Memory Lane

My Dear Princess and Dear Fellows,

I have no real news today. But I did look back at some old emails and found an account of Caro and me in New York from about this time 19 years ago. It is way more interesting than what I had for lunch today.

New York August 2001
Caro was thoroughly looking forward to her New York return, not only because it is a vibrant city, full of Potential Caroline Purchases, but also because it would mark the reunion of Caroline and Lisa.

Do I need to explain Lisa to you again? I will just say that Lisa's personality comes WHOOOSHING into the room with a force that knocks men to the ground. She's a woman of boundless energy, especially when it comes to shopping, drinking and laughing at Fashion Unfortunates.

I was looking forward to seeing her again, but with nothing like the passion of Caro, who had already spent a couple of days going over and over her shopping schedule and marking all the Prime Spots on her New York fold-away map.  

Lisa arrived at 1am, having come straight from work.  Even so, she was bouncing off the walls with enthusiasm. "I can't BELIEVE we're in New York!!" she kept saying. I think I fell asleep long before she did. 

The thing about Lisa is that, much like Caro, she is not a morning person. Many's the time I have gone to the shops back in Edinburgh and come back to my flat in Hanover Street at 3 o'clock in the afternoon to find Caro and Lisa still rolling about in their pyjamas.  However, bearing in mind that they had only the weekend together in New York, they both made a concerted effort to arise and I was stunned to find them both dressed and ready to go before 11. We ended up in a Times Square deli having breakfast and feeling very New Yorker-ish with our pancakes, syrup, hash browns and eggs. Then the fold-out map was produced and a Plan of Action announced. 

I'm not going to bore you with details. Let me just say this: Bloomingdales, Macy's, Gap, Urban Outfitters, Manhattan Mall, other shops that I can't even remember, several miles and a couple of sore feet later and Caro had bought some Origins facial stuff. Lisa had bought some product too. But I couldn't believe that we had walked so far and accomplished so little in terms of BUYING THINGS.  Caro insisted that it was merely a "Reconnaisance Mission" and that another strike would be launched before the weekend was out.

If I'm starting to make New York sound like a drag. It wasn't, believe me.  I mean, the heat and humidity were uncomfortable, the crowds were awful (I thought the height of sticky summer in New York actually reduced tourism, silly me) but that didn't matter because New York is just a beguiling place anyway. You can just walk around and take in the atmosphere (which is approximately 84% carbon monoxide) and enjoy the personality of the place. Also the personality of Caroline and Lisa.  And here's a question - why does the subject of Brazilian Waxes always - and I mean ALWAYS come up when they are together?

A quote: "Jesus - can you imagine?  I mean when they pull the wax strip away your lippy bits have probably been stretched out by about a metre. Oops, sorry Symon." 

I shan't tell you who actually said that, but you KNOW it could have been either of them...

You can probably tell by the turn of the conversation that the girls were getting fed up of shopping, which had worn them out. So we decided to cut back on the shopping and concentrate on touristy things.  We caught the ferry to Liberty Island. It was a lovely warm day and I got sunburnt and loaded myself down with fabulously tacky souvenirs including a Statue of Liberty lighter. I found the girls weren’t so concerned with Ellis Island. I informed them that the museum is supposed to be very touching, and Lisa replied that so is an Italian meatball sub sandwich when you’re effing hungry. So the girls sat outside and had lunch while schoolchildren shrieked about the place in a vain attempt to be educated, and I tried to get some tourist, “Here we are in New York,” pictures. Lisa and Caro weren’t very co-operative.

Getting pictures of Caro was impossible.  Every time I asked her to pose she looked grumpy. According to my photo collection I'm involved with the grumpiest woman in New Zealand. To counter this I took to being sneaky and leaping out at her with the camera when she wasn’t expecting it.  So my photo collection consists of pictures of Caro either looking really pissed off or like she’s about to shit her pants in shock.

Funny. In re-reading that, I realise how little things have changed.

S.