Saturday 24th April. A trip into New York for a chance to do a little more exploring on foot. No culture this time, just wandering about in the sunshine, visiting a few bookstores, cafes, interesting-looking shops. After getting out on 42nd Street, I walked to Bryant Park, which is a lovely sunny, leafy large square where lots of people hang-out quietly eating, drinking, reading. From there, I walked slowly downtown along bits of Broadway and 6th Avenue, past the Flatiron district and into Greenwich Village - which appeared much nicer in the sunshine than when I first scurried through in the March storms, especially in the area all around New York University. A few shops that you would have really enjoyed wandering around, including 'ABC Carpets and Homes', which, despite its name, didn't have carpets, but did have the most extraordinary chandeliers and giant wood-carvings on sale, along with other gob-smackingly expensive trinkets in general; there was also a small 'Conran Shop' franchise in one corner of the shop for those on a tight budget. I only a 'spent a penny' in ABC. But I did see a dog in a bag (lots of dogs, Morgan). Then a cafe for Turkey Chilli soup, and on southwards, further into Noho then Soho. Unfortunately the bookstore I was aiming for was shut early for a party, but there was lots of other stuff to look at. Extraordinary numbers of the young, glamourous and wealthy. Plus, of course, pennyless down-and-outs, desperate and hungry. Everything was phenomenally expensive. Even my afternoon coffee at a New York University hang-out was about £4. Walked back up midtown as it was just starting to get dark - stopping off to catch a jazz band playing in Union Square (play the video below) - and caught a train from Grand Central which got me back to New Haven about 10pm. Today, Sunday, was meant to be all about work. But I was invited out for lunch - to Alice and Frank Prochaska, historians at Yale about to move to Oxford. Very nice. Since then, I've been working on my talk for Tuesday, plus packing up a few books to go home in the post. Its starting to feel as if I'm almost getting ready to go...