Hello love

Hello twelve, hello thirteen, hello love

Hello twelve

I got into Huntington early evening and dropped a text to my next hosts, Jim & Eric (12 & 13 out of my 80), a couple I had met the previous summer when I had been over in New York on holiday. They said that they would pick me up from the station, despite me offering to make my own way to their house.  I made my way to the front of the station and waited. Jim pulled up a short while later and I waved to him as I headed towards the car. As I did so a blonde woman started saying something to Jim in Russian through the open passenger window and went to get in to his car, her hand almost on the handle before she heard Jim saying “No, no, no. I’m not here for you”. I got in the car and we set off, the blonde Russian getting in to the car that had pulled up behind Jim’s. On the short journey home we discussed the rather bizarre incident and decided that she was probably a mail order bride, freshly delivered to Huntington and waiting for the man who bought her to collect her.

Hello thirteen

Eric was waiting for us at the house and the three of us caught up on the latest news about a few mutual friends, my trip so far and what they had been up to since I saw them a year ago. We walked into town to grab a spot of dinner. The main street of Huntington was busy with people. J&E explained that the main street had managed to keep a lot of small independent businesses compared to most towns nearby, which were now all generic chain stores and restaurants or had become all but deserted. We ate dinner in a local “mom and pop” diner called Munday’s before continuing our walk around the town. We called in to the local independent bookstore and had a browse through the books. I treated myself to a $3 Jeffery Archer book (don’t judge!) that I hadn’t read yet as I knew that we would be off to the beach one day. I like to have something easy to read on the beach, something that I can pick up and put down in between going in the sea for a swim and/or getting distracted by any hot guys in swimwear who happen to be passing. There was a writing club having a meeting in the bookstore, and I stopped to listen for a while as one woman read out the piece that she had been working on. If I had been more organised before I left on my trip I would have joined a writing club to pick up some tips for blogging.

The next day I was up fairly early and set about doing some updates to my website. I added a new page for Dean (and Horse), uploading the photos I had of him at various world famous landmarks. Dean was gaining fans back home and they wanted to know what he had been up to. It was an inspired gift from Sarah & Marcella and every time I got Dean out to take a photo of him I couldn’t help but think about them & the people from the office back home. Having felt like I had achieved a fair amount of “work” I went for a swim in J&E’s pool and then had some breakfast.

Hello love

After breakfast we met up with Andie, a friend of J&E I had also met the previous summer. Andie is adorable & we had instantly hit it off the first time we met when she introduced me to the term “assclown” and spent the whole of lunch trying to get me to say the v word. Andie describes herself as a fagnet, being able to attract gay men regardless of where she is. She told J&E that she wanted me to herself the following day so we could spend the day together.

Duck Walk Vineyards

I spent the day with J&E as they took me on a tour of Long Island. We visited a local winery, the Duck Walk Vineyards, where we stopped for a wine tasting session, had a wander round the place and bought a couple of bottles of wine to take home with us. They had the most amazing blueberry port, which we tasted while eating dark chocolate. The chocolate really brought out the flavour of the blueberries.

After the wine tasting we visited a number of the Hamptons, stopping off to take in the picturesque little towns. We visited Southampton (much prettier than the one back home in England), Bridgehampton and East Hampton. As we were walking up the main street in one of the places we passed an estate agents and had a look at the properties for sale. It’s safe to say that I won’t be buying a place in the Hamptons any time soon. I think the most expensive property we saw was about $60 million although that one did have its own private beach. We drove down to the beach and parked up so we could go for a walk along the sand. The beach was fairly quiet, only a couple of people were left as it was approaching early evening.

   

Hamptons Beach

After spending the afternoon & early evening in the Hamptons we drove over to Sag Harbor, another picturesque town on the water. We had dinner at a place called the Dock House right by the harbour. The place was small, no more than a large hut, but it was very busy. I couldn’t decide what to get so I opted for the Fisherman’s Net, a mix of scallops, shrimp and fish. The portion of seafood was huge, and came with spicy fries, salad and bread. Despite the size I finished the lot. It was so tasty. I can see why America has an obesity problem - I will have one as well soon if I keep eating like this. We had a walk round the town after dinner to help settle our food but I still nodded off in the car on the drive back home, content in a little food coma.  

Once we were back at J&E’s, we decided to head to the pool for a late night swim to help us cool off from the warm day. Jim and I were in the pool first. I did a few lengths of the pool to make it feel like exercise, then grabbed on to a float and bobbed around in the water chatting to Jim. We talked about work, families and relationships. Jim asked me if I wanted children. I said I was still full from the seafood I ate at dinner. The sea air, the food and the swim made sure I was fast asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow that night.

“Hello twelve, hello thirteen, hello love” 
Lyrics from Montage, Part 1 from the musical A Chorus Line