We’re so glad to have found this in a shop yesterday! Even though we’re good at the stand on bathroom scales without suitcase, get off, pick up suitcase, stand on scales with suitcase, difference in weights is the suitcase – it feels better to have this little weighing thing designed for just this purpose.

The Mister tried it out today for his flight to SFO and we’ll be giving it a workout as we push our luggage limits to the limit in 3 weeks on the journey home. And his has pounds and kilos which is very useful!

Yesterday during our East Side wandering we plotted a course for another espresso bar from the NY Times coffee list – and this place was nothing but a bar – Abraco. The review was right when they said only 6 people could stand like sardines in front of the counter! It was basically an espresso machine on the counter, a bit like the Fuel bars in Wellington and seemed to have an area bigger than the customer area out the back that looked like a full kitchen but in the squash we couldn’t see any sign of a menu – it was only after I got home and saw the menu that I saw they offered a cool system of sweets in the morning and pastries and small plates around lunch time.

This time the barista wasn’t a young guy in a trilby hat, but an arm-waving coffee enthusiast with lots of wavy grey hair, probably in his 50’s who called out to people in the street to get their order because we couldn’t fit into the bar. The coffee looked very pale but certainly had a kick – it was a coffee we’d not had before, a flavour similar to Stumptown, and again, what we’ve come to expect from these bars.

Man it was lovely sitting there on a bench seat, some shelter from the trees and a bit of a breeze even though the temperature was about 28 degrees. Lot’s of East Side sights too: bikes, tattoos, people catching up and selling stuff outside their brownstones and while we sat there for about 20 minutes about 20 people when into the bar to get coffee. Again I sat wondering what it would take to have a place like this in Wellington – we reckon the People’s Garage is the closest in terms of decor, vibe and service.

Abraco Espresso, 86 East 7th Street, New York

During our random wandering around an area of the Lower East Side that we’d not been to yesterday we discovered a shoe shop on Orchard Street where a couple of cats live. Wasn’t shoe shopping but couldn’t resit going in when we saw their sign on the door warning dog owners to beware!

One of the cats, Marlo, was very smoochy, but the other, Bowery, just sat there and let me pat him but refused to look at me. They were very at home in the shop.

Orchard Street was rather lovely and quaint with a lazy afternoon feel – tree-lined streets with small shops of handmade or collectible items – jewellery, shoes, men’s clothes etc with a little diner or restaurant on every corner.