Another wonderful day in the Big Apple!

I caught up with some friends whom I've met only once before for lunch and dinner. While I had the world's most bizarre waiter for lunch (among other things, he brought the Parmesan cheese for my lasagna ten minutes after the food arrived, while on another front, he called me "Peggy Sue" and lastly, when my friend was paying by credit card, he just stood behind her and plucked it out of her hands.), it was nevertheless a good lunch spent catching up with a colleague who'd relocated to New York from Asia this year, and faced the same problems I'd faced when I moved to London, namely, that of not being able to really meet people and make friends.

For dinner, another friend, R., and I went to Brazilian Rodizio Plataforma Restaurant, a Brazilian churrascaria, for dinner. The salad bar - which included sushi, sashimi, cod fish stew and asparagus risotto - was ridiculous, and, sadly, neither he nor I could consume much meat, although I did eat a pork striploin, a sirloin steak, some grilled chicken, grilled cheese and a bacon wrapped pork something or other, in addition to several slices of fried bananas (I LOVE goreng pisang, regardless of the cuisine). This was followed by a trip to the nearby Ricky's costume store whereupon I purchased the finishing touches to my costume, as well as a dominatrix whip just for the fun of it. The line was mad; it snaked around the store and I queued up for over 20 minutes. Fortunately, there were many costumes to distract us while we were waiting.

Following this, we went to a sake bar near 50th St. It had nice decor and a friendly waitress (R.'s a regular) and some damn good sake.

R. was incredibly gentlemanly, carrying my shopping bag, buying me dinner, walking me to the subway and waiting for the train with me. He was also incredibly easy to talk to. We talked about NY and London and the differences between the cities, as well as the difficulties involved in arriving in such a cosmopolitan city when you don't know anyone. We also talked about relationships; he'd broken up with his long-term girlfriend last year, just before we first met, and has been having an incredible time ever since. And, of course, for me, I'm not exactly sure where I stand, as MD called me earlier in the week, saying he doesn't want us to break up after all.

Anyway, the highlight of the day must definitely be the Museum of Modern Art. I arrived at the museum at about 3 pm and somehow managed to snag the last ticket for the Van Gogh and the Colours of the Night exhibition. The ticket, as it turned out, happened to be a ticket returned by someone and the entrance time on the ticket was 3.30 pm, as opposed to a number of people before me who had obtained tickets for an entrance time of 5 pm. I was incredibly ecstatic at being able to catch Van Gogh's Starry Night and The Potato Eaters. I also had the chance to catch the Joan Miró: Painting and Anti-Painting 1927–1937 preview (for members only) which featured a stunning painting entitled Still Life with Old Shoe and felt really blessed after that.

As for the usual exhibits, I was thrilled to see Warhol's Campbell's Soup Cans, as well as Roy Lichtenstein's Drowning Girl, in addition to a number of works by Kandinsky, Klimt and Matisse.

I can't decide which one of the three I've visited thus far is my favourite as they are all fantastic in different ways. One thing's for sure: New York has some amazing museums, and I'm not sure if London can compete in quite the same way!

Tomorrow, I plan to try an everything bagel for breakfast, before indulging in some serious retail therapy.