SUNDAY IN THE CITY

COOLEST THING I SAW TODAY: turtles in Central Park!

Today was a vintage New York day. It was beautifully sunny, we had nowhere to be in a hurry and just got to hang out with friends and mooch about. We headed downtown a bit to meet Jo for breakfast and while we were waiting for her, Mark and Max tried on sunglasses at a street market we happened upon. I wish I'd got a picture of the old lady trying on some Kanye West stripey glasses, much to the amusement of her grandson (and me).

When Jo arrived, we went for another stellar breakfast, this time washed down with cocktails (bucks fizz and smoked salmon bagel - mmm) and then moseyed through Central Park until it was time for Max and I to head to the bus. Jo's won a scholarship to study in Paris this summer and Mat will be going to his folks' villa in the south of France, so it was sad to say goodbye until the autumn.

There was great drama on the bus because, not only did everyone vote for a movie again (grrr!), but our bus was full before the departure time so - because there was another bus right behind it ready to leave at the advertised time - a couple of people who were saving seats for latecomers were asked to leave so we could get a headstart. They didn't take this too well and kicked up such a fuss - it was all most dramatic, but eventually I just wanted to knock their heads together and point to the bus waiting for them directly behind our one.

As the distinctly unseasonal 'Elf' blasted out into the coach, we got deeper into 'The West Wing' on our laptop, just managing to get a couple of episodes in before the battery died. Chatting away afterwards, we decided that our settling-in period in DC is over and that it's time we built a social life for ourselves. We've been living in a little self-contained bubble since we got here, which is very different from our life in London, spent having drinks or dinner with friends most evenings. So we're going to get in touch with the friends-of-friends-of-friends that we've been told live in DC and really start to commit to this whole Washington thing, now the time of adjustment is done. First stop: supper with Geoff and Sarah on Saturday - yeay!

The journey was way more speedy than on the way there, and - just like when we came back from Pennsylvania - it really felt like coming home to be returning to DC. We grabbed supper at Raku - the yummy Japanese place near Dupont Circle - before dashing home for some more 'West Wing'. And so the addiction begins...