The hospital digs at my new gig were not the cleanest when I arrived. It was the usual three rooms off a corridor, with a small living room, bath/shower and separate toilet, and I was more than a little impressed by my room (it had the requisite sink in your room but was otherwise also quite well-furnished), but oh my word, was the kitchen filthy. The bin was overflowing and kept company by another two bags of rubbish, the sink was grotty, and dishes, saucepans, and cutlery were spread over the draining area of the sink and across the neighbouring bit of benchtop, and stains and spills decorated the benchtops and the floor. ‘So I guess I won’t be cooking while I’m here then’ I thought as I took the sight in.

So V and I ate out over the weekend while he was with me, I stocked up on frozen fish fingers and bags of frozen veg at Sainsbury’s, and we had our leftovers at Pizza Hut packed up so I could eat it over the week (it was easily the first time in literally years that I’ve eaten at Pizza Hut, and yes – it IS that kind of town).

I then spent the first of my evenings after V left trying to do a bit of a clean in the kitchen. I put away the dishes, cleaned the sink and the benchtops, and re-washed the cutlery. As minimal as this was, it made me feel a whole lot better about the place, just enough to venture to eat a meal at home – ok, it was the frozen fish and frozen veg reheated in the microwave, but still. And apparently it made the cleaners feel better about it, because they actually (quite a bit later in the week mind) cleaned the floor.

To my dismay however, I started noticing the draining area of the sink wasn’t really draining. It wasn’t angled correctly, and was even ever so slightly concave, meaning everything was just sitting in its own dishwater. Yuck.

Of course, this being a short term job, and me being a broke, I was reluctant to ‘invest’ in anything homewares-ish, so I decided on the weekend I would be scouring the town’s weekly Sunday car boot sale at the local football club for a dishrack (a secondhand one would be ok – the smaller investment also redeeming itself by virtue of being saved from the tip and reused – this is my year of everything secondhand, after all).

But it wasn’t too be. V ended up coming up again on the weekend, and at a local fair (we never found the car boot sale) we managed to score a water filter jug for practically nothing (I hated the taste of the water here, but again, reluctant to invest in one), and a shredder for a bargain price as well. But no secondhand dishrack.

On a trip to Sainsbury’s the same weekend, we found their only option was a plastic one that I didn’t think would drain very well (and cost £4.25). Poundland and Poundworld (again – yes, it IS that kind of town!) who between the both of them manage to stock quite a bit also failed to come up with the goods.

So Monday I head to work still without a dishrack at home, leaving V to run some errands, and when I come home, V presents me with a dishrack. Not secondhand – but still only £3 from Argos – AND it was a nice wire one. And with that small small purchase, my kitchen is now that little bit more user-friendly, and dare I say… homelier. Just don’t ask if I’ve cooked anything in it yet.

We’ve done our visit to V’s sister, who is living the American dream (or nightmare depending on your perspective) – living in Connecticut with her doctor husband and two kids in a 4-bedroom double garage house in a street that she dubs, quite appropriately, Wisteria Lane. If you try and imagine the most clichéd upper middle class suburban street with perfectly mowed lawns and American style letter boxes at the end of the driveways, and then just polish up the picture in your mind’s eye, and make it even more perfect – you really could not imagine it better than this place was, it really COULD have been used as a location for Desperate Housewives. And they do get stressed out about the grass – really. The guy works in the ER and apparently would often mow the lawn either side of a gruelling 12 hour shift so that their neighbours wouldn’t look askance at their lawn.

It was so clichéd that the area of Connecticut they live in is even referenced in the book V is reading, Man & Wife, by Tony Parsons. Anyway, guess what we did while we were there? We painted their deck, the last in a rather long list of DIY projects they’d undertaken to better their home (painting various rooms, fixing light fixtures, doing up their basement). We also went to ‘tag’ sales (i.e. garage sales), and went to the mall. And we went to a 4 year old’s birthday party, complete with other suburban moms and their husbands (a large majority of whom live on the same street). I loved every minute of it – really! The weather was amazing – great weather for doing something outside like painting the deck, her kids really really are gorgeous (although the 2 year old was a little spoilt – the baby couldn’t be more an angel), and even Taco Bell (her husband’s favourite) was so bad it was good. Well maybe not good but it was an experience.

But I do have to say I’m missing ‘normal’ food. My body is really starting to feel the effects of having an American diet (and American portions), and little exercise (the days were full-on at V’s sister’s so we managed a run only on the first morning). Even one of the meals we made was ruined by the tinned tomatoes we used – loaded with salt and various other additives, and by the no-fat ricotta cheese they had in their fridge (I didn’t think such a thing existed – I thought ricotta was low fat anyway!) Anyway it’s all soon coming to an end – I’ll be back in London in two days.

So no quick nip to Times Square, no Broadway/off Broadway/off off Broadway show, no Nuyorican Poets Cafe (last ditch attempt would have had us going to their Operation Opera Tuesdays, which seems to be a way for them to introduce the artform of Opera to their Poetry Slam loving audience), no pastrami (despite the fact that we are only a few blocks from the famous Katz Deli.

