Was supposed to catch up and spend the day with Big G who’d taken a day off work. Caught up in the afternoon – better late than never.

Staying at the usual … Palmer’s lodge at Swiss Cottage. Amazingly cheap for what they provide.

Wandered through a rather pathetic “Christmas Market” and drank mulled wine. Went to the portrait gallery.

Big G and I caught the Tube to Clapham Junction and caught up with Fashionably-Sized-T (Mrs Big G) [note: Big G has no reference to physical size...rather, a historical reference from years ago...] and Klaus (a Danish import). Several pints later, I managed to catch the very last Tube back to Swiss Cottage.

London – Day Two
A relaxing sleep in – although I did manage to get up in time for the free continental brekky. Was rather non-plussed by the big green pennicillinesque mold spore that I saw on my toast. Needless to say I refrained from consuming that particular piece.

A leisurely Tube ride to Bond Street and a rendezvous with the Swiss connection (otherwise known as Chris and his friendly woman-folk, Anjum). Was great to catch up again – in spite of Chris doing his best impression of a viral incubator and disseminator.

London at this time of the year is a mad-house. GFC notwithstanding, every man and his dog was out buying stuff. Anjum was of great assistance in helping me locate a Christmas present for Mum. The day was replete after a leisurely dinner at another pub and another Christmas ale.

London/Milan
Why on earth do I even contemplate early flights? Especially when the airport is three million miles away and I’m reliant on pubic (sic) transport? To boot, I was somehow erroneously convinced of the fact my flight to Milan left Gatwick at 0830. It was only when I arrived at Victoria station that I was shocked to discover my flight left at 0715. On the train out to the airport I was convinced I had missed the check in time for my flight and had resigned myself to being homeless somewhere in the UK on Christmas day.

Somehow though, in spite of the Christmas airport madhouse and the train arriving two minutes before the luggage check-in cut-off, I was able to skip the queues, check my luggage in and catch my EasyJet flight.

Masterfully conquering Milan’s train network with not much more than “mi scusi” and “grazi”, I made it to my hotel…if you could call a single rickety bed in a tiny room a hotel. Still, it was cheap.

Afternoon power-nap.

Met Mik for dinner. Saw the Duomo (impressive). Ate dinner near the canals. Quite foggy. Great atmosphere.

Milan –> Florence
One thing that can be said for cheap and nasty hotel….it made awesome coffee. I should have expected no less being Italy I suppose, but it came as a pleasant surprise.
Early train to Florence. Old European train stations fascinate me architecturally. SMN Florence stazione is very art deco.

Mik and I found hotel. Wandered around. Had a coffee in a very eclectic little store that I swear could easily have doubled for the lounge room of one of my great aunts. It was packed full of delicious sweet morsels and hideously kitsch trinkets.

Mum arrived. Wandered around town. Had dinner in a little restaurant near the Duomo. Slept.

Oh yeah….forgot. It was Christmas Day today too. For whatever that’s worth. Merry Bah-Humbug.

Actually the last day of the PGA. Not overly interested in sessions.
Went to Metropolitan Museum of Art. Some interesting stuff but a little disappointing. Not actually the sort of art that I am interested in.

Sculpture terrace was very cool. Was made even more enchanting by the fact that I was standing there taking in the sculptures and Central Park out the window beyond the terrace and all of a sudden it starts snowing.

I’ve been to NYC three times and this is the first time it’s snowed. Big fat snowflakes.

Sore feet by the time I’d traipsed around all of the museum. Walked to Times Square, was freezing cold so decided I wasn’t going to stand around in the TKTS line.

Went back to East Village. Booked a ticket to “In The Heights” the latest Tony Award winning musical. Ate dinner and wandered back uptown. By this time it’s well and truly snowing. The snow was pretty cool to start with – and then it melted on my jacket and things just got cold.

Musical was pretty good. I was sitting almost in the gods….but I guess that’s what you get for buying cheaparse tickets. Still, the music was quite catchy. There were a few earworms slithering around my head afterwards.

Day 5

A somewhat cold freezing cold day even if I do say so myself. Slept in (deliberately) and then wandered around the East Village. There was a funky cafe that I’d seen in my previous wanderings that I wanted to check out. I eventually found it on East 9th St – Mud. Cosy. Great ambience. Best coffee in New York in my opinion (given my limited exposure to to coffee shops in NYC). Delicious breakfast.

