Flirting with Old Habits

Tuesday was the first time that Alison's job had to get involved with the trip. She had a meeting set up with Tanya, one of the ladies who worked for the chain that ran the hotel we were staying at. This left me with something of a free reign.

I headed for the Internet Cafe again. I had a mission to complete. The first thing I did on arrival there was to get into my hotmail account and email Julie in an attempt to get an accurate phone number from her. It turned out that she'd given the wrong number out to a lot of people, so luckily (for me at least) it wasn't down to any ineptitude on my part.

On the way back from the net cafe I called in at one of the local Starbucks, in fact, as far as I could tell, to the hotel it was the local Starbucks, being less than three blocks down. Here I came upon a small problem. They had run out of black tea - ie, English Breakfast Tea. After a brief moment of uncertainty I opted for having a Latte. I hadn't actually had a coffee in around three and a half years. There were good reasons why I stopped, but I was at a loss as to what else I could go for. And it was okay. I liked it, but I wasn't about to go to great lengths to have another.

Also on the way back from the net cafe, I came to a decision concerning the steaming drains that we'd witnessed on the first night. I decided that the drain on the South West corner of 52nd and Broadway, which was steaming every time I passed it, was the smelliest drain in the whole of Manhattan. Nice.

Now it was time to head across to the Hilton. This was the venue for the conference that Alison had come to New York for. The American Choral Directors Association Conference. We arrived at the Hilton just after midday only to find that registration wasn't starting until 1pm. Lunch then. There was a Pret A Manger in the Rockefeller Center, and we went there. Nice food. And, apparently, the equivalent of an American flying to London then going to MacDonalds. I hadn't realised Pret was a British chain, but there you go.

On returning to the Hilton we were able to set up Alison's stand, but the passes that would allow us to come and go as we pleased were not yet available. While we were there, I phoned Julie. It was good to finally make contact with her. And it was strange. Normally when I phone someone for the first time, even if it is someone I'm quite used to speaking to in the flesh and/or online, I get nervous about it. This time I wasn't. We traded insults and chatted about the possibilities for the next night (when we were due to meet up, if you remember) - so in most respects it was pretty much like our email conversations.

After setting up we sought out Carnegie Hall, the concert venue in New York. Since we were staying on Broadway we'd been asked by a number of people if we were planning on seeing any shows while we were in New York. So far we'd decided that the answer to this was "no", on the grounds that most of the shows were the same shows that were on in London, and that once you're sat down in the theatre to watch them, you could be anywhere. It being a more famous and more expensive production doesn't guarantee it being a better production.

We had more shopping goals to achieve. I needed a pair of gloves. Still. It's quite possible that had I thought a little more about this the previous day I'd have been able to combine the search for gloves with the search for a cellphone. Being male, however, I am apparently incapable of thinking about more than one thing at a time. Particularly where technology is involved. Alison wanted some black paper to cover the table at her exhibition stand with. The table had been adorned with black hanging edging (allowing you to hide whatever you wanted under it) but had then been left with its top surface covered with shiny white wipe-clean plastic sheeting. Practical, but it looked bloody awful.

After a few impractical starts to this search, we found ourselves once again in the Starbucks in Macy's. I had a tea this time. Seemed like a good idea. Next door to Macy's is a discount department store called Daffy's. In here I found gloves. I've a feeling they could well have been the same gloves as I'd seen in Macy's for $25, but here I got them for $8. Ha ha ha thrrrrrpt.

The search for paper wasn't going anywhere near as well as the search for gloves, so we put it on hold for a while, and caught the subway back uptown, this time heading for the Lincoln Center. The Lincoln Center is a collection of concert halls, and we'd seen that a rather funky jazz concert was taking place in one of the smaller halls on the Thursday and Saturday nights. Unfortunately it transpired that tickets were $55 and $60, which meant, quite obviously, that we couldn't really afford it. There was a part of us that wanted to make the most of it while we were here, but that was a bit much. However, there was another thing about the Lincoln Center that was exceptionally cool and made up for it. The three main concert halls in the Center all face into a square, and in the centre of this square is a fountain.

Think of Bill Murray accosting Sigourney Weaver while she's struggling with a cello (or double bass) case whilst walking in front of a fountain. Yes, it was the same fountain, and yes, it was another Ghostbusters moment. The Chrysler Building and the Lincoln Center, two landmarks of New York, reduced to settings for a 1980s scifi farce. Gotta love it, haven't you? :-)

Opposite the Lincoln Center was a Barnes and Noble, and at the top of this was another Starbucks. Our choice of refreshments may be getting far too predictable, but other devotees of Starbucks will understand this. It gave us time to consult the Rough Guide and to try and work out where we could get some paper, or whatever. An establishment known as Kate's Papery sounded like a good bet. Typically though, it was back down the other end of town.

Kate's Papery turned out not to be a good bet. Staples, on the other hand, did. Unlike the Staples we get in the UK, in the US branches of Staples are smaller and more abundant. A roll of plain black paper did nicely. It even looked like being exactly the right width. On returning to the Hilton, however, having been told that we had access to the exhibitors area until 11pm, we were refused entry by security because it was now after 8pm. Bah. We saw someone in charge and soon fixed that, and got our passes, then went to eat.

We ate in an Italian restaurant and were served by an Eastern European girl who blipped up my gaydar. Now I was pretty sure that this was an inaccurate blip, so I was somewhat intent on analysing why it had happened. In the end I put it down to the tie that was part of her waitress' uniform and the fact that she bore some resemblance to Portia Di Rossi. Problem solved.

On returning to the hotel Alison flicked through the TV stations and ended up watching Charmed (and dodging Buffy and Angel trailers). I tried to ignore the dodgy subtext that I wasn't 100% sure was there and got down to writing more of Targeted.

I should also point out that since this would have been the night Alison would've arrived in New York had she come out on her own for work, and that since Hotels in the US tend to be charged per room not per head, this was my first night in a paid for hotel room. Freeloading ahoy! :)