London-bound

We left New York City yesterday with a mixture of sadness and excitement. We were sad for leaving NYC and vowed to return next year; but we were also excited because we still had a weekend left to enjoy our beloved London again before we returned to work.

We had done so much shopping in NYC that yesterday morning we had to buy a cheap new holdall from a luggage store around the corner from the Rivington in order to pack all our new clothes and books. Wary of paying VAT at British customs, which would have nullified the savings we'd made by buying in New York, we cut out all the tags and ripped up all the receipts before packing. The flight was an evening one. I hate night flights because I never sleep on planes and always end up with more severe jet lag as a result.

Once we'd returned to our home sweet home in the late morning today, we caught up on our sleep, did a big grocery shop at Sainsbury's and now we've just finished watching Woody Allen's DVD Hannah and Her Sisters, set in New York City, and CSI:NYC on the TV! Hannah and Her Sisters trivia, according to Internet Movie Database:

• "Many of Hannah's scenes were filmed in Mia Farrow's actual apartment. Allen said that Farrow once had the eerie experience of turning on the TV to a chance broadcast of the movie thus viewing her own apartment on TV while she was sitting in it.
• According to USA Today, upon the film's original release, a movement was afoot to try to make Allen's script the first screenplay to be nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.
• Woody Allen has said that he was inspired to write this film after a chance re-reading of Tolstoy's novel "Anna Karenina"
• With a box office gross of $40 million, this represents Woody Allen's most financially successful film to date.
• Four of Mia Farrow's real-life children appear in this film. Two appear as Hannah's son and daughter in the movie, while the other two (including Soon-Yi Previn, who Woody Allen would eventually marry in 1997) appear as young guests in the Thanksgiving scenes."