What a Buzz.

Locket the Rocket.

Super cool finds

Dean&Deluca - Stars&Stripes

Scribbly MOMA Coasters

Spaceman Ice Cream

In the shopping bag.

Purple Raybans

Victoria Secret bikini (pity I couldn't buy a body there too)

Stan Smith green crackle sneakers. 

The Weird and The Wonderful...

The gatekeeper of Jurassic Park gives Nigel a keen once over.

These were just sitting here - however hard we tried, we couldn't get one in the car though. 

Worst meal of the trip - Monument Valley - beautifully matched with the pretend wine.

Best new 'side' - Cane & Table - New Orleans - fried corn.

Presumably to go with the huge asses?

Bourbon cowboy.

 Monument valley hotel - aptly named The View - Dawn and everybody is up.

Tiffany at Monument Valley.

World's smallest gate lounge - Santa Fe.

Anna Wintour in Stella McCartney - New Orleans.

Best doughnuts in the world - Cafe Du Monde - N'Awlins.

Best sides ever - Galatoire's - N'Awlins.

Club foot anyone?

The Missssssssssissssssssssippppppppi.

Claire of Soniat House.

Nigela.

Selfish use of the beach - Miami.

Astro - naught.

The Coloured House.

The spot where the dream began.

Muscle Men - NYC.

Urban Cowboy - Times Square.

Suburban Cowboy.

Uggie

As we walked into the International lounge in LA. This lovely boy was sitting up on a couch looking intently at his owners laptop. We were both smitten being terrier lovers but also slightly harried given the long flight ahead and with only a half hour to make use of the buffet so we didn't think anymore about him. But much later between episodes of "Girls' (watch it asap) on the flight, I started thinking about the dog we saw in the lounge. Dawgs do travel quite freely domestically in the States but not usually internationally and definitely not off lead in the lounge. Plus there was something particular about that dog. I fretted over it and finally the lightbulb went on - this dog looked a lot like Uggie - the canine star from 'The Artist'. When we got to Auckland, I googled him and sure enough it was him. Apparently he was originally rejected by 2 owners for being too wild and was about to be sent to the pound when he was adopted by a dog trainer who found him smart and willing to work - especially for sausages - a bit like Nigel.

Shop for free

Literally my heaven on earth - Free City - Melrose - LA. I just can't resist typography. But not all that free as it turns out. One very empty wallet later...

Gone burger

If we can, we always have the last meal of our stay at Nate 'n' Al's in Beverly Hills and although it was a long haul to get there from Santa Monica - what with Uber and all that, we thought we'd make the effort. We ordered up so big that Nigel could not finish the steak fries. ALERT Nigel could NOT finish the steak fries. This will haunt him now for weeks to come. Many years ago, he was very sick with pneumonia resulting in quite a few weeks off work. As he was recovering I took him out for a drive and as we were driving past Burger Wisconsin - he said he really really fancied a cheeseburger. In mere minutes, voila, it was sitting in front of him but alas he could only manage half of it. Anyone that knows him, will know that he must have been seriously ill indeed to allow half a burger to go back untouched. Many weeks later, I woke in the middle of the night to find him restlessly tossing and turning in bed. Thinking he was having a recurring bout of the bronchials I asked him " Are you ok?" " Yes he said but I'm quite hungry and I keep thinking about that half burger I left in Wisconsin"

Filthy rich

These were seriously for sale at Barney's - a banged up pair of dirty sneakers called Golden Goose and at $450 bucks you'd have to be filthy rich to afford 'em.

Uber cool

If I wasn't a true fan of Uber - I definitely am now.  We've used them all over the States and not only are they cheaper and more reliable, you also get all sorts of extra things like water, Hershey's and phone chargers. I just thought they were a great brand case-study but now I know better.

