Caturday

Sad news from home that the last of our three cats, black-and-white Paws (age 16) is terminally ill with kidney disease and my daughter is having to do the necessary. It's been a harsh time as each of our graymalkins has passed away. There are some processes in motion which might lead to a change of residence, so we're going to hold off re-catting for the time being.

A warm and muggy day, some showers, in New York. Lynda heads uptown for shoe shopping, I walk down Hudson Street, the location of our last visit.

First stop is The Meadow, an amazing store specializing in salt, bitters and chocolate.

I confound the proprietors a little by asking for blond chocolate - no, not white - which they don't stock despite stocking every other sort of bespoke and fancy type. I quite admired their salt shot glasses - the rock salt is hollowed out for tequila shots. I bought some more truffled salt (they assert 5% black truffles in the mix) and some fancy chocs for gifts.

Feeling a bit peckish I stop for lunch at Frankies 570, a Tuscan-themed restaurant we enjoted last time. We've just missed the peak of the shelled-peas season, so the excellent pea crostini is ff the menu, I go with meatballs in red sauce, and all is good with a glass of red. Despite the restaurant being quite empty, for some reason I'm led to the same table as last time,

I walk past the apartment block we stayed at last time - quite unchanged but the dress shop downstairs has gone out of business.

The nearby Think coffee shop is still open though, and serves a creditable double macchiato and has wifi.

In the early evening we walk to Union Square to attend the movie Ant Man at the Regal Union Square cinema complex. It's a huge complex, with eight cinemas and ticket machines.

The mens' room has the ubiquitous jet-engine hand-dryers which are alarming but effective,

The candy machines are sorta flash and you can get a very large amount of sweets there,

The Ant-Man movie is very good, perhaps the funniest of the recent spate of comic book movies and lots of fan-service for the Marvel fans, including sneak peeks at the beginning and the end of the credits. Paul Rudd is just right as the unlikely super-hero and his supporting cast are distinctive and hopefully to return.

We walk back and dine at The Dish on 8th Avenue - really tasty food and too much of it, good decor for the cheap prices. I try the Matzo soup, which presents as a chicken broth with a big dumpling in it.

Neither of us make a sizable dent in the "entrees", Shame I hadn't noticed this restaurant before - with cheap prices, a huge menu and complementary wifi it's the best bargain of all the sit-downs so far.