Did I mention that I totally got checked out by a Hollywood star while I was sitting having an icecream in New York? No, really!! The only other explanation is that he thought he knew me; he stared right at me for much more time than is necessary to decide whether or not someone's going to hassle you for an autograph (which I SO wouldn't, by the way). I feel compelled not to mention his name, for fear of some crazy US-style libel action, but suffice to say that despite his "long-term girlfriend and child" alibi, the eyes of this particular actor, famous from Six Feet Under, were all OVER me that sunny afternoon in the West Village.

So yes, I was in New York, and I'd met up with Charlotte & Sarah, who were over from Dusseldorf for a spot of shopping, for a bite to eat at a French brasserie in the meatpacking district. And then we fancied dessert sitting at a pavement café, which obligingly presented itself soon after we started walking into the West Village. And there was Said Actor, sitting at the next table! He wandered off after a bit, but then five minutes later came back the way and totally checked me out! I was abashed and looked away, then thought "sod it" and looked back again, and he was STILL checking me out!!

After lunch the girls & I had a bit of a walk around through Washington Square Park before stopping for a coffee. Then it was time for them to head to the airport. I carried on walking, then headed out to Brooklyn and walked back to Manhattan over the Brooklyn Bridge - which apparently is only sitting on one of its feet, the other having been built in a swamp where they never actually found a bottom! Then I walked across to the Hudson River side and walked slowly up towards Christopher Street Pier, enjoying the setting sun.

Rich & Paul met me in a bar on Christopher Street for a drink, and then we went along to a great little Italian place nearby and ate some delicious pasta. Then we headed across to Jersey and enjoyed the view of nighttime Manhattan from Hoboken. Wow! All the skyscrapers lit up and just sitting there being gorgeous!

On Tuesday I got the bus in from Teaneck across the George Washington Bridge and then took the Subway to the Upper West Side, where I found myself a yummy falafel restaurant for lunch. Then I walked into Central Park, passing through Strawberry Fields, the garden named in memory of John Lennon, who was shot just outside the park there. I did a spot of sunbathing on a big rock in a hilly little glade in the middle of the park. Ah, what luxury! It was too easy to forgeet that I was lying slap-bang in the middle of a sprawling urban metropolis.

My next stop was the American Museum of Natural History, which was full of exhibits but also full of people. The new annex built just next door is fab though, with two building-sized displays: one is designed to literally walk you through the history of the universe since the Big Bang, with the last 15cm or so corresponding to the time man has been on earth; the other uses the huge spherical cinema at the centre of the annex as a point of reference for a journey through scale, i.e. if the huge sphere is the universe then this pebble is our galaxy, or if the huge sphere is a molecule of hydrogen then this marble is an electron. Both exhibits were very cool!

I took the Subway and the bus back out to Dan's place in Queen's that night. Dan was a bit knackered from his hectic doctoring work at the hospital, so we just had a bite to eat in a delicious South Indian restaurant round the corner and then watched a DVD. Well, I did; Dan went to bed half way through! It was possibly the direst superhero movie I've ever endured: Watchmen. Oh My God. Every now and then there's a good bit, but mostly it's just clichés and dialogue off the back of a cereal packet. And it's SO LONG!!! Never again.

On Wednesday I met up with Bezi from Munich and her cousin. It's crazy: you fly a quarter of the way round the world, then keep meeting up with people from home! I love it though, because it makes me feel all that much more jetsetty. Anyway, we met at the Museum of Modern Art and spent the whole lunchtime & afternoon there. There's just SO MUCH cool stuff to see there!! Around each corner is a world-famous picture, and around each other corner is some cool thing you've never seen before. I totally love that museum.

We cooled our arted-out heads with a cocktail at their fabulously exclusive hotel just off Central Park and then I got a bus back to Jersey. Rich kindly picked me up from the bus terminal and took me home, where we had dinner with Paul and Rich's friend Dean who was in town on business. Once again, the jacuzzi was a life-saver for my achy feet. Tourism is so much more civilised when one is staying with Rich!

And then, suddenly, my last day was upon me. Rich took me to a proper Jersey Italian pizza place, and I learned that Jersey is a huge mozzarella (or muzzarella, as they call it locally) production centre as well as being a garden state with orchards galore and more fresh produce than you can shake a muddy stick at.

After lunch, I finally succumbed to the lure of shopping in cheap-dollar-land. It all started because Maggi asked me to bring her some sweets that you can only get in America. But once the floodgates were opened I shopped like it was going out of fashion. That naughty Rich kept asking me what I need, and I kept answering "well I really don't need anything, I mean, the only thing I could buy would be..." and that sentence ended variously with "jeans" or "winter boots" or "maybe a shirt" or "some snacks" or "agave syrup". Good job I brought two bags to check in!

The flight back to Munich was uneventful. I arrived on Friday morning and just had time to unpack, wash, and repack, before flying on to Hannover to visit Maggi & Jens for the weekend. Our first stop was an Australian pub, where we drank cider and ate barramundi with friends of theirs.

On Saturday we drove to the Marienburg, a nearby castle. The woman doing the guided tour was quite possibly the most boring person alive - if indeed she is alive. She had the craziest monotone, only it wasn't a monotone because now and then she would inject a burst of enthusiasm - but for the wrong things! One example among many, many, many: "and HERE we are standing in front of some WOODen DOORS" - no, she didn't say anything ABOUT the wooden doors, she just stated that that's what they were.

It was super duper hot that afternoon, so we just sat in their garden and ate Greek snacks. Later in the evening Maggi drove me into town in her Mini (Jens was feeling really ill and went to bed), so we could go to the Maschseefest. It's a beer & sausages festival on the lake shore of the Maschsee, the lake right in the middle of town that WWII bomber pilots used basically as a big arrow pointing at the Old Town.

We met up with my mate Holger, who happened to be up from Munich this weekend too, visiting his parents, and he taught me how to drink Lütje Lage, which is a special local beer that you have to hold between finger and thumb whilst simultaneously balancing a glass of schnapps on the top edge of the glass with another finger, and then drink both together without pouring it all down your front or up your nose. I took to it like an alcoholic fish to vodka - all the locals were impressed at how dry my teeshirt remained!

Maggi & I finished the night with a cocktail in a rooftop beach bar. What a way to improve a city-centre multi-storey car park!

On Sunday the three of us took Bubble, their uncommonly huge American bulldog, for a walk in the forest. It was again a lovely day, and the destination of the walk was an observation tower. Sadly the view from the top was very hazy, but Jens & I had a good view of Maggi waiting down below with Bubble. And then, after a very very relaxing weekend which had consisted mostly of eating, drinking, and dozing in the sun, they took me back to the airport and I flew back to Munich.