Feeling upbeat (and zinging) after two large, strong lattes, I went shopping in SoHo and then wandered uptown to MoMA. Ironically, when I was in NYC the first time, I declined to goto MoMA on the grounds it didn’t interest me…to the point of sitting outside whilst others went in and explored. This time, I would rate it as one of the highlights of my RTW trip. I spent all afternoon there and probably could have spent longer had it not been closing time. Quite a stimulating afternoon.

Subway back to the East Village. Wandered past a funky cafe called Karen’s on Astor. Quasi-organic I guess you could call it. Food there certainly hit the spot – more protein, less processed carbs (processed carbs seems to be the norm in the US).

Went to Equus at the Broadhurst Theatre. I had a seat in the on-stage seating.
I was suitably impressed. The stage had been done up such that it was like one of those old operating theatres…or forums….where there are two rows of seating above the centre, circular space where all the action happens. Artistically it was almost like gods observing silently and passing judgement.

The performance was a slightly different interpretation to the one I was in. It was quite effective although I would say, budgetry differences aside, our local Brisbane performance certainly stands up well against it.

Day 6

Up at a sparrow’s fart.

Bus to Boston. Slept most of the way. Free WiFi on the bus which was good to pass the time I was awake.

Met Xav at the station in Boston. We wandered around Boston and Cambridge – including visiting Harvard. Had a noteable cup of coffee in Harvard Square.

I stayed at the HI in Back Bay. Was rather unimpressed at the cleanliness. The room I was in honestly smelt like it hadn’t had any fresh air in years. There was layer upon layer of odours. The predominant smell was that of musty stale starchy bodily secretions. Was not particularly pleasant. Fortunately I was sleeping next to the window and in spite of the bitter cold, I was able to prop the window open a centimetre or two to allow at least a smidgeon of fresh air to permeate the thick and putrid atmosphere.

Day 7

Met Xav and his mate Leo – who lives in Boston and is doing funky Bioinformatics at MIT and an MPH at Harvard. Toured Harvard Med School and the hospital complex near by (House of God territory).

Had lunch in Chinatown. Very full. Just as well…

… went to South Station to catch bus back to NYC. As I entered station, it was just starting to snow. Bus was overbooked. About five people after me got a seat on bus. By the time the bus left the station we were in a blizzard with snow everywhere. Trip back to NYC was at a slow pace (~60km/hr) meaning a 4.5 hour trip became a 7.5 hour trip. To boot, free WiFi wasn’t working and toilet was overflowing. I read and finished Chocolat.

Bitterly cold when arrived in NYC. Amazingly beautiful with snow covering the city. Slippery.

Day 8

Again up at a sparrow’s fart.

NYSORA Regional Symposium – again at Marriott in Times Square.
Far more interesting and useful than the PGA. Learnt quite a bit.

Went wandering in the evening. Finally made it to Strand Books. Amazing. 18 miles of books. I could have spent days looking through the piles of new and used manuscripts. Made a few purchases.

Went to Mud for dinner.

Dropped into funky hat shop “The Village Scandal” which is nearby to where I’m staying and tried on a million different hats. Got a funky suede paperboy cap.

Day 9

Ultrasound guided regional anaesthesia workshop this morning. In spite of feeling a tad cross-eyed from staring at grainy US images on screens all morning I feel inspired and empowered to go forth and learn me some regional anaesthesia. Made me realise how much anatomy I don’t know though.

Afternoon wandering around town in and out of stores. Didn’t buy anything. Sun came out and shone on the icy streets in the afternoon. Quite picture-sque with the steam rising out of the subway vents and the reflections off the ice and the buildings in shadow.

Took subway to JFK. Far quicker option than Super Shuttle me thinks. Took only about an hour from the East Village to JFK as opposed to the two-and-a-half it took last time.

Nothing worth buying in duty free.

Discovered a tasty beer – Brooklyn Brown Ale – in the Admiral’s club (American Airlines equivalent of the QANTAS Club).

Flight to London delayed. Was due to leave at 2135. Now 2300hrs with a departure time predicted at 0020hrs.

C’est la vie.