All Springy, NY

Landing in NY for a week in spring means: lots of walking, cherry blossoms, blazing sun, temptation to buy stuff, brunch in Brooklyn with friends (brekky quesedilla? Yes please!), good coffee, better pizza, Momofuku pork buns and red velvet cake ice cream with cousin Mieke, 24-hr Apple store, Zabar's, excellent family Easter dinner, post-dinner walk in Central Park to check out the rollerblading fabulists, Purl, the stunning New York Public Library, meeting Samski's good pal, songwriter Paul Evans, walking the Brooklyn Bridge for the sunny-day view, and not a small sense of liberation.

Best cheese toast ever, really.

Hudson River blues, man

Central Park Easter afternoon

Paul Evans, lifelong Manhattanite, hit songwriter and all-round lovely guy, gets his oats.

Steamed pork bun picnic - mmmmmm

Manhattan in our sights

Goodbye, stuff. See you in Portland!

"We don't need to buy another thing, ever."

I could only nod numbly in agreement with my man Dan last nite as we finished organising five years of stuff for today's shipment (London to Portland).

The movers arrived at 8:30 am. After a couple of hours, one politely asked if we could switch from Radio 4 to Magic FM. So today's minor chaos has been accompanied by every Hit Of The '80s you can possibly imagine, plus a few more. Top singalong tunes: Fast Car and Who's That Girl (me), Don't You Want Me (mover dude), I Will Always Love You (other mover dude).

Six hours later, and I'm living out of a suitcase – for the next month or so. Then we get a bit of our stuff back via int'l air freight and MoveCube (or whatever it's called that's shifting our New Orleans stuff). Give it 2-3 months and the remainder of the stuff arrives.

So surely it's time for the old George Carlin rant on stuff? Enjoy and be glad you're not the one orchestrating a transatlantic move.



"That's the whole meaning of life, isn't it? Trying to find a place for your stuff!"