Yay buns, I'm home. →[More:]
I had a fantastic time in NYC, seeing all my friends.

The hotel (which I've stayed in before) was ok, but my room was at the front and the noise of the garbage collectors bewteen 3am and 4.30am each day was horrendous. There was a huge dumpster outside the hotel (where they're building a new coffee shop) so the trash guys would empty it each day, very noisily. One morning they actually had their cab doors wide open so their rap music could be heard by them over the din of the trash compactor. Consequently, I've had very little sleep in the last 10 days.

The hot water in the hotel was also very hit and miss - it took 15 minutes for the water to be hot enough to use, and then if it got too hot, even the tiniest adjustment of the cold tap would result in icy cold water and no more hot.

But a friend told me about some apartments that a church rents out to visitors, on 35th and Park, so I'll look into that for my next visit.

Nevertheless, I had a fantastic time. Danf and his lovely wife are the most delightful people and it was so great to meet them. I also got to hang out with all my friends, some of them I saw lots of times. And one friend took me to breakfast one day at a very fancy hotel overlooking Central Park. He even has a 'usual table' there. I had Eggs Benedict.

The flight home was good. I did a last-minute seat swap to a centre block aisle seat which, on the online seat plan, had three empty seats adjacent. Nobody took those seats, so I was able to stretch out and sleep, which is always the best thing to do on an overnight flight. I woke up an hour before landing just in time for a cup of coffee.

I've been to the supermarket, my laundry is done and it's back to work tomorrow. I only had limited net access while I was away - they wanted $9.95 a day at the hotel, so I picked up free sifi here and there. But it's amazing how quickly I was through with the net each day, once I'd checked my email and the news. This does suggest that I might possibly waste quite a lot of time on the internet ...

Anyway, it's good to be home. The cats are happily ignoring me, and I'm about to veg out in front of the TV with all the shows I recorded while I was away.