getting around town

I gave directions to somebody yesterday. I must be a local now. Not that it's that hard....Avenues run north-south, Streets run east-west. Apparently it's so ordered that there is a basic formula to find almost any Avenue address in Manhattan.

Example:

Let's say you want to go to 826 Lexington Avenue but don't know what the nearest cross Street is...

1. Drop the last digit from the address...so 826 becomes 82

2. Divide the remainder by 2.....so 82/2 = 41

3. then you need the magical key number (they are listed in tourist books), the key number for ddresses on Lexington Avenue is +22

4. add the numbers together....so 41+22 = 63

and presto! the nearest cross Street to 826 Lexington Ave. is 63rd Street.


...no wonder that guy asked me for directions! I think I'll stick to a map/a sense of direction.

.

to the big apple we go...

This blog is back - on the other side of the Atlantic.


For the next 9 months or so I'll be reporting on the sights and sounds of New York city. As I've been reminded by an Oxford colleague, these concrete jungle streets can make one feel brand new, I hope the blog can keep up.

The (short) explanation for the switch to the USA is that I've taken up a post at the United Nations doing climate change related work with small island developing states. I've settled into a tiny apartment in Manhattan on the Upper East Side (surely a feature of future blog postings) and am looking forward to hosting friends and family over the course of summer - drop me a line!