New York: Fall 2010

My few days away in New York

The drive in from the airport in that crisp clean autumn light as always so astonishing, to round a corner and have laid before you the most extraordinary silhouette, the cubes and spikes spiraling toward the sky, the rectangles and the setting sun reflecting in a thousand windows like tiny gold sequins. In to the lower east side and the magical city like Oz from afar becomes walls of peeling posters, newspapers blowing like tumble weed down shabby streets and wires, pipes and smoke, signs all tangle up and men in raggedy cloths pushing carts of belongings. Then up, up to the Upper East Side where I am staying, a block from the park and all shiny and smooth, polished and wealthy.

The next morning I got up at 5 am and was disappointed to see rain and grey soggy sky. I was all day running to appointments - first at vogue then on and on nearly every hour until 6 pm at the New York Times. In each place I am accompanied by a pr girl to each place I have to talk and tell the same tales and exhaust myself trying to read each editor, to see what how much they want to hear, how sincere, how indifferent and balance that with the amount of energy I give.

The editors are all young woman, with a few exceptions of older women, they all exclaim and make the right noises over the jewellery which I have to spread out each time and feel exposed as my rocks are touched and held by these strangers.

All went well and there was all the right kind of interest and appreciation and then I came home through the park and all the scrawny joggers and dog walkers like cartoons with a dozen dogs of every shape and size spinning around their legs.

This morning was again more appointments and the rain has stopped although it remained grey. I can not understand why they are so obsessed with cold, it is winter but everywhere I go they pour ice water from pitchers full of ice bergs, and the dreaded air conditioner - also odd the fashion ladies have taken to wearing wellingtons in the rain in the city, up to their chic carpeted offices they wade around in rubber boots - it has become all the rage.

This afternoon I was asked to go to a meeting by a woman who a stylist had given my name to - she wrote yesterday as she had a press release from survival saying I was supporting their boycott of the Botswana diamonds. 

I actually had no idea who she was - assumed she was a journalist and so went along to meet her, it turns out she is the PR for De Beers - a comical meeting where she offered to take me to South Africa and Botswana to show me the initiatives and charity and projects DB have set up, she talked of trying to work with survival and explained in earnest how DB has no influence over the got' in Botswana and that they had tried to persuade the Gov' to allow the Bushman back to the ckgr to no avail. 
She wanted to know what survival want and how to make them happy, how to work together - if I would consider working with DB and the Bushman on some diamond jewellery project etc .

Then I walked 15 blocks home. Tomorrow I am meeting some friends and intend to spend as much of the day as possible in the met, the Asian society and the park - should be sunny tomorrow -