9th Decemeber

So, it's our last night in NYC and we walk somewhere pretty close to the hotel for dinner, we're in an Italian but it's late and we don't eat much before heading back to the hotel.

I didn't sleep great, the street was noisy last night and I'm awake by 5.30am but stay in bed until 6.30.  We all decided on a late start so I run down to PAX for oatmeal for JR and fruit salad for me, then I pack and read some of my book, JR packed last night.

We leave our luggage with the concierge and head out to St Patrick's Cathedral and then on to admire the view from the "top of the rock," The Rockefeller Centre, it's amazing and somewhere I've never been before.

Lunch is Cafe Europa and I have half a sandwich and a small soup, it was gorgeous, (turkey salad and Italian vegetable.)  Oh, and two coffees.  We then walked up to Central Park and headed for Strawberry Fields.  You can see it from the road, or rather you can see a gathering of people from the road and as you approach, you can also hear a busker churning out his Beatles numbers, he wasn't bad.  We sat on a bench there for a while enjoying people watching, the entertainment and the afternoon sunshine, it was lovely.

We headed out of the park and started the long walk back to the hotel, we'd split up again by this point and JR and I took the straightest route back to the hotel, it must have been a good 35 minutes of power walking but probably just what we needed before a long flight home and several hours of inactivity.

We all got back within 2 minutes of each other and there was just time for a quick freshen up before we jumped in a cab to JFK.  The traffic is heavy but it is late Friday afternoon and it takes us 40 minutes to get there.

Check in and security isn't bad, we get body scanned again and a security lady admires a bracelet I'm wearing.  We have burger and fries in a nice eatery and wait to board for the journey home.

We're 30 minutes late leaving but we'll have a tail wind behind us.  I'm very tired, know I won't sleep, and could do with a wine.

I'm not the slightest big hungry but have the flight meal anyway, (why?)  It was chicken tika masala and it wasn't bad.  It's now 11.05pm in NYC and 4.05am in London, and I'm not sure if I should be a sleep or not.

The flight sped along quite nicely considering I was awake the entire time, and the landing great.  I bid a tired farewell to my friends and made me way to where I was supposed to be to pick up my transfer to Manchester.  I had a wander and a coffee, and before long, they announced Gate A9 for my flight.

I'm on an Airbus A319 waiting to take off and if I've calculated correctly, I've been awake for over 24 hours now.  I could quite easily close my eyes and go to sleep.  We take off late from Heathrow too, they were late getting in from Paris due to weekend traffic apparently.  I have a decaff which the nice man has to get me especially, and a little packet of some snacky thing.

We fly over the Peak District as we approach Manchester and there is a thick blanket of snow, something I wasn't expecting to see and I wonder what the roads are like back home.  We're late getting into land but we disembark quickly and the bags are on the carousel speedily.  I exit the airport, (snow free,) and spot B's car waiting for me.

I chat all the way home and ask after everyone then shower and make the usual phone calls to catch up on any major events, by which time, I'm wide awake.

I stayed up until around 8.30 that night but when I did go to bed, I went out like a light.  It was lovely to be back in my own bed.  Woke at 1am but soon dropped off again.

My family are feeders.  I asked someone to pick me up a small, wholemeal loaf for my return, that was it.  I actually came home to; 3 loaves, 3 litres of milk, one cooked chicken, one block of cheese, one family size bag of crisps, one bag of clementines and three tins of soup.  Bless them.