Central Park...

Day 5...

Slight hangover this morning... on the plus side there was no 5am start for the first time since I arrived. I took my time getting myself together, the nice thing about being here for two weeks is that I don't have to cram everything in all at once so it meant I could just have a slow day.

Today was all about people watching and I can't think of a better place to do that than in Central Park. I don't think I've ever seen so many happy people in one place at the same time. I walked up 9th Avenue and cut across to Columbus Circle. I wandered round a bit trying to decide if food would be a good idea or whether I should wait for a while... I opted to wait and sat on the corner of Central Park listening to a sax player. I love just having nothing to do, nowhere to go and just suiting myself and watching the world go by.

I decided on a hot dog and wandered into the park, through Sheep Meadow and found a tree at the back of Liberty Walk to sit in the sunshine and write my journal. I kinda like scribbling in it as I go so that I don't forget things. As I was sitting there, the skate dancers were setting up and this came on... gave me goosebumps. This trip is without doubt the best idea I've ever had!! The dancers are there on Saturdays and Sundays (only not Saturday next weekend, just Sunday) and if you're here and you've not been to watch, you should definitely go. They have fabulous music, I have the CD from the last time we were here and I bought the new ones today. Some of the dancers were here ten years ago... I have a photo of the guy with the bottles on his head on my fridge at home!

If you're interested, I've put more photos in my album on Facebook. I'm not sure that I've done the whole thing justice though, the atmosphere is incredible, everyone is having such fun and it shows. There are some terrific dancers, good rhythm and a whole lot of booty shaking going on. The older lady is utterly fabulous and they're all quite happy to pose... I guess you'll see that though. I made a little video so you'll get the idea from that. I took 951 photos today so I'm trying to pick a blip and wade through the rest to go into my album... I'm beginning to wish I'd brought my laptop, the memory on the iPad isn't big enough despite buying more memory for it! Can't decide if I'm missing something technical with it but maybe I'll go to the Apple shop and ask someone cleverer than me!

I tore myself away at about half six - I don't think that term is used here, I checked what time they were gonna be there next Sunday and had to repeat myself about three times when I realised that I should have said two thirty and not half two - after being in the park since lunchtime. It gets chilly really quickly when the sun disappears behind the skyscrapers. I was freezing by the time I got back to Fifth Avenue.

So now I'm going to sleep... museums of some sort tomorrow. I'll try and stop people watching and look at some buildings or art or something so there's a little more variety!

Thanks so much for all the lovely comments, hearts and stars since I've been here and all the new subs... I feel like you're all on holiday with me! The tips and advice are all gratefully received! x