All quiet on the eastern front

It goes without saying that it was a delicious dinner, served with panache and a bottle of Italian red. The rest of the evening was spent in a futile attempt to make this site even sexier than it already isn’t. Oh well, Rome wasn’t built in a day.

Being the historically significant date it is, all was fairly quiet this morning, which meant I got to sleep a little better thank the lord. Some time after midday I wandered out into the real world and took the subway from 14th Street up to 42nd – no more block-walking for me thank you very much – not since I’ve had my feet surgically removed for charity. I browsed for some time in Coliseum Books, something I’ve been doing a lot of lately. I’m sure they think I’m a shoplifter – oi, no giggling at the back.

I stood momentarily spellbound in front of a marvellous mural by Lichtenstein at 42nd Street which I’ve never noticed before – is it new or have the scales fallen from my eyes?


Little picture but the best I can manage for now.

Where was I? Back to the NYPL (library in your parlance) and up the marble stairs to the reading room where I spend two and a half hours scribbling in notebooks and occasionally writing something until the air-conditioning got the better of me and I went outside to thaw out. I watched the hip-hop dancers on the steps for a few minutes before heading along to the Virgin Megastore to take a look at what Woody Allen DVDs they had available. I became completely entranced by a DVD of ‘Family Guy’ playing on the screens, and must have watched it chuckling away to myself for almost an hour before being forcibly removed by security. Have I been missing out on something here? It was hilarious. I walked briskly back to the subway at 42nd Street, past the stage in Times Square being set up for Broadway On Broadway which I think must be tomorrow night.

Revived by tea and biscuits I popped out for an experience in the deli, then made garlic bread and reheated yesterday’s leftovers with salad for dinner. Streamed through the Internet we had ‘Just a Minute’ and the weekly ration of Jonathan Ross. Much radio hilarity madness.