I can see clearly now.....

Many, many years ago, when I first moved to London and was at college, I spent many, many hours hanging out in Covent Garden.....a new and sparkling emporium of shops and eateries the like of which I'd never seen before ..... and where I discovered my first pair of Rayban Wayfarers.

These were the sunglasses of Hollywood movie stars, big and black and quite the most glamorous thing I'd ever tried on and I wanted them. I went back week after week trying them on and trying to justify spending such an enormous amount of money on sunglasses....£27. Back then it was probably a weeks rent. But I really did want them. So I threw caution to the wind ..... and my grant at the problem....and bought them. And dear reader I wore those sunglasses until I was 32 when they finally got nicked in Mexico...... but that's a whole other story. 

 I loved those sunglasses and recently have felt a desperate need to replace them. So, while in New York I popped into Century 21, the downtown discount department store .....or bargain central....and to my joy found the perfect pair. So I threw caution to the wind ..... and my credit card at the problem....and bought them. Clearly, I don't actually need another pair of sunglasses but I really did want them. Or did I really just want to recapture my youth?

Top tip: sometimes a little of what you fancy does you good....

New York...New York....

....so good they named it twice. I used to live there and haven't been back for......way too long. It was cold....

and wet......

 and snowed.......

 and emotional. At one point, halfway across Central Park, in a blizzard I would have cried except my eyes were too busy being stabbed by the icey snow. As I slid over into a drift, snow blind and searching for the out, I thought I might just disappear, only to be found in the thaw, just by the exit. Like Scott, so close....but not close enough...Then my friend's flight was diverted to Boston and so the great nostalgia fest we had planned was scuppered. And the High line....the only thing I wanted to go on....was closed due to...snow and ice.

 So I went to the diner.....

 and the sun came out....

and the High Line opened and it was ....a perfect day!!

Top tip: it is better to travel with your thermals then never to travel at all.....

Young at Heart is away......

....guess where?

Top tip: One's destination is never a place, but rather a new way of looking at things......Henry Miller