Yada yada..

I'm so glad that the family went to Florida. My brother's just brilliant to have thought of that because my parents were originally planning to go to Las Vegas, which would have left me somewhat bored without the thrill of the rides. What's more important was that everyone in the family was happy - my parents got to take the mild rides & watch performances that left them raving, my brother & me finally got the chance to be taken to Disneyland by our parents (better late than never!)...and we all got something from shopping at the outlet stores.

'tis true that a girl can never have enough of shoes. Every trip that I make to New York, I have to get at least a pair of shoes. This time, I got 3 pairs - a Stuart Weitzman & 2 pairs from Cole Hann (my best victory in Florida). If I had got them at full price, they would have cost me a total of US$489 (still cheaper than a pair of Manolos :p). I paid less than US$100 for them. They aren't exactly very fanciful shoes but so very functional - for work, basically. By the way, they are full leather :)

L to R: Stuart Weitzman (US$31.02), Cole Haan (US$31.98 & US$34.51)

Anyway, the strike by the transport workers finally came to an end after crippling the transport system in New York for 3 days. Everyone is relieved. It has cost the city lots of money & not to mention, a lot of inconvenience to New Yorkers. Just spoke with a friend who lives in Queens, that he had to walk 20 blocks (about 2km plus) from his place to get a bus into Manhattan & walk another 30 blocks to his office building...all that in the cold! Crazy!

Seriously, I think the strike is a big joke & perhaps, something that is overdue considering that the MTA & the TWU have not really met each other eye to eye over issues for a while. But really, at the end of the day, the TWU is made to look stupid. With a US$1m per day of strike fine in the face & with that little in the kitty, it's such a joke. The president of the union still has to face charges in court & really, I think Michael Bloomberg (mayor of NYC) is right - to slap more fines than throw him into jail or he'll look like some martyr.

At the end of the day, it's still money talks. If it were me, I would sack all the workers & re-hire others who lost their jobs. If they want their jobs back, they just jolly well have to settle with what I'm giving them. Consider this - the workers can demand all they want, knowing that they're on the losing end but if I put on their table $100 a day to cut their crap of a strike, I can bet you that all their demands will go under & they'll just march back to work, making their president of the union look like an idiot. Hey, you can't really depend on loyalty. It's all the about the money, gangsta!

I've yada-yadaed enough. I'm leaving New York in less than a week. Will spend the last few days here well.

Luv,
~MiL~
New York City