a potted history of last week

well, as usual i've not been very good at getting round to writing this blog - i'm always happy when i've done it but despite being pretty much housebound for the last two days i still haven't written it! so i'm gonna try and catch up on a few days now:

tuesday: my first morning so i was up and about early and off for coffee and fresh blueberry pancakes - hurrah! spent the rest of the day hanging around in the neighbourhood and re-acquainting myself with the streets, shops, restaurants, cinemas, etc. sooo good to be back!

wednesday: popped down to the apple store in the morning to get a US plug for my laptop. after that i came back uptown to visit phyllis for the first time this trip. i prepared myself for her to have changed in the two years since i last saw her, but when she opened the door she looked just the same - still elegantly dressed and looking great. i spent about three and a half hours there - she's a bit down in the dumps about some dental work that she needs to have done but i tried to keep her off that subject and talk about happy stuff! felt a bit zombiefied after that so i went off get a burger at the shake shack and then went to see 'argo' at the movies. it was ok, great story but just told in a very formulaic way.

thursday: had lunch with robin at the office and saw some of the people who work at search & care, some who i knew and some new people too. then we jumped in a cab with lots of bags of cake and headed over to a church who donate their room to search & care for their 'vocal ease' concert. such a lovely sweet idea: 5 singers who do broadway numbers all come and give their time for free to sing lovely songs to the seniors and we serve them coffee and cake. apparently it's the busiest it's ever been and it was so busy we had to get more chairs! it was all 'que sera sera' and 'don't rain on my parade' it was brilliant and the clients really loved it. quite a few of my old clients were there; janice, matty (and her lovely carer judith), mary and phyllis was there too. it was my job to get phyllis home and we walked about 7 blocks back to her apartment - ok she had a walker, but she's 96 years old!!! we had a cup of tea and then i popped out to get her some soup for her dinner and then i headed back to the office to see robin. we headed back to our apartments (she lives just across the street from where i'm staying) and stopped in at a bar and had a beer and a quick dinner before heading home.

hey - that's three days of updates... not bad! i got a busy day tomorrow but will write more later...

back to last monday...

the big day finally dawned - i was going back to new york city - my second home! although my flight wasn't until 2pm i was still up at 7am as i still had my suitcase to pack! to be fair, there were piles of things around the case, just not in it... i decided to take my really big case this time - more room for my nyc purchases! i managed to leave on time - a miracle i know! - i took the bus up to manor house to catch the tube but as i was wheeling my bag into the tube station one of the outer bits of wheels falls off - but i persevere, the wheel is still there but the whole outer part has disintegrated - now it just makes a lot of noise as it's wheeling...

i must have looked particularly dodgy that day as i got a severe frisking twice by security, one at the regular security check and then again before i could get on the plane! the plane was really empty so before we took off i moved to a double seat and sat by the window - hurrah! the food was grim but i managed to fit in 3 films (brave, moonrise kingdom, madagascar 3) which helped pass the time.

we left late but made up time during the flight as we arrived on time. unfortunately the queue to clear passport control was ridiculously long - it took an hour and a half to get through, by that point i really was losing the will to live. i finally managed to pick up my now wonky and squeaky bag and wheeled off into the new york night... arrived at 86th street station - soooo exciting to be back - and a nice man carried my suitcase up the stairs at the station too - a good start!

i could feel myself walking faster and faster to sue's apartment - i was so looking forward to seeing robin again! after lots of squeaking and cuddling we went out for dinner to a new-ish thai place with sue where we had a big catch-up. robin left us and we went back to the apartment where i sensibly decided to go to bed - sooo tired!

i am back back back!

well, it seems that it has taken a hurricane to make me sit down and start writing a new blog post! i've been back in nyc for nearly a whole week now and despite promising to many people that i would resurrect this blog, i haven't written a bloody word!!! until now that is... so, before i start i would just like to say that i'm currently under house-arrest while we wait for a massive hurricane to engulf us and blow us all to bits. the shops are all closed, and most of the restaurants too, people have been queuing all day at the supermarkets for food and bottled water, but worst of all, they've only gone and closed all the cinemas too - oh, the horror! it seems that i better knuckle down and write this thing... right, let's go back and start at the beginning...