You told me again you preferred handsome men . . .

Tania is my hero!

Seriously and absolutely, the lady is a legend and a hero in my world. Let me explain. This whole trip has been arranged with Tania's help. The whole time we have both been aware of one small fact. She hates flying. I mean hates it.

Tania in her time has upset an aircraft full of people with one of her panic attacks whilst flying - before my time I have to say. She has taken a course to help her cope with it. She knows all of the stats about how safe it is. But she really does not like doing it.

Of course the only way to get to New York in the time we had was to fly here. To be fair she was very good on the flight over. Quiet. A touch pensive. But mostly relaxed and just got on with it.

I've not helped her cause any by arranging flights to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and back that will be on small propeller planes. Not titchy Cessna's but small planes of about eighty seats. With no jet engines. Just those propeller thingies whizzing around. She is not looking forward to those flights at all - but she is resigned to getting them done so that we can go on our little mission to Pittsburgh.

So then, just how brave was Tania to arrange a flight around Manhattan on a helicopter. For both of us. There are no words to describe just how much she hates the things. Hates them.

Tania gets ready to sh*t herself!

As we got ready for take-off the pilot - a man so devoid of any personality I wondered if he was part of the machine - advised it was a good day for flying - but a bit bumpy.

A bit!!

We flew forwards a few meters, sideways for a few, down for a little dip, sideways and then back roughly in the direction we were facing. Choppy, choppy, choppy!

I tried to take some photos but as I lined a shot up the copter would suddenly shift or drop and I'd get a shot of the inside of the machine.

Freedom Tower from the choppy chopper!

And all the while this little lady sat beside me, very white, very still, clearly very scared but never said a word. Her grip on my leg grew tighter - it was a tourniquet by the time we landed - but she suffered in a determined silence. 

Her sigh of relief as we touched down easily drowned out the sound of the engine and rotors.

She wanted me to have a special birthday present - paid way too many hundreds of dollars for it so we didn't have to share the chopper ride with anyone - and went through torture to achieve that end.

Tania is my hero!

Our mission to avoid doing the tourist thing continues. We visited the Flatiron building - not as tall in reality as the photos make it look - and went to the Guggenheim Museum. That was one of the key reasons for this trip. I've seen so many photos of the gallery that has pretty near all its pictures hanging in a circular descending walkway - designed in the '50s by renowned architect Frank Lloyd Wright. How thrilled was I to discover the circular walkway has been taken out of use whilst a new exhibition is put into place and just a few of the paintings were on display in random side galleries! Bah!

Today I had a birthday lunch at the Hard Rock café in Times Square.

Did I not already mention it's my birthday today??

What's that you say?

Oh - thank you very much!

Another little trip we took, this one genuinely not on everyone's tourist route was to the Chelsea Hotel, more properly called Hotel Chelsea.

For me something of a pilgrimage, this trip. Chelsea Hotel has seen many, many famous people from the "arts" stay there. Dylan Thomas was there towards the end of his life and it is where Arthur C Clarke wrote 2001 - A Space Odyssey. There is a plaque outside which commemorates this fact and includes as the final line "I'm sorry, Dave. I can't do that"

The list of celebrities who have stayed there is endless but I guess its notoriety now stems from being the place Sid Vicious murdered his girlfriend.

But my fascination goes way back beyond that to the seventies. One of my favourite Leonard Cohen songs has always been Chelsea Hotel #2. It was a song about a brief liaison he had with the tragic figure that was Janis Joplin. I couldn't be in New York and not take time out to visit the place. Of course, it was shut for refurbishment but, never mind. I got to make my little pilgrimage.

And if you're in any way curious about the title of this piece then thanks to Leonard Cohen all will now become clearer.

I remember you well in the Chelsea Hotel

You were famous, your heart was a legend

You told me again you preferred handsome men

but for me you would make an exception

And clenching your fist for the ones like us

who are oppressed by the figures of beauty

you fixed yourself, you said, "Well never mind

we are ugly but we have the music."