Making a difference

In a city where where everyone is go go go, thinking about themselves, how they can make their next dollar and buy that fur coat in the prada window, few stop to think about those that have it a bit harder then them... yesterday I did my first volunteering project with New York Cares. People living in the city always talk about how they are so busy, and have so many social arrangements and things to do and cant find a spare second to themselves, well this weekend I made the time,... I spent 3 hours of my Saturday with 20 volunteers helping out an organisation called KEEN. It is a free service run by volunteers for families with kids with disabilities. We spent 2 hours with about 20 kids with disabilities ranging from autism to cerebal palsy. We ran around, did some bowling, skidded on scooters, played basketball, had wheelchair races, danced to music and my favourite the parachute! The kids had an awesome time and their parents got 2 hours to themselves to do what most of us take for granted all day every day, spent time for themselves doing what they wanted, a few hours of respite from their 24 hour a day carer role. It was fulfilling knowing i made some kind of difference in someones life.. looking forward to future volunteering projects as I make the time over the next few months.

Of course I did spend some time over indulging myself this weekend... Halloween! absolutely manic... i felt like manhattan turned in to dress up night on school camp! The streets were packed with people in costume just having a great time.. I saw many batmans and spidermans, tin men, a woopee cushion, a rubiks cube, pirates, loads of fairies and devils and vampires and so much more! I headed with some friends to the halloween parade, think the mardi gras times one thousand... loads of people in costume marching down 6th avenue and hundreds more lining the streets to watch.. the most amazing part I thought was the float with over 300 'dead' zombies doing the michael jackson thriller dance... was soo funny, and so well done! I dressed up a little, I looked kinda scary... after the parade we headed indoors for some warmth, red wine and pizza... the funniest part of halloween was the next morning when I was on the train at 11am and saw people still dressed up on their way home... sharing my carriage was a guy in a straight jacket, splatted all over with fake blood, brandishing a hacksaw... only in new york. I took a few pics, not to many cos it is hard in the dark, you can see them here.

the weekend continued to get better with a great night out celebrating jenny and ross's birthdays at a bar in my street, (got to love that!) and quite a night of celebration it was... today was also lovely.. headed uptown to watch the new york marathon with some aussie friends, cheered on those in the green and gold, and then headed to the famous carnegie deli for an obligatory pastrami on rye... and now im suffering because of it....

just a regular weekend in this amazing city!

With the elections on this week its sure to be a ripper... stay tuned!