Rental Regrets and Mamaroneck

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Most days we've passed the New York Public Library and talked about going in. So close to our hotels but not close enough to our destination. We have a few hours after checking out and we make the short stroll to 5th Avenue and Library Way. Another wonderful building and the scene of many films - Ghostbusters, Spiderman, Gossip Girl. We chill out in one of the reading rooms adorned with portraits of old white blokes with beards. The treasures room is really interesting - old maps and original versions of the declaration of independence and other significant historic documents. There's also original Winnie the Pooh toys and books.

We check out a couple of shops on 5th Avenue and grab some sandwiches and snacks from the Walgreens. The Walgreens across from Grand Central has the drinks fridge locked and you have to get the cashier to unlock it. You can grab water from an unlocked fridge but the sugary sodas and energy drinks are under lock and key. There's a lot of homeless people around the station and lifting a meal/drink from Walgreens must be too hard to resist.

We can't pick up the car until 2pm and we sit in the fancy foyer/lobby of the Hyatt and eat our lunch in relative peace and tranquility before braving Grand Central and the subway system with all our luggage. The 7 subway is deep down in Grand Central and the elevators are hard to find, slow and crowded. We get down to the 7 and have to change to the 2/3 at Times Square. It's the identical combo to what we took last night to see Jerry but we go further uptown today - 96th Street.

The upper west side is pretty affluent around the middle of Central Park but we're getting closer to Harlem around 96th and it has a different vibe. More street vendors and less boutiques and museums and the buildings aren't as tall. We walk a few blocks to the Avis depot and spot a Target and a Whole Foods. Jules and Milla search for the allusive make-up and we consider a drink for the drive. No luck with the make up and the queues in whole foods put me off getting a drink.

We drag our bags down a 30 metre concrete ramp to the Avis depot. It's 3.10 pm, they close at 3 on a Sunday. Would have been good information to highlight on the order confirmation. The only option is to head back to 74th and see what cars they have. Not Happy Jan!

The 74th street Avis woman advises that the rates are different for each site and the price has effectively doubled. I explain the confusion and that we were 10 minutes late because it was further than we thought. She shrugs and I enquire if we get a bigger car for the bigger price. Barely masking my anger and frustration. Maybe it's my accent, maybe it's the fact that I didn't lose my shit, but she taps away with her superlong finger nails and advises that she'll honour the original price. I offer to give her a tip and she declines my offer with a wonderful smile. Being civil despite a shitty situation can get you places.

With stress levels already high, why not double down and get amongst that NYC traffic! Driving on the right, so many one-way streets, a delay in the GPS directions and Mad Max wannabes apparently out for blood - how good is this?

The available cars at the second depot see our Camry upgraded to a Jeep Grand Cherokee providing a brief silver lining. It feels enormous on these tight NY streets and everyone seems to be doing 10 over the speed limit. The gear stick and rearview mirror are on the wrong side, amber traffic lights are flashing and all of the sudden I'm trying to merge onto an expressway doing 70mph. Somehow I'm in the current and we're heading north out of the city. The gridlock traffic comes as a bit of a relief and I slip into a zen like state and drift NW towards Mamaroneck.

It's a relief to be in the suburbs and thank f#@k for GPS. Without it we'd be lost, dead or divorced.

Dave and Alex's street is straight out of American TV. Big white house with white picket fence and one of those American letter boxes. They back onto a park and the kids are playing soccer with the neighbourhood crew. It's cold but they're keen to break out of the winter hibernation and we grill up on the back verandah. It's so cold that the burgers struggle to cook. But with a mega can of Fosters in our mugs we persist with the cook up and share a wonderful meal of burgers, salad and BBQ peppers and catch up on the years between our last international rendezvous in Myanmar. The kids have all grown up a lot. Niamh and Milla get on well and Oliver abd Elliot idolise Deakin, Duncan, Bacon?

The 7% IPAs and Alex's Martinis do a bit of a number on Dave and I and we both have very poor recall on the conversations late in the night. It's a relief to be out of the city and relaxing with friends in an amazing home and neighbourhood.

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