Calm day

Wrote all afternoon, sorted my wardrobe ( why did I think it necessary to bring 14 pairs of shoes & 8 handbags with me to Manhattan?) and, best of all, initiated the final stages of Mission: M.

JD's boyfriend & I have been plotting the execution of his surprise visit for ten days. I got a grumpy & hungover JD to The Bowery Hotel at 4pm by pretending we were meeting a record label boss who needed a new stylist. Scowling like a cross kitten, she slumped onto a sofa in the lobby, & I promptly disappeared to hide behind a palm tree to call M down from his room. He strolled in, sat opposite her and waited for her to look up. Result: Absolute blank astonshment. Genius. Complete success. I scarpered pdq and left them to it.

JSL came round for Korean & beer at Dok Suni on 1st & 6th. We wandered around the East Village afterwards while he showed me local bars that weren't full of NYU students & Bridge & Tunnel: a hidden basement sake bar near St Marks and Angel's Share on 9th & 3rd, a fabulous and dark one room cocktail bar hidden through an anonymous door. I'm not sure what was more unexpected: walking up a staircase into a recreation of a Japanese street restaurant in an East Village building, or falling like Alice though a door in the restaurant into the bizarre & chic bar. We ended up back at The Bowery drinking bourbon & rum in the (packed) lobby bar. NB. BH is chocka with models and pretty people.

Today I'm off to Union Sq to buy music, Strand for books, and then The Frick for the El Grecos & Whistlers.

I wore: denim mini. black leggings, patent ballerines, DKNY black jacket, TSE cashmere sweater. Big silver hoops. Ponytail.

I am listening to: Kings of Leon