Let the bedbugs bite

Sunday
If you are at all squeamish then I suggest you do not read this!

I woke up this morning after a particularly bad night's sleep. The itchy rash I've mentioned before had been getting worse and worse - and I have been waking myself up scratching my arms and neck which are covered in raised red marks. I had put this down to the occasional mosquito we have found in the apartment - but I had felt that the relationship between the number of welts I have (I look like I've got the pox) and the number of mossies was illogical captain. Well, as I sat in bed this morning enjoying a cup of tea and a jolly good read I noticed something journeying across the sheets. On closer inspection it looked like a flea, but without the long back legs. I tried to squash it but it refused to die so I crushed it between my fingernails and splat - claret all over the counterpane! Then I found another one and did the same - more crimson blood. I showed J who checked out a website on bedbugs on the internet. Bedbugs we learned, are quite big fellas - so we dismissed that idea. Now here comes the horrible bit. I decided to look further and removed all the bedding and lifted the mattress off the bedframe and there was a whole thriving family of fat, swollen, bed bugs, scurrying around in surprise at being exposed to daylight. I started squashing them with a tissue until it was soaked in blood - my bloody blood! When it all became too much like a horror movie, I called down to reception who offered us two choices - another apartment or fumigation. We have become rather attached to the apartment, so chose the fumigation option. We quickly packed up all our worldly goods and left the critters to their doom.

Brunch at the Waverley diner, followed by a stroll down to Broadway and a spot of retail therapy. We headed back across town to the Chelsea Piers and wandered around there a while and the Sunday markets around the West Village.

Back in the apartment now, and apart from a slightly disorientated cockroach and a strong chemical smell in the air, everything seems to be OK. I have a whole new bed and mattress - sweet dreams.