She sells

We're at Shutters on the Beach in Santa Monica and I guess because they're beach side, there's all kinds of flotsam and jetsam collectables around the place. One such thing was a lovely wooden box filled with sand with perfect scallop shells dotted inside. David Attenborough or Nigel as I sometimes call him is an avid collector of anything found on a foreign beach. And if you are familiar with New Zealand customs, you will know that getting any kind of mollusc through is harder than muling a bag of cocaine, the only thing to rival them is a banana - the smell of which, has the beagles going quite literally bananas. One time coming back from Bali, he hid a whole cache of coral in the hotel laundry bag and then covered them with his Coast boxers and Country Road socks. As he blithely swept through in Auckland, he suddenly felt the greasy finger of a rubber gloved customs official at his scruff and in a few seconds he and all his smalls were revealed to a flight of Japanese coming in on an A380 from Tokyo. After a lot of shrugging which was meant to convey that the hotel must have left it all in there, he was released with only a couple of pebbles and a small conch to show for his troubles. Luckily I had anticipated this so I mingled in with the Japanese and pretended I didn't know him. As you can see his light fingered pilfering has enriched him with 3 new acquisitions so let's see how he and the beagles get on with this lot.

Germs

I do like this facility when I'm travelling - though often it takes me a few goes to get the damned thing to stay on the seat and often when you get those toilets that flush as soon as you stand up. Sometimes the weight of the paper will set them off and before you know it, your carefully laid out paper is whisked off down the u-bend before you've got time to say number 2.

Anal

This couple were taking no risks on the flight from New York to LA. They wiped down every single scrap of the seat, tray tables and armrests with a big tube of wet ones before they sat down. They then kissed and cuddled throughout the flight though talking dirty was off the agenda.

Breakfast At Balthazar

If Holly Golightly felt nothing bad could ever happen at Tiffany - I feel the same about Bathazar. My pulse slows down the minute I enter and as soon as my breakfast quiche arrives, all is right with the world. Balthazar opens 22 hours a day, from 7am right through until about 5 and I love waking up in the middle of the night and thinking that should I fancy it - I could pop down and have a plate of steak frites - of which they sell 200 plates a day. There are 2 prep cooks just to get the spuds ready for frying and they peel em at a rate of 6.4 seconds a go. The fella that does them has been there for 14 years and him and his mate peel and chip 600 pounds of potatoes a day - isn't that s'mashing. For more useless but interesting facts on Balthazar - go to The New York Times - 22 hours in Balthazar.

Fries with that?

We are notoriously lazy when we're in New York as we just go back again and again to the places we love to eat. But this time, we agreed we'd make an effort to find at least one new joint to add to our list. We checked out the top 10 new restaurants to watch and we loved the look of this one. Birds and Bubbles just off the Bowery - mainly because we liked the idea of their famous combo - Birds AKA chook and Bubbles AKA shampers coming together as an ideal combo, so to speak. And that's exactly what we had - a big bucket of fried chicken and a bottle of bubbly. It was bloody lovely but as Nigel said - it was basically KFC with a bigger price ticket.

Sweet

I am a serious fan of Starbucks and maybe it's because I don't drink the cawffee? Although of late, I have been trying my hardest to. Not drinking coffee is a serious social black hole because every man and his dog drinks coffee, don't they. I have been advised to try mocha or as someone I know puts it, as she delivers it to me - my training cup, but even that I find hard to swallow. My tipple of choice is hot chocolate and at that Starbucks excels. Every now and again I try to go cold turkey and give it up. I usually manage about 2 days, 3 if I'm really committed but by day 4, I usually manage to convince myself that a lot of sugar is actually beneficial to me, plus I'm a right miserable little git without it, so I never stick out the requisite 2 weeks or whatever it is to overcome the need. Apparently the average sugar consumption for most folks is 22 teaspoons a day (blimey). But DON'T PANIC it's all ok because I never add sugar to my hot chocolate.

Sole searching

Alert! Alert! The much maligned Teva is on sale at NY's coolest store - 'Opening Ceremony'. I can't believe it - they'll be selling polar fleece next.