Happy Moon Festival :-)

I want to wish everyone a very happy Moon Festival. Be sure to eat lots of yummy mooncakes. I tend to like the ones with the egg yokes inside... as I understand it, that type of mooncake is sort of difficult to get in the States.

Sunshine in NYC!

It is FINALLY sunny and warm in NYC! It has been chilly and gloomy throughout May.

I've said it every year for the past several years... we don't get the extended, brutal, subzero (Fahrenheit) January and February weather of the past -- most likely a result of global warming -- but the cool, yucky weather lasts a lot longer. I've said to friends who also live in NYC (I'm a life-long Manhattanite and have seen many, many New York winters and springs), "we don't have the terrible winters anymore but the cold lasts until May or even June". Everyone to whom I say this, every year over the past decade, has dismissed it, even though they live through and complain about the "new" weather each year.

With escalating real estate, fuel and other prices affecting everything in New York -- quality of life, service, dining out, attitudes (a lot of discussion about this topic but I will leave it for another post/several posts in future), etc. -- and the cold, dark spring weather (something I've hated since I lost almost 150 pounds more than two decades ago) make it harder and harder to justify living in what, arguably, is still, despite its many long-time and newer flaws, one of the greatest cities in the world.

For today, however, even though I've been recuperating from an illness throughout May -- I had an unexpected stay in hospital (for the first time in my life) a couple of weeks ago to battle an infection -- I will definitely take a walk and enjoy the beauty that is Manhattan in the sun. :-)

First Personal Blog Entry

Welcome to the first entry of my personal Blog. For a long time, I've wanted a forum for my own words... to write about subjects such as opera and classical music, cinema (esp. Asian cinema), other music, arts, culture, theater, pop-culture, food, travel, trends, politics, life in general and more. I look forward to providing many entries in the months and years ahead!

Note that this first entry comes while I am recuperating from an illness that caused my first-ever (in my life) hospital stay. 6 days of IV antibiotics to fight an infection. Yuck! I'm home now, still too weak to do anything particularly constructive but my mind is going a million miles a minute so I'm climbing the walls.

Again, more to come... :-)