Scribblings from the Mitchy Side

(For part 1, read here)

Wednesday morning I was woken up by the dulcet tones of birds singing in the trees and the scream of the jackhammers being used on the roadworks outside. At 7.30am. Gnnng. Neither Mary nor myself were terribly impressed. Because the building's air conditioning hasn't been turned on yet, the windows need to be open at night or the place is an oven. As the flat is almost level with a busy overpass, this didn't make for a quiet night and the jackhammers were just the icing on the cake. Sometimes having one dud ear is handy, at least I was able to block it out for most of the night by sleeping on my right side. Nothing could block out those jackhammers though.

I had a splitting headache first thing (unsurprising, really, jet lag and jackhammers aren't a good combo) but a cup of tea and a delicious bagel with smoked salmon and cream cheese helped. So did the two Nurofen :) By 9.30, I was scampering onto the 1 train with intent to first of all go and see David Blaine at the Lincoln Centre, then head to Grand Central Station for the tour. Unfortunately, I missed my Lincoln Centre stop, forgetting it's the 66th Street station and not actually called Lincoln Centre Station. I also missed the announcement that said to get off there for the Lincoln Centre. Oh well. No big deal, I stayed on the train until Penn Station and went to scout out the place, in advance of my trip to see jenni411 in deepest, darkest Long Island. Well, ok, not that deep and dark but it doesn't sound as dramatic :) I bought my ticket, figuring it would save time later and then I headed over to Grand Central Station.

GCS is truly gorgeous. It's all marble and arches and while walls and the central concourse is this huge open space with magnificent windows at either end and a ceiling that is painted to reflect the sky. The tour was a free tour being offered by a local historical society and there were enough people there that they split us up into two groups. I stuck with the tall guy with the clear voice, thinking that I'd be better able to hear him during the tour. I was but regrettably he wasn't a brilliant guide. The station has a fantastic history but he made it boring and too arty and pretentious. "Buildings talk to each other and they talk to you" was one gem as I recall, which just led up to the fact that the corridors from the tracks to the concourse have low ceilings in order to encourage people to move faster towards the concourse. Wow. I wanted to know stuff like the fact that GCS used to be the terminus for long distance trains but that function got moved to Penn Station and now it's solely used for commuting traffic. Or that 700,000 people pass through GCS every day *boggles* I didn't want to know about buildings speaking to me or that the heating/ventilation system works by them opening the windows on the concourse in summer and closing them in winter. No, really? :P I stuck it out for half an hour then sneaked off and went to Times Square where I effortlessly homed in on the EasyJet internet café I found last trip and tappity tapped in the entry I've linked to above.

I scampered back to Penn Station in plenty of time and waited patiently by a noticeboard for them to post which track the train was departing from. I must say, while Penn Station is a huge, bustling place, it's actually surprisingly easy to navigate once you catch on to how things work. Or at least the Long Island RailRoad (LIRR) bit of it is OK. Above the LIRR ticket office is a huge electronic board which lists all the stations the LIRR stops at and the time the next train for that stop departs. So you don't need to know the final destination of the train you want, you just look for the time and then catch the train that's departing at that time. It's pretty simple and much easier than having to scan the details for every departing train to find the one that's stopping at your station. Well I found it simpler :) It took forever for them to list the track though, they didn't post it until about 5 minutes before departure. Heh. Something in common with British Rail then :D

I had to change stations at Jamaica, but happily the next platform over was as far as I had to scamper to catch the next train, which arrived two minutes later. It wasn't long before I was at Locust Valley, which is where jenni411 works. I followed her directions to the library, not pleased to find as I got off the train that it had decided to rain. Charming. A five minute walk brought me to the Locust Valley Library which I'm here to tell you is gorgeous. It was a private house many years ago before it was a library so externally it still looks like a very posh residential home. You go up a steep driveway and then a series of steps and into a very cosy library. jenni411 was waiting for me outside, having come out to peer up the road to see if I was in sight. I was introduced to her boss and one of her colleagues, then I explored the reference section where jenni411 works while she finished off one or two things. Then we scampered outside where jenni411Mum met us - jenni411's car was in the garage - and took us to Glen Cove, where they live. I finally got to meet her dog, Pepper, a teeny tiny poodle about which I've heard a lot of stories :) I met her Dad, too, and got a quick tour of the house. jenni411's folks are cool and were really pleased to meet me - apparently they've heard a lot of stories too *eyes jenni411 warily* After a cup of tea, we headed off to Browns, a restaurant in Locust Valley, where I had the most fantastic battered shrimp *drools* And they serve Woodpecker cider! I was a happy Mitchy! :)

After much happy yakking, lovely food and some booze, we walked back through torrential rain (lucky there was an umbrella in the car!) to the station where I caught my train back to NYC. Plans were made for the next day, when jenni411 was checking into a hotel in Manhattan, and then I headed back to Mary's, where I watched the second part of the two part sweeps episode that Mary taped for me before crashing out.