I arrived in New York at about 8 in the morning on Thursday after an over night flight from LA. The flight was crap but luckily I managed to get a few hours sleep. Met a lovely girl on the plane who lived in New York and gave me her phone number in case I needed anything bless.

I was so tired on the bus into the city but as soon as I got to my hotle and checked in I was wide awake and excited to look around. My hotel is called The Pod Hotel and is in Mid-town New York. I've got a tiny little room (hence the name pod hotel) but it is so cool. Theres a really funky lounge and bar area and my room has eveything from ipod docking station (?!) to plasma TV. Its fab love it but didn't want to stay in wanted to expore the city.

I caught the subway down to Wall Street where I had a little wander around and saw the New York Stock Exchange among some other amazing buildings. Then walked over to the site of the World Trade Centre. This was very moving seeing all the tributes and memorials, but it was also amazing to see how huge the site actually is and how devasting the ordeal muct have been. There was also information on what will be built on the site in the future which was interesting to read.

Opposite the World Trade Centre is a fantastic shop called Century 21, which is like a massive discount designer shop so needless to say I spent hours in there, but finally got fed up with all the pushing and shoving of bargain hunters so braved the cold again and set off down to Battery Park.

At Battery Park I caught the infamous Staten Island Ferry (not to mention had the best chicken noodle soup ever!). The ferry gave us a fab view of Manhatten and of course the Statue of Liberty. It was so cold though on the ferry, my soup warmed me a little but had to go inside evetually. Once we got back to Manhatten I was very tired due to only having about 3 hours the previous night so decided to call it a day, I hailed a cab (ha ha I'm rubbish at this feel like an idiot) and went back to my hotel but stopped for some New York cheesecake on the way home (has to be done).

On Friday I got the subway up to 59th Street and visited Bloomingdales. To be honest this was a bit of a disappointment as was just so expensive I felt like I couldn't touch anything, was like going to Harrods or something, so left pretty sharpish and made my way over to 5th Avenue. The first shop I went to on 5th which needs mentioning is FAO Schwartz. This was a big toy shop which was just fab and even had a go on the huge piano used in the film 'Big'! I wandered down 5th Avenue, saw some gorgeous buildings, went in loads of shops, saw Rockafella Centre and the ice skating there etc but by this time it was snowing. The snow was coming down pretty heavy and i was freezing so had to buy hat, scarf, gloves etc, was soooo cold but could imagine would have been really romantic if had been wth Gaz.

Headed over to Times Square then which was awesome (again apart from the cold and the snow). The lights were amazing and next time will definately watch a show on Broadway. The shops were excellent too and bought loads and loads of stuff here, even had a Reese's and Hershey shop mmmmm. After bought loads had tons of bags and the snow was starting to annoy me so got another taxi back to the hotel for my last night away from home!!!!!

On my final day it was St Patricks Day so watched the famous parade down 5th avenue in the morning. Everyone was dressed in green and in a really good mood, the atmosphere was excellent. I got some lunch, had another wander round, saw some more sights then it was time to head to the airport for me flight home!

New York was absolutely excellent, but due to money, weather and jet lag didn't get to see and do everything I'd like so I'm definately going back soon. I loved it though it was just like walking round a film set, was so surreal. But now I'm going home and I am soooooo excited aarraagghhhh!!!!!!!!