A beautiful blue sky, and us off into Manhattan. We took the train to Penn Station. The conductor on the train said hello baby to me, by way of asking for my ticket which I rather liked. Disappointingly MJ refused to become jealous.

Walked to a subway station which took us to Central Park Zoo, to look at seals, penguins, polar bears, snakes, tropical birds and so on. Liked the strange juxtapositions... Snow monkeys sitting on a rock surrounded by water, with the big buildings of New York City behind. I like central park. Kids really enjoyed the zoo.

Went to the zoo cafe afterwards, though Jack went on a brief hungerstrike. Then caught a bus down 5th Avenue to the West Village. 5th Avenue beautifully decorated for Christmas, and we glimpsed the big Christmas Tree outside Rockerfeller Center. Then a walk around MJ's old Manhattan haunts till we went to The White Horse, a very pub-like bar, frequented by Dylan Thomas -- and MJ Tenerelli. Here we ate nice burgers, Jack overcoming his hugerstrike with a hotdog, and I gulped down a couple of beers.

Back home and we all had fun playing a four-way computer game Super Smash Brothers Melee, and Mario Party of Seven for at least two hours.