Blogging from the Big Apple

Since my last post, I have crossed the Atlantic, and am now in New York. Started the week with a couple of days in Washington DC, catching up with colleagues in our US office, as well as a few other folks I know down there.

First night I got in I had one of the funny travelling moments. Went for a latish dinner near Dupont Circle, and ended up in the classic American diner. The waitress came by to take my order and picked up on my Australian accent. Turned out she was not long back from studying in Australia. She was very excited to show me the tattoo she had on her foot - a nicely done Southern Cross. Having been scheming to get just such a tattoo for a while, it was pretty cool to meet someone who was so excited by being down under.

Travelled up to New York mid-week to meet up with a few Greenpeace colleagues and prepare for our meeting with the Secretary General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-Moon. We were meeting him to talk about climate change and the preparations for the big climate meeting at the end of the year in Bali. Whilst I was in the background on this one, it was a great opportunity for our organisation to talk talk to the Secretary General about an issue he has spoken out on a lot. You can read more about the meeting here.

Have spent the rest of the week working, but took a few hours off yesterday afternoon to meet up with an old friend who was in town and go play tourist. Sarah used to work for Greenpeace, but is now with Amnesty, and is also in New York this week. Neither of us had ever been up the Empire State Building and it was a beautiful clear day, so we headed up to catch the view. And that is the source of today's photo - the view north up Manhattan, with Central Park in the distance.

Have some more great photos that I want to post, so watch out in the coming days...