About to tuck into a traditional American breakfast on 8th Avenue. Interesting hunt to find the actual diner but hey ho we're all here now and everything's hunky dory init. The patty was good it tasted like sausage but the egg tasted like hamster. There is a lovely fat lady waddling along with our shared English Breakfast Burger so must dash famalamadingdongs, ta ta for now my homies. Update: this diner is so cool. The plates were HUGE Mum had French toast - eg...

Up at 6.30 to try to beat the queues at Empire State building. But no qs to beat when we got there.It was foggy. "Look up " the concierge said. We looked up. The top had disappeared into a grey mist. We couldn't waste having got up at 6.30 so bought the tickets for later after wading thru rooms full of lonely security ropes with no people to corral towards the ticket booths. Hah - hope that will save time later. Now I'm siting in a deeply tatty clothes store Jo...

Sunday Bfast at hotel. It's free! Jo's art teachers popped in to say hello and Goodbye- the go today. V odd to see Mill Hill 6th formers in the corridors. Bus to 5th Ave. slightly guilty seeing masses of joggers and walkers in Central Park. Then spotted the iconic apple sign In a massive glass cube at the top of 5th Avenue. Time to get off. Shopped til we dropped. Forever 21 - 5 floors and Elissa pounding ahead - arms full of clothes. She put most of them back ...

Elly posing by an NYPD car near our hotel. Guggenheim was fab. Love the spiral and gallery effect of the Walls so u can look from the first floor down on the pictures you have just been studying. The spiral is a series of alcoves with 2or 3 pictures to each alcove. Kandinsky excellent variety. Several circles and Blue Lines were my faves. And the audio info was brief which is a definite plus. Picassos a bit dark for me. Introduced to a new one- Delauney - simil...

Just had our first American breakfast in a diner near the hotel. Elly ordered lumberjack pancakes and her eyes nearly popped out when 2 plates arrived, one piled with pancakes, the other with sunny side up eggs and sausages. And a plate of butter packets and smuckers breakfast syrup. She used 4! Discuss 9/11 - elissa is amazed at the number of skyscrapers andis wondering how and why planes could fly into them which sobers our mood. 0830 Elly waves down her fir...