never going home

Now that I'm settling into a kind of routine, I feel even less like I want to go home. I've been spending most of my days getting work done - writing and research either at the apartment (when it was too cold to go out a couple of days last week), at local cafes, or in the amazing Rose Reading Room at the New York Public Library. As someone one said to me, it's strange being in a place that is both functioning research library and tourist attraction. The other day, I wanted to take a photo when I was sitting there reading but I would have compromised my performance as serious researcher and as local.

Nights I've been busy catching up with various friends - Megan in Chelsea one night, Christina and Sam in SoHo another, John in Hell's Kitchen last night, all Sydney connections. Friday night, I had dinner with my old New York flatmate Jill, her sister Jen, and my party pal Kevin, and then Kevin and I relived many of our nights during my first stay here in 1999 and went to some bars and appraised the clientele. On Sunday, Benjamin and Barry's dear friend Matt and his boyfriend Nick took me to a really cute diner up the street in Williamsburg for brunch (that's them in the photo). It's in an old train carriage, or perhaps it was just built a long time ago to resemble one. Apparently Bjork lives across the street. I'd love to see her. Then they took me to the PS1 contemporary art museum in Long Island City which was lots of fun. It's in a converted old school, some of which still has a very punitive atmosphere - lots of long corridors in institutional pastel green and so on.

Then, of course, there's been a fair amount of shopping. I bought the boots I've been thinking about and they were at least $120 off. And lots of wandering about, taking photos of interesting things, doing my best not to look like a tourist!