So good they named it twice

I can't quite believe I'm here, to be honest. To be in Manhattan, 'on business' (my, that sounds grand, doesn't it - if only I had a ball-breaking deal to be concluded, or a seminar to give, my sense of professionalism would be through the roof by now), purely for the sake of meeting as many of the US team as possible so I can get a feel for the business and who I will be dealing with on a regular basis, and all of this generously funded by my new employers, and I know I am a lucky so-and-so.

I've been emailing and texting Ali shamelessly with new titbits which I know he will partly be seething with envy over and partly dead happy that I'm experiencing it. What a love :) My hotel is in Midtown Manhattan - Madison Avenue between E28th and E29th Street, the proverbial stone's throw from the Empire State Building. Our offices are a bit further downtown just off Madison Park and across the way from the Flatiron Building, and the building is one of those fabulous art deco grandiose structures with a huge marble lobby. It takes up a whole block apparently though we are on only one floor. Today I was taken to lunch here and all I can say on that is 'mmmm...'. I had a green salad with a beautiful soy dressing followed by pink tuna steak on potato and spring onion puree, tempura shiitake and a wasabi glaze. God my mouth is watering just thinking about it. And last night when I got to the hotel I took a trip to Macy's for some light shopping - nothing over the top, honest - but tonight I was out of the office too late to really benefit from any more retail therapy.

Now I'm sitting posting this in my room through the wonders of free wi-fi. I did think about going out and trying to find a nice dinner location, but a) it's 90 degrees out there with about 80% humidity b) I'm on my own c) I'm not hungry in the slightest and d) I'm actually more knackered than I was last night after a 7 hour flight. Bizarre. My boss gets into town tonight so hopefully tomorrow I may have a dinner companion and maybe even sneak out of the office at lunchtime to do some shopping. I have a shopping list generously provided by a certain someone so I have plenty of options. You'd think there was a birthday coming up or something.

BTW, US TV really is appalling. Embarrassingly I have just sat through a home makeover programme with an English presenter doing such a bad job that it makes Kirsty and Phil look like they deserve an OBE for services to television.