Ignorance is bliss...I took Manhattan Literally!

It was end of November, just before the Macy'sThanksgiving parade that I took the lone now defunct Zambian Airways flight to London, Gatwick airport enroute to my final destination JFK Airport, New York City.

In retrospect, ignorance was bliss...otherwise I would not have even had this opportunity right now to reminisce my 5 days at the Waldorf Astoria hotel on Park Avenue overlooking central park if it had not been for the fact that I was a naive clueless traveller using traveller's cheques for the first time, had no idea about currency exchance, five star hotel luxury and the meaning of central park 'perks' as a prime location in the big apple! The Porters must have been confused when I arrived at the hotel..and if they were, they were gracious enough to not show it whenthey noticed my cheap luggage at check-in - albeit wearing the most shabby clothes like my cheap polyester orange floral print blouse and an over powering scent of Clinique's Elixir perfume spray. P.s I don't know if they still sell this EDP anymore, it was so cheap and vulgar it gave me headaches and sinus pain!

Anyway; this was my first taste of the Big Apple so to speak. I settled into my tiny over priced hotel room a few hours after recounting and recalculations of however many US dollars I would have left after my 5 day stay in New York.

For your information to step back; I had not planned on staying at the Astoria, but it so happened that I had not reserved a hotel prior to arriivng in NYC, thanks to my big one pound weighted NYC tour guide book which had not clearly pre warned me that hotel rooms around TG week were as rare as an orange african sunset in the concrete jungle! Having gone on the premise that I could simply land in the city and book a B & B with a phone call from the concourse information desk, was as an over statement of the millenium. On the contrary, 2 hours later after touch down at JFK, I had spoken to every receptionist listed in the guidebook including any yellow pages listings I could actaully get through to...(like Mary and Joseph probably got the repeated answer on Christmas eve 3000 years ago); I had been met with the same old tired answer of sorry we are full, we have no room at the Inn. It was after the exausting and fruitless 'let the fingers do the walking for you' search for a bed in lower and upper Manahattan that I had finally heeded to my airport shuttle's driver's suggestion to try the Astoria. What he did't tell me was that it was $500 a night. Well let's just say; we had no smart phones then, no google and certainly no AirBnB!

Although I did have enough money to cover my stay for the 5 nights, it meant I could not buy all the stock I wanted for my shop (Je T'aime) because most the $10,000 dollars capital mother had so begrudgingly given me would be spent on the pleasure of the pure-white, 500-count cotton Egyptian sheets, no less on my meals and anything else for that matter.

After a somewhat not-so-special or miraculously perfect night sleep, I stepped out of my hotel the following morning onto the Broadway in search of the bridal shop whose clippings I had cut from a Bridal Magazine many moons previously. With the help of the hotel concierge, I had managed to find the shop and made the appointment to visit. The plan was I could buy at least 10 bridal gowns off the rack which I could then resell in my own bridal boutique in Lusaka. This would recoup my cost of travel and accomodation and hopefully leave me with a sizeable profit, right? Let's just say, I was such a novice at business as much as I was at being a in a big city...the rest is history.

That particular visit to the big apple was one that I would never forget todate; but you could say, it was my maiden voyage journey that put me on the threshhold of the American dream in later years. Whether or not I've gone on to achieve any of it, is a blog of a lifetime in itself - however as for the 'I'll take manhattan' repetoire as envisioned by Kantz pratogonist, I sure, did take a giant step to taking Manhattan literally.

Only thing I can say is while books can empower us, we also need to use them as 'guides' only- so as not to replace conventional wisdom and the good ol' useful world of research. Remember - NOT all that glitters is gold either!