New York

Well not quite at home in the bosom of my animal family, but almost. I am Sitting in an Internet cafe ( of sorts) at Heathrow waiting for our connecting plane to take us to Manchester. I have been to America many times, generally to the big cities of San Francisco, Pittsburgh, NY and Seattle but I have always got a soft spot for New York,even though that you do forget just how tiring the whole bloody business of travelling can be.

The trip didn't start that well! The terminal at JFK kept us on the plane for an hour after we touched down (too many people in the arrivals hall!) then as per usual I was carted off to sit in a grubby customs office whilst some beefcake customs Nazi checked and rechecked my paperwork silently!. (I am used to this happening EVERY TIME I go to the US, and never get a full explanation of just why it occurs), finally got out of the customs at 11.30pm only to find that BA had "forgotten" to put our bags on the flight! Hey ho! now 100 $ compensation for a lost bag and a promise that it would get over to our hotel a day or so late was not enough to placate a worried Chris who was dreaming of dressing up for the Metropolitan Opera on Saturday night!, but we managed to get to the hotel on 42nd street without too many hysterics!

Chris went to bed after a gin and tonic and I downed three vodka martinis in Harry's Bar and felt a whole lot better about the day I can tell you!

Anyhow the bag DID finally show up, and we did have a lovely New York, gut busting, mile walking, sight seeing time, which my waist line and digestion system is generally paying for.

Highlights for me are always mixed and very varied. I absolutely love the view of Manhattan from the Top Of The Rock (The Rockefeller Center- see pic) ; the bench tributes along the leafy Avenues of Central Park; eating Clam Chowder at the Oyster Bar under Grand Central and chomping ( yes food does figure very much in all this!) breakfast at Pershing Square Cafe on 42nd street! Every time we have been to New York we manage to fit in all these "treats! which is very comforting, as they have become a tradition, but this year we did a few new things, which was lovely!

The Opera at Lincoln Centre's Metropolitan was a wonderful experience! Ok, the Opera itself (The Magic Flute) always feels an hour too long, but it was sung quite beautifully. For me the whole experience of the "Met" was more entertaining than the opera we had gone to see, as it was pure theatre! The audience was not allowed to enter the sweeping staircases and bar until half an hour before the performance and lined up in front of a line of smartly dressed ushers waiting to surge forward when they were told they could do so. The stage and auditorium is vast ( the golden ceiling must be 90 feet above the audience) and 12 huge glass 1950 style chandeliers are suspended just over the stalls. Just before the lights dimmed, and just like a reversal scene from Phantom Of the Opera, all the chandeliers were drawn up dramatically to the roof! Camp as Christmas but very dramatic to watch.

Anyhow I can bang on about it all till the cows come home, so will do so a tad longer! Other highlights was a lovely ( and bloody expensive) meal up in the Rainbow room at the top of the Rockerfeller centre, which was so art deco you were convinced you were on the Queen Mary;

big clothes shopping down 5th avenue to replace the ones we initially thought we had lost! and miles and miles of walking, especially across the Brooklyn Bridge on a sunny but cold Sunday afternoon.

We also managed to fit in The Museum of Photography (brill), The Museum of Modern Art ( not a patch on TATE MODERN ), saw the Christmas tree being erected in Rockerfeller Plaza, waved at the veterans parade down 5th Avenue as well as more shopping and sightseeing around midtown and the Upper East side. In MOMA I finally got to see my favourite American painting, Christina's World by Andrew Wyeth, I have always found it incredibly moving!

Down points have only been one row ( both of us very tired on Monday lunchtime!) Chris' new Russian hat! (see the pic for yourself) and me getting crammed next to an obese black lady in a leopard skin trouser suit on the flight home- she was in the leopard skin suit not I!!!!

Anyhow will have to come to a close as I only have a few minutes left. Another plane to catch, which sounds all very cosmopolitan, but I am ready to get back to my dogs and chickens.........Trelawnyd is a long, long way from 42nd Street.....................hey ho!!!

Photos from Top to Bottom( all my own work except for Christina's World)

1. Chris's new hat proudly o show at the Woolman Rink, Central Park

2. Pershing square cafe ( a wonderful eggs Benedict!)

3Art Deco Panel Rockerfeller Centre

4. Elm Trees in Central Park

5.The Empire State Building as seen from The Top of the Rock

6Chris,the hat and the Brooklyn Bridge

7. Christina's World by Andrew Wyeth

8. Woolman Rink