BRIT INVASION - 5th NOVEMBER to 10th NOVEMBER

TRYING TO REMEMBER THE 5th OF NOVEMBER

They arrived. All 8 of them. Some had been before, others were wide eyed.

Met them all last Thursday at the Maritime hotel at noon in Chelsea and we decided to go for a walk down Meatpacking. All the girls were wide eyed with excitement. I march them around this corner and we see some filming. I'm of course blase? about it and then Sarah-Jessica Parker Bowles or whatever her name is walks out and some bloke shouts Action. There then proceeded about 20 of the crew trying to stop mad Brits with flashing cameras and video cameras running up to touch her. The ginger one was there as well but who really cares.

I think the girls must have got some inspiration because it started a 5 day shopping spree for all of them. They dashed in to Jeffreys so Scottish John and I went to the Gas Light for one. You know it's going to be a blast when Scottish John turns up and tells you that he's got a new girlfriend: I ask him how he met her and he replies that she beat him twice at arm wrestling at a party in Leicester. Pretty easily, he admitted.

They all turn up and the bar-man can't believe he's got to work on an afternoon. They get through about 5 drinks each in a space of an hour!

Took them to Franks in East Village which they turned up late for and so the table got all mucked up and we ate about two hours later than planned but Scott got to sit next to 2 pretty boys so he was happy.

The Lady came out with us on Friday and we met in the evening back at the Maritime Hotel's bar. We walked through the freezing night down to the latest trendy bar/restaurant called PM on Gansewoort for some food. A couple of the girls were late so when we turned up this cnut of an arrogant french bloke refused to let us in - saying there had to be equal numbers. Then he saw Scottish John was wearing sneakers and he freaked. Fking embarrassing. ... I just had to pause this blog to email a note to the guy (spambot:[email protected]) on the restaurant business card to tell him what an ars*hole he is. Going to go to every review web site and leave a bad review about them - or that's what I wrote.

Anyway Rhone round the corner was better and more relaxed but even then we waited 2 hours for a table. I think the crowd put away about 10 drinks each before we got to eat at 11pm. I caught Scottish John chatting up a gorgeous bird in a queue for the toilets and he got her number! What? In New York? Yes! He told her he lived in East Village and she says, so do I - where abouts? That stumped him so I think he played drunk. I left them as they went to fall over at the bar APT and I went to a party with the Lady in Murray Hill: I still ended up in Meatpacking: in Passerby jigging at 5 in the morning to Outcast.

Saturday I can't remember. Oh yeah, had a great night at the French bistro La Jumel with a mate of Geordie Alex and a few of his yank lawyer friends. Scottish John performed magic tricks which I reckon he must be pretty good at when he's sober. Of course, we ate a couple of hours after we arrived but we had huge steaks. They had to run out to the shops to get extra large bottles of wine for us. After three hours the meal bill only came to 55 dollars - we were all surprised, perhaps not as surprised as the four sober lawyers down the other end of the table. Ended up in Tribeca Grand where The Lady proceeded to make sure she had a photo of her kissing the cheek of every guy in our party. I had to ask her for one with me....

On Sunday I met them during the day and realised why I hadn't met them during the days before. All they wanted to do was walk around the bloody shops. I couldn't believe that after 4 days that hadn't been to all the shops they wanted to. Dragged a few of them over to the skylift over to Roosevelt Island. Scottish John went green. Alex insulted the locals by referring to the island as the 'nut house' (it's where the old Victorian looney bins were) - one woman snapped back at him that he came from the 'nuthouse'. Even people in NYC must know about Newcastle then....

Later the Lady joined me and Scottish John (the others were shopping) and she showed us a great bar in Times Square called 'Jimmy's Corner' run by a boxing trainer and one of those bars with a million photos of visitors. John and I had a couple of pints then I took a pic of him with the barman and he told me he was going to send it in so it would appear in the wall or under the plastic of the bar. He reckoned 20'' by 20'' in size would suffice. You just know it will happen.

About 12 of us ended up in another great French Bistro (Bar Tabac) on Smith Street in Brooklyn (after visiting Pier 116). It took about an hour and a half until we started eating. Then to a bar called Halcyon which was also a furniture shop, a record shop and a cafe.... (cool!)

Saw them for lunch (Monday) today and they're all drinking beer before heading for some shops. "Haven't you lot gone by now?" Need a lifetime to recover.