Wednesday 28th June 2006

I was annoyed at myself for festering in bed until two in the afternoon. It was a late night, and I was slightly worse for wear, but this was New York! Who in their right mind wants to waste a second longer in bed than they have to?

I decided to make amends by packing enough into my day to make it forever memorable. I again visited the French restaurant, which for your records is called The French Roast, and chatted to the beguiling Christina. She made me do the Ricky Gervais impression for the staff, like a dancing monkey, but anything to make her happy - and it's not a particularly difficult way to please someone. I thought it would be a nice gesture to buy her one of his stand-up DVDs seeing as she's such a fan, and so took a walk to Union Square and looked in Virgin Records but it seems that neither are released in the US as yet. I'll send her one over perhaps.

I could happily spend all day sat around in The French Roast but there was an obligation today to take in some of the city, and so I set off on foot on a self-mapped tour. I made my way to The Empire State Building and, after something of a queue, went up the 88 floors to the observation deck on top. It's beyond anyone to describe what you see as you walk around the deck - just trying to comprehend it makes your eyes hurt. And again, like seeing the skyline for the first time in a cab from the airport, everything looks so familiar, like an old friend. There's the Statue Of Liberty. There's Central Park. The Upper West Side. The Upper East Side. There's Brooklyn Bridge. There's Queens. Over there is New Jersey. A great tip is to buy a handset for $6 which delivers a commentary and guide from a number of marked points by a voice called 'Tony The Cabbie'. I know this sounds rubbish, and you do get the whole "Hey! How you doin'? I'm Tony. I'm a cabbie, you know what I'm talkin' about?" for a while but as you hold the unit to your ear it's actually incredibly informative and the experience is enhanced because of it. He/it gives a lot of historical information, a lot of stuff about immigrants arriving in the 19th Century, and explains where every district is, not just the landmarks, and a little about what they contain. You feel you know the city, or at least Manhattan, a great deal better having listened to him/it.

There's a great story about the Chrysler Building for example. When Mr Chrysler (which I presume was his name) was building it in the 30's, he was in competition with another development, further down town, to have the highest building in New York. So as each progressed, the other would adapt their plans to make theirs higher. It was war. But Mr Chrysler had a devious and brilliant plan up his sleeve - he designed his tower to have a secret spire hidden inside the roof. When the rival stopped building, satisfied that theirs was about a foot higher than the Chrysler Building, the gigantic, silver spire was raised from the inside and, bada bing, he's the winner. Genius. Then the Empire State Building went up a couple of years later and dwarfed them both.

When you stand there on the observation deck, giving your ear a rest from Tony The Cabbie, you look at, say, The Upper East side and Queensboro Bridge, and you think of every Woody Allen movie you've ever seen. Then you look at Central Park, perfect and huge, and a dozen other movies and images come to mind. I loved the whole experience.

Back down on the ground I visited Macy's, the famous department store, then walked up to Times Square, and further along Broadway to Central Park. I looked around briefly but it was getting dark and my feet hurt, I'd been walking for hours the heat was heavy and muggy. Central Park looks fascinating, I'll be sure to investigate it properly tomorrow.

Back to The French Roast at the top of my street for an evening meal and martini at about nine. Christina must think I'm stalking her or something but it's such a charming place, and yes, she's an utterly charming individual. With a boyfriend though. When I walked in one of the waiters said "She's not stopped talking about you since you left, all good." She told him to shut up and looked embarrassed.

She had her friends at the bar and I chatted with them for a good couple of hours and one girl, I'm rudely bad with names but I believe she was called Helen, was telling me about a failed relationship. This fellow was obviously tight because he never bought anything and she said, in all sincerity, that if only he'd bought some Nachos for her things might have been different. They were in a Nacho-probable location and he failed to buy any. I was in hysterics that someone could be appeased by the simplest of gestures, and indeed held out for little more, and seeing as Helen has stand-up ambitions suggested she write a one-woman show called Nothing But Nachos.

We then hit on a rather splendid idea for a reality TV show where two people have to do everything their daily horoscope says for a month to see if it improved their lives. I think we agreed to call it Wishing On A Star. That's a winner.

New York, Baby! See? Ideas! People! Laughs! Cocktails! A few days ago I claimed that The Beverly Hills Hotel was my spiritual home, and it is (thanks for reading and sending a comment, Jeremy my good man) but New York is rapidly becoming my spiritual city. This place is incredible. It's got people like Christina in it, it's got good humour and ambition in abundance, it's relentless, and it's thrilling. It's also impossibly romantic, you can't help but be bowled over.

And it's not really the place to sit about wasting time writing a Blog so I'll sees yous laters friends.

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