Wankers in Yonkers

"Don't get run over Jane!"

Friendly New Yorkers!



Deep-fried Broccoli. (Tempura...nah.)

It was going off at Keats.




Goodbye LA

a

Jane is quite a talent

Busy, busy busy.




That awe-struck look

Yesterday was a big travelling day and everything was planned, tick-tock. I had. the bike sorted, we were kissing the Radisson goodbye, we were at the airport, Jane had checked in, I had checked in... I had checked in... I... I hadn't checked in.

"There is no ticket on the system here for this leg of the trip sir"

This was one of those moments that I was worried about yesterday. I had a document saying that the leg to NY was good to go, I thought, but in fact it said that the booking was confirmed. That doesn't mean that the booking is ticketed. I went a pale shade of diaphanous.

Daphne from Qantas helped as much as anyone could to find the ticket, find a number to ring or a way through. I went onto the net to get a better number to ring, I scrounged through my bag for another piece of paper with helpful stuff on it, I rang India to get something to solve the problem in the next ten minutes. Surprisingly this yielded a $45 ticket to NY with only a minute to spare. I was a wreck. I wouldn't need that morning coffee after all. Quite the opposite, I needed some of yesterday's caffeine removed.

The flight was great once we launched and we were amongst Australians who hadn't slept for two days. The girl next to us had wild, tortured eyes after travelling from Perth. She was lucky, as were we, to find a row of seats free in the back. The senior crew, all over 50, did a great job and we were hurtling away from LA at 1130 kph.

We managed to get the subway all the way to 42nd St and saw Grand Central Station. The hotel was where I thought it was and we were a bit stunned to know that our room wasn't ready, at seven in the evening, but there was a great bar across the road and we ended up there for happy hour and some deep-fried broccoli (pic). It's easy to get a chat going and we sat next to some women who were good value.

We checked in to a snug but good room at the little Hilton and went for another big walk through Midtown Manhattan.

A big day again, it had everything from nails-on-blackboard suspense to a surprisingly good Karaoke bar scene (see pics).

We'll take a map today.

I got us a bit lost last night.

It's becoming a habit.