I kid you not, I feel like a melting snowman today. This is my first trip to the states since I had my corrective surgery. It’s been great not having rivers of sweat running down my hands and armpits but I have also learnt that a backpack is not my friend (as I now sweat from my back.)

It has been 11 years since I’ve been to New York, and honestly it feels like much longer. I was 18 the last time I came here and came by myself for a three week holiday. I didn’t really have common sense on my shoulders and wasn’t very travel savvy, so it’s exciting to be back over a decade later and revisit some places and see things from a new perspective.

I went to the natural history museum today, it was exactly like I remembered it. It was both boring and interesting. I remembered spending a day there last time, but this time, free two hours, I was already dragging my feet. I have a phobia of mannequins, and last time I visited I went into a hysterical meltdown because I walking into an exhibition full of them. This time I was more savvy, and avoided where those mannequins were.

I started to have an iron attack before lunch. Honestly people must have worried about my behaviour as I was constantly checking my hands for signs of shaking but that’s just how I can tell an attack is coming. I had processed mac n cheese for the first time, it wasn’t bad but it wasn’t good either. I managed to find a gorgeous apple though, which pleased me to no end. I was going to hit up the art museum today as well but my muscles started to seize up just after lunch and then my energy started to flag (I’d been up since 6am), so I headed to CVS to pick up some water and breakfast bars.

I’ll head out later in search of some dinner.

I didn’t even survive the airport without buying some books. Never mind that I had already brought 6 with me, I ended up in a bookshop and got 4 more…they are four books that were on my Waterstones list and they were ‘buy one get one half price’, so it would have been rude not too!!

1. The Wych Elm by Tana French
2. The Holiday by T. M. Logan
3. Nine Perfect Strangers by Liana Moriarty
4. The Chestnut Man by Soren Sveistrup

I have already read one book of my ten – The Puppet Show by M. W. Craven – The review of which will be up sometime next week. I’m going to take a book with me tomorrow as I’m taking a bigger bag, so I think I’ll either take ‘In Safe Hans’ by J. P. Carter or ‘The Taking of Annie Thorne’ by C. J. Tudor.

Happy reading to everyone whose not on holiday, and happy reading to those that are 😊