus and share their life-story. Usually in Ghana when a stranger strikes up a conversation with me it is a barrage of one-sided questions to satisfy their curiosity about the oddity that is me. In Europe I find most people keep to themselves. America on the other hand is bursting with smiles and friendliness. I must admit, my beloved New York is not quite Friendliness Central especially on first encounter but it still has an undeniable vibe to it.

As I type, I'm in a surreal Norwegian-style ski resort called Granlibakken on Lake Tahoe. Apparently Lake Tahoe is on the border between California and Nevada. The altitude is high, my knuckles are frozen and I'm suffering from jetlag even after 4 days or so away from Ghana. Maybe it is because this is my first visit to the West Coast and so the time difference is killing me. It is 9:30am here but in Ghana it is time to get off work for most people already.

Despite being severely over-fed with delicious culinary delights, the hardest part about this trip is that I'm not here on holiday. I'm attending a high-brow conference all about worm infections. It is a privilege to mingle with people you have only read about but it is excruciatingly difficult to stay awake for some of the evening sessions. Last night, the words used by the speaker in the last presentation were all in English but strung together in sentences, they sounded like Greek to me. Fortunately, I was not the only one who heard the Greek. My fellow jet-lag crew felt the same way!

New York State of Mind

Days like today I have flash-backs to a former life that seems so distant. I feel like I have many former lives...No! I'm not suffering from multiple personality disorder or talking about re-incarnation here. I'm harping on about occupying a different world and reality for a moment in the seemingly distant past. There was the Southern African life, Mass life, (harrowing) London Life, Ghana life and of course the New York life. I think my love affair with New York started from around the age of 5 years old. For most of the mid-80's my Dad constantly listened to Simon and Garfunkel over and over again..for some reason. I guess images of a New York I never knew were subliminally imprinted on my brain. So when I finally got to discover the real New York as a fresh undergrad, I was extremely disappointed! It was noisy, big, dirty, unfriendly and the people were obnoxious. So after 4 years in a quaint, small town tucked away in semi-rural Massachusetts, landing a job in New York was met with fear more than excitement. Things got much worse.. my new roommates and I spent 4 days walking around Queens in the hot sun trying to find an apartment to live in and all we were shown were matchboxes under train bridges...if we were lucky! I swore there and then that I would never like the city. Then we settled into our place on Steinway street in Queens and suddenly it became the city I love the most. NYC never truly sleeps, there is th 24 hour subway, Harlem, Times Square, Brooklyn, the cheap restaurants, interesting freaks, beautiful parks, hot dog stands, bagels, comedy clubs, poetry james, celebrity sightings and of course Chinatown. Indeed, New York is actually a state of mind, freedom and adventure. But it was not all bliss...the negative sides were crime, high rent, scary freaks, the sad state of the homeless, the rundown neighbourhoods, the high prices and of course after September 2001, everything changed but we won't get into that. Despite it all, I will for ever have a New York State of mind