Thursday, May 3rd: A day apart.

Shopping is something that Maim does alone. I have been known to take wingwomen with me when I shop but we both had different missions and needed to work to our own clocks.

So I can really only tell you about my day. Here we go.

Generally speaking, I shop at the same places in Melbourne or I online shop. I find real time shopping intimidating, unless I have a posse or they know me by name. And I need to be in the mood to shop. I'm not sure if I was in the mood but I was going to give it a red hot go.

Perhaps then, knowing the above about myself, I shouldn't have selected 'Victoria's Secret' as my first point of call. Yet I did. And I promptly left. I had to go get my consumer confidence elsewhere first. So I went to UNIQLO. I discovered this shop when I was in Singapore in 2009. If you like layers and cotton basics, this is the shop for you. Unfortunately, there aren't many around except in SE Asia. Or this flagship store in New York. I do love a flagship store.

I then headed back to Victoria's Secret where my mission was successful. It took 6 women in addition to myself. Hm.

I headed downtown next to New York University. I've previously described how partial I am to university campuses so I won't go any further. But apparently this winter I will be wearing singlets. A lot of them. Possibly all at once. And hoodies.

And then to Fluevog. How novel it was to try on the shoes I like instead of looking at them online and trusting someone in Seattle or Toronto to size me correctly based on my previous Fluevog purchases! Having said that, I've always been sized correctly when shopping online. Anyway, two pairs of shoes later and a salesman who asked if I should be cut off, it was time to leave SoHo.

I think I have mastered finding public restrooms in NYC, by the way.

That was me and shopping done for the day. I was also a bit over the crowds of Manhattan. So I jumped on an L and made my way to Brooklyn to see the girls one last time before leaving NYC. I was very tempted to stay another couple of days to see the GGRD All Stars in action against Connecticut but alas, no. The Pacific Northwest beckons.

I headed back to the hotel via a very long, delayed train ride yet still got back before Maim had finished her shopping. Eventually Maim rang but she wasn't done yet and off she went again. I happily stayed in my room and re-organised my bags, a.k.a. The Weighting Game.

We had dinner together and then retired to our rooms.