NYC: Tough To Find as New Boots

State plates spotted: 22
Mad Men locations visited: 3

The shopping curse has at last been lifted. Cue sighs of relief all round. Yesterday morning, my mum, my brother and I made our way down to Dad's new offices near the Empire State Building via assorted shops on Broadway and 6th Avenue. I've never been very good at shopping under pressure or with company and by the time we were due at the offices, I was stuck in the shoe hall in Macy's waiting for the boots I'd commanded to materialise. I'd already seen a nice pair uptown but decided to hold out for a better offer and indeed, I found some I liked more in Macy's but then didn't have time to buy them.

We went to Fanelli's for lunch where I resisted a burger in favour of their yummy pumpkin ravioli. Bizarrely, if you order a (traditional) lemonade at the bar, they tell you they don't have it but they'll serve it to you with your food. Afterwards, I went solo in SoHo and at last managed to buy some clothes, including a few tops, a skirt and some Lululemon running leggings. I almost bought a nice, long-sleeved green top in Lululemon but in order to "make it more feminine" they had added a ruffle. Bizarrely, the ruffle was down the spine so as I told the charming guy in the changing rooms, "I felt like a Stegosaurus." Of course, then the lady sales assistant turned round, also wearing the Steg top but in black and asked whether I thought she looked like a dinosaur too. "No, of course not."

After visiting a few shoe shops, it transpired that the boots I'd tried on in Macy's were hot property as they seemed to be sold out everywhere. I hurried back to Macy's and flagged down a sales person and asked them to get the boots back out in my size. I was lucky as a woman asked for the same pair in my size and was told there were no more. And they were on sale too.

I had time for a quick coffee at Joe on Waverly Place, taking time to admire the buildings on the junction of Waverly and 6th—AKA Don Draper's bachelor pad in the latest series of Mad Men; there is no blue plaque yet though. I then met a friend at the wonderful Sweet Revenge where I ordered their speciality cupcake, the Sweet Revenge, which consisted of peanut butter cake with chocolate filling and peanut butter frosting. It was paired with an Argentinian red--delicious. As not enough eating had been done yet, it was then dinner time and I joined the parents at Trecolori near Times Square, a trattoria with friendly waiters and very good Italian food.

Oddly, given that it was 16 degrees and sunny yesterday, there were large heaps of snow lying around, some in wheelbarrows, as well as what looked like a film crew. They were filming a new Jim Carrey movie, Mr Popper's Penguins; not exactly Clive or Matt Damon...