GRIDLOCK

It’s said that the population of the Shoalhaven swells to three times its usual size during the Christmas holidays. And while it’s been happening for many years, locals are still taken back by the sudden and dramatic increase in people traffic during December and January each year.

Well, apparently it’s a similar dynamic to "Noo Yorkers" when the United Nations is in session, but on a much grander scale. Talk about lock down – you can get to your destination faster on foot than by taxi, when it eventually moves.

I suppose it can be compared to Canberra when Parliament sits. The amount of people associated with a UN sitting is truly astronomical and all these are concentrated in this great city for three months.

The security effort has to be seen to be believed. To quote a New York Times columnist who wrote somewhat tongue in cheek; “It was SUVs with tinted windows. Cops on horseback. Cops in cars. Cops on foot. Cops on rooftops. Cops chatting up other cops in the crosswalk. Secret Service guys in dark suits. Dark glasses. Dark expressions. Dark cars. Buttons on their lapels. Talking nonstop into their cuffs. Boy, did they blend into the crowd”.

For a city with a population of just under half that of Australia, concentrated in a land mass about two thirds less than that of Gilmore, you can appreciate the impact on the nerves of New Yorkers.

That is why my world is increasingly becoming limited to the UN Building and the street that takes me to my apartment a few blocks away. There is so much to be done in what is turning out to be a very short space of time.