In which Layla and Roz play Scrabble, enjoy fashion, attend another restaurant preview and become the unfortunate focus of comedy

by Layla

I shall take the opportunity of Roz having leapt out of bed at 7am to go to a local yoga class to write another update. Yesterday we woke up late and were then flummoxed and indecisive about what to do. Eventually we went out to a local vegetarian cafe called 'Snice, which was indeed rather nice. A bit like a vegetarian Grey Dog, again with people sprawled out with papers on tables amidst an exposed-brick room, drinking coffee and socialising. I spotted a Scrabble board and soon we were deep in a game. It would be wrong to flaunt my second games-based victory in two days... After Scrabble it was pretty much lunchtime so we had sandwiches and more drinks (I had food envy of Roz's smoked mozzarella and wished I hadn't ordered tofu, which the US seems to like to flavour like meat). Then we hopped on a train north to the lovely Museum of the City of New York.

We were there to see their new exhibition, Notorious and Notable, 20th Century Women of Style. This was a great exhibition of clothes that belonged to New York's most stylish ladies in the last century. I began to feel rather ashamed of my own skirt and top combo and lamented that nobody is very likely to ask me to donate it to a museum exhibition in years to come... We had a fun time considering which outfits we would personally like to wear and popping up to see the dolls' houses, before hopping on the subway again, this time to Murray Hill, to see the new film The Social Network. Disappointingly, the film wasn't as good as the hype. Fortunately the popcorn was, so we watched it quite cheerfully. An interesting story of the birth of Facebook.

After the film we couldn't quite decide what to do - we had three plans, and only time for two. After much deliberation, we decided to ditch the Michael Cunningham book reading at Barnes and Noble bookshop in favour of food and comedy. The food was at another of New York's just-opened restaurants, this time to Osteria Morini in Soho, one of NYC's most awaited openings. In fact it had opened only the night before (friends and family) and last night marked the start of 'preview week'. There was quite a buzz as the restaurant filled up. Rustic Italian style food. We sat at the bar which gave us a good view of our fellow diners. We started with some delicious crisp bread and slightly soggy tomato focaccia, accompanied by a sparkling beverage akin to Prosecco, which they did not yet have in stock. We had a delicious cheeseboard to start with, with excellent cheeses to be eaten with flatbread. And then I almost fainted with food envy at Roz's squash pasta parcels - luckily she gave me half in exchange for my also tasty tomato gnocci. We polished off a bottle of wine and finished off with dessert - mine was a satisfyingly large chocolate, custard and meringue concoction, flame burnt before our eyes, while Roz had an espresso-ice-cream combo.

After an excellent dinner we pottered round the corner to Housing Works, the lovely bookshop whose profits go to helping homeless people with HIV/AIDS. They had a comedy show on, so we settled down with wine. Unfortunately the hosts were both puerile and dull, which I'm afraid led to a still-jetlagged Roz falling asleep. I didn't notice, but alas the comedians did. She awoke to their comments. This did not improve the night! We stayed for a couple of funnier acts, and then caught a cab home to give in to sleepiness.