The thing about twentyfirst century holidays is you can know all about the place you're visiting, as well as all about the place you left. Although, I'm not from Ipswich, but I am slightly traumatised by watching it all unfold.

I went to Anthropologie on West Broadway, and bought this fabulous skirt (as well as two others on sale).

LogMeIn - is this good for remote access? Not that I left my PC on, you understand.

So I'm here. Got in lunchtime-ish, took a cab to Manhattan, saw my friends, had a high-speed shower, went straight out shopping.

Had a bit of a weepfest with the movies on the plane. Watched Little Miss Sunshine (quirky nutter family), The Queen (Helen Mirren is truly more queenly that HRH), An Inconvenient Truth (Al Gore's opener: I used to be the next president) and the Stephen Fry about him finding his Jewish family. That's how I knew I was on holiday - five hours of movies/TV.

My back appears much better - for those who are interested in these things - the pain has "centralised" ie is traveling back up my leg from my calf. It's now reached my thigh.

Last night, had the most amazing tofu ever, at Zen on Hudson. It's a new Japanese restaurant that makes super-fresh tofu, and we got there just after the 7.30 batch. It was like the creamiest, freshest, most unlike earnest UK vegetarian dream-dish I've ever had. If it wasn't for the two lychee martinis, I'd definitely have dreamed about it. As it was, I got to bed at 3.30 UK time (which was not that late here) but then I did wake up at 5.30 (US time). Must stop thinking in split-personality time.

Anyway, as some commenter said recently, it's not all about me (although it is my blog, so it's kinda all about me), what's with you?

Did you read this piece in the Observer about Arianna Huffington?

I'm in terminal three. Just discovered atlarge.com

Modernity is heavy, and I have a (slightly) bad back.

I have packed in my carry-on:
- my trusty Sony vaio
- UK power cable
- US power cable
- UK mobile phone
- UK mobile phone charger
- Nokia wire for mobile phone connectivity
- US mobile phone
- US charger
- digital camera
- battery charger for digital camera
- palm
- USB cable to power palm
- iPod ahuffle
- calculator (call me retro)
- sunglasses (OK, off topic)

Faust (party style)

Faust (party style)

Saw the Punchdrunk production of Faust in Wapping (even walked down Cable Street). Promenade theatre at it's almost-best: didn't get quite all the narrative, but then I'm not sure you always do. But I'm dying to go back.

And, when I'm in Gotham, I might check out the Brooklyn Superhero Supply Co.

Have you seen this?WAYN.COM (where are you now). Social networking meets travel. Kinda twitter for travellers.

So I've been quiet(ish) because
(a) my back was really hurting, and put me in a bad mood, and the last thing you want to read is someone moaning
(b) I had a lot to do before I leave
(c) I had a lot of work on
(d) other stuff.

I won't be playing the Cruel 2 B Kind Game in Soho tomorrow, but it sounds kinda fun. It's like an alternate reality game. It's kinda like an extended version of that Paddington flashmob a couple of weeks back.

So, I can hear a lot of fire and emergency sirens. At 11am, I was at the physio, and there was the most almighty hail and thunderstorm. I didn't think much of it, except that I had come out without an umbrella. But then, hearing the news, I realised there had been a tornado in Kensal Rise. Which is about a mile and a half away. I just saw the pictures on the news - houses on Chamberlayne Road have had their roofs come off.

Weather never used to be like this, right?

I can't believe that WordSpy are only posting approximeet today me and my friends have been approximeeting for at least five years. Longer, even.

JCCsalons

JCCsalons

What are you doing tonight? I'm chairing a panel discussion as part of the JCC's Lit Café series, looking at Salons. It's at the Roebuck in Hampstead/Belsize Park (why should we leave the hallowed NW postcode area, right?) from 8.30.

See if your geography is as bad as you think it is - check out the world map game.

Banana Bread

Banana Bread

So I have finally perfected my Banana Bread recipe (which is actually Z's recipe, messed around with) so that you're not left with three egg yolks at the end. No more excuses when you have black bananas in your fruit bowl...

And here it is...


Ingredients
225g softened unsalted butter
250g caster sugar
3 large egg yolks
225g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
½ teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon salt (or less, it always feels like a lot)
3 medium-sized (very) ripe bananas
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
3 large egg white, whisked


Method
1 Preheat oven to 180C/ 350F/ gas mark 4
2 Mix butter and sugar
3 Add eggs yolks to mixture and continue to beat
4 Add flour, baking powder, salt, bananas, vanilla, cinnamon and blend well
5 Fold in whisked egg whites
6 Pour batter into a greased 2lb loaf tin (preferably with a paper doodar inside) and bake in preheated oven for 60 minutes. Keep a careful eye on it – it’s done when a skewer comes out clean. This is slightly sooner than you think.

Driver needed..

Driver needed..

I love this. It's from the window of the Paradise (sefardi kashrut authority) Bakery on Golders Green Road. I love how it's a full-night-time-job, rather than a full-time-night-job. Me and D had a real laugh, Sunday.

To grok, a verb, apparently.

So, get this. Amazon write to me, and say, as a person who has previously been interested in the world of Jonathan Sacks, here's the new Hebrew Daily Prayer Book (ie the fourth edition of what's commonly known as The Singers Prayerbook, actually, I said that, not Amazon).

Now, I have bought Sacksisms from Amazon before, but how odd that it should be a book-retailing behemoth who are the first people to try and get me to cross their palms with £6.59, rather than some communal organisation.

It looks good. I gather they've taken on board some Artscrollisms on the design and typography front, which can only be a good thing, and Jonathan, his Sacksness has produced a new translation. (For people who don't know - Artscroll looks very pretty, and is accessible from a design front, but is a little right-of-centre when it comes to commentary and minhag (custom). It's basically a design-led kiruv exercise, although that's just my view.)

But 2 two 5 weeks to deliver?