18 May 2007

Mother and Father of Leisure, unlike HRH the Queen Mother, are happy to watch their grand-children and Lady of Leisure and I had been planning a couple of days away together before she abandons us to go to Dublin. We really took complete advantage booking flights to New York for a long weekend.

One of the compelling reasons for initially coming to Jamaica was the lure of traveling round the region. Having spent more than one year in the job, I have only left the island once (to Portugal and that was work), save for trips back home. My holiday life has become so much less exciting since I have been here. So to go to New York for a weekend of luxury and opulence is just what the doctor ordered before I lose my wife to her work and my liberty to mine.

We took a suite at Hotel Ganesvoort in the Meat Packing District. It was a pretty decent spot and the place livened up in the evenings with queues of desperately trying to get into the pool bar on the roof. As residents we were allow straight in. The room was crammed with bright young things, and I was finding it terribly chilly having not acclimatised from Jamaica. Drinking Martinis from thick plastic cocktail glasses was not terribly appealing, and being old enough to remember Bon Jovi first time round, did not appreciate the irony of it being played to a young trendy crowd.As suite guests we were allowed access to the “even more exclusive” underground spa bar. I have no idea why the queues for this were longer than the rooftop bar. Same incredibly drunk kids, same dodgy AOR belting out of the speakers, same crappy plastic martini glasses only down here there was an additional dampness lingering in the air from the venue’s day job as a spa.