Yes I don't think it's actually day 2 because there hasn't been a night's sleep in between times…

Anyway, flight was good even if I really didn't want to watch Beverly HIlls Chihuaha…landed an hour early and was allowed in after fingerprinting etc…

Got into the city via a scary "Iicensed" shuttle service run by some nice hustling sort of gentlemen and full of very scared fellow travellers from all over the world.  I have seen the traffic in Rome and driven in Lisbon and Bilbao.  But this was something else.  Lanes?  Who needs em?
Had forgotten how awful JFK was though -  sort of like Heathrow but not as good.  And that is saying something.
Anyways, as soon as we came out of the midtown tunnel – all breath was well and truly taken.
What a city.  I remember why this space is so special.  The scale, the sights, the sounds.
It turns out I am right next door to the famous Algonquin where Dorothy Parker and James Thurber and other people used to be witty to each other all the time!  My room is small but neat and perfect for me on my ownsome.


Had strange lucid dreaming two hour catch up sleep. Then had a serendipitous stroll in the surrounding environment which led me to the 70th floor of rockefeller building when the light was going duskish but not quite sunset.


Have decided it's better than the empire state building because you have the best view of the empire state building and everything else as well
I have met lovely people in shops, fellow tourists, travellign on your own you sort of drifft in and out of conversations and lives and then you keep going.  Talked briefly to a young couple travelling from Henley with their six month old.
Into Times Square – a mad, bright, shiny hub – like Shibuya in Tokyo – bright lights, projections, crazy colours, mad but totally different to how I remember it which was mad but also seedy and a bit scary –It’s not like that anymore…


Now off to meet up with cousin Ann Marie after thirty years