I take to the streets early trying to find last inspirational last minute gifts. Hate buying things which are not useful so end up buying Miles, Luke and Barney plain unlabelled jumpers – quite nice but nothing special. Kate, Barneys wife, is much easier. There is a sparkly store quite near the hotel with jewelry at knockdown prices. Max, our grandson, gets a Rodriguez baseball shirt and then I scour New York for an old fashioned rag doll for Isabella. Can’t find one – hate those hard faced Barbie-type dolls. Bought Maggie, my sister, a beaded purse in Greenwich Village a while ago so feel that’s as much as I can do. Neil Tom and JJ sleep till well into the afternoon. Then we all wander through the streets waiting for something to connect. Find ourselves wandering back in the direction of 46th again. On the way a board showing pictures of various cocktails invites us into a bar, where we down Pina Coladas and this sets the tone for the evening.

Later we find another bar and have four different cocktails – Tom is clearly the winner. After this we switched to Margarittas- thought it best not to mix our drinks.