What we have done is, check out Williamsburg and go to the flea market there. We’ve (well I’ve) done some thrift store/second-hand/vintage clothing shopping. We went to Top of the Rock, so although we haven’t made it to Central Park (or anywhere midtown and above beyond meatpacking district), I have seen it. We’ve been to the Meatpacking district for a bit of nightlife – albeit not without some issues. We haven’t done any Fleet Week activities but I’ve seen sailors, although they certainly haven’t lived up to my expectations. And we’ve experienced a taste of crazy New York living courtesy of V’s LA friend.

So V’s LA friend is actually someone he went to school with in Newcastle of all places, who has made good, and is now living the high life (think open pass to the Playboy Mansion). Anyway, via Facebook, he realised V was in NY at the same time he was, so plans were made to have dinner together. Dinner turned out to be at an ‘exclusive’ restaurant/bar/club (the food really was good) with his NY socialite friend – a girl from Merrickvale in Sydney who was now working as a personal concierge in New York (specialising in dining, lucky us). Anyway, this was the night we saw how pretentious people (?and life) in NY can get. Although I imagine somehow V and I will not be having the same problems these people do – being so pissed off at not getting into a club without having to queue “I can’t believe this is happening – why is this happening (insert name here)?! This wouldn’t happen to me in LA!”; needing constant assurance that people are impressed and grateful because with your connections you’ve managed to get them a table somewhere you wouldn’t normally be able to get into unless you were ‘someone’; having a girlfriend/boyfriend who needs their food cut up for them – and thank goodness for that. Nevertheless, it made for an entertaining experience, and we got to go to a club (without queueing, hooray for that), and have a bit of a boogie.

Last night this little (?Jewish) woman with a strong (?Queens) accent stopped us in the supermarket to tell us the blueberries would be 2 punnets for $4 today (we were carrying a punnet and they were 2 for $5 today), and that cherries would be a dollar cheaper too. So we put our blueberries back, and we’ll be back today to buy them!

For dinner last night, we had a couple of slices of New York pizza (average – but we really needed to eat at that point) on our way to hunting out sushi (this was average too but SOOO cheap – and at least we had a healthy start to our 2 week American diet).

This morning the plan is to find Russ & Daughter, and have bagels and babka for brunch. We’ve been for a run, and found some more local places I’m hankering to try out – there was  place that serves buttermilk fried chicken (?! – and a quick glance seemed to suggest they serve this with waffles ??!!), and almost across from this was a paladar-looking place that seemed to serve home-cooked pan-hispanic cuisine (I don’t really know how to describe it – I’ll have to go back and take photos), AND a cuban place. Now I know we weren’t fan of cuban food back in Cuba, but V read somewhere that the best Cuban food is actually outside of Cuba, where they have the raw ingredients to actually cook with flavour. What better place, other than maybe Florida, to try it than New York, I say!

And at the end of our run, we went past the Nuyorican Poet Cafe – how could I not stop to look at their signs and posters?! I was devastated to find out we missed their Latino Jazz night last night, but chuffed when I just googled it to find out they have an Afro-Cuban Big Band Sunday night – so this is now pencilled in.

What else what else? Thinking I might turf the Guggenheim (this was the one place I knew I wanted to go since I was quite young) for the McQueen exhibition at the Met, but also wondering if I want to go to MoMA, and trying to decide if we should partake in any of the Fleet Week events (sailors! :P) at Intrepid (they’re screening Top Gun at their open air cinema on the deck (!) tonight but unfortunately we’re catching up with V’s sister’s brother-in-law).

And also planning on visiting Williamsburg for a spot of second-hand clothing shopping. Not that I wasted anytime in getting started – we walked down 7th on our way back from sushi last night, and past a couple of little second hand clothes ’boutiques’ – two of which were in my price range, and I managed to get a couple of dresses for a little more than $30 in one, and a Banana Republic blazer for $15 and a chiffony yellow Guess top for $7 at the other – why is second hand stuff so expensive in London?!!

Anyway, thinking to myself that it really is true that the ‘high streets’ of New York are far more varied and interesting than London (read somewhere that it’s cheaper and therefore easier to set up shop in NY, resulting in more individual little shops and more variety on the streets in NY than in London, where it’s getting to the point that only big chains can afford to open up shops on high streets).

Well, I think if V decides once he gets his passport that he wants to live here, I will be 100% behind that decision!

Best cafe – Compass Lodge in Shangri-La.

Best restaurant – hard one, but we did go to Quang An Ngon twice. Three times if you count the copycat restaurant owned by different owners.

Most expensive meal – Sunday brunch buffet at Sofitel Metropole. I decided after this buffets are so not worth it.

Most memorable meal – probably my fish in Vientiane – sooo good.

Best accommodation – Jade Emu & Jade Roo in Dali.

Most memorable accommodation – Zheng Yi Club.

Most memorable accommodation (for the wrong reasons) – Akha village homestay.

Best ‘sight’ or activity – Tiger Leaping Gorge.

Best journey from A to B – the boat trip to Nong Khiauw.

Worst journey from A to B – the bus ride from Yuangyang to Hekou (grrr!)

City/town which most lived up to our expectations (in a good way) – Shangri-La. In a bad way – Hoi An.

Best souvenir – maybe our painting & calligraphy from our workshop?

Worst souvenir – the crappy dresses I got made in Hoi An.