Sat & Sun

A bus I'd feel sheepish boarding, surprisingly Aliens-esque armour at the Met, stuffed hot pretzels en masse, and my latest icecream flavour...

This is caramel ice cream with cinnamon bun dough and a caramel streusel swirl: its impossible not to moan as you eat it.

A Sunday with art and food shopping: soul food and a remedy to the empty fridge. I spent several hours at the Met, most of the time in the musical instrument section. I saw stunning old harpsichords, precursors to bagpipes, brass instruments that are now 'extinct', original xylophones from Africa: it was fascinating. I had those audio tour headphones and for that section of the museum they were invaluable, as it was hard to imagine what some of the instruments might sound like. The rest of the time I wandered around the medieval armour, marvelling that anyone could move around in that hot, heavy, awkward metal.

Food shopping is also a cultural experience and this time I didn't rush it. I did what Jus and I call an 'Establishment Shop': everything right down to the condiments and dried herbs. I put the earphones in and wandered around Wholefoods, an organic/quality food emporium, that also manages to stock stuffed hot pretzels.

I had a major homesick pang on the bus, leaving the Met. It was weird because it was quite a specific, unusual pang I'm sure you'll agree: I was missing crowds of people with faces that I'm used to, like Vietnamese people, Greeks and Italians, Indonesians,, freckly people with sun-ravaged skin. All these Hispanic people and African-Americans and square jawed Anglo types, women with huge hair, are too fascinating and my eyes need a rest. I miss just walking down the street and everyone being kind of invisible. What does this mean?

Disturbing local news: 34 Chicago highschool kids are murdered every year at school- 34 in Chicago alone! God, when things are bad here they're really bad. I can't imagine raising children here at all.

And yes, Mr Priestley is in a new series that debuts tonight and I can't wait. I had a serious crush on him during the first couple of seasons of 90210 and he's now all grown up and playing a Stanford business analyst type with cute hair. Versatile, isn't he?