New York postcard: blow outs, Balthazar and balconies

It’s 6.30 as I write this from my hotel bed. I woke half an hour ago with the awesome realisation that I’d nailed eight hours sleep on New York time.

This bodes extremely well for surviving the first day of the BlogHer conference today and dancing up a storm at the Sparklecorn party tonight.

Last night I was seriously worried that I would be capable of either.

The jetlag had invaded in such a way that I could no longer connect a word in my head with what was needing to come out. It was all I could do to get the brain to tell my feet to put one in front of the other.

So like little nanas, my roomie Sarah and I sat up in bed drinking hot chocolate, forcing ourselves to stay awake until 10pm to aim for a proper night’s sleep.

It worked. Bright eyed and bushy tailed I am.

Can I tell you, though, that the zombie-like state was SO worth it?

From the moment I walked out of the hotel yesterday morning and looked out, up and around, taking in every amazing part of this city, I had the biggest jaw-dropping grin on my face.

The jetlag massage I pre-booked at home was perfection but it was at Drybar sipping on a Mimosa cocktail while getting a blow out that I realised once again the power of a good hair day. Never, ever underestimate it, Stylers. Never.

Within 45 minutes my hair had been given the Manhattan (sleek and straight) treatment and we walked out of there ready to take on this town

Well … take on this town for late lunch at Balthazar, a much-recommended French restaurant in Soho. Our gorgeous Remarkables agent, Lorraine Murphy, took us there to celebrate the first time that all five of her team had been in the one place at the one time since she launched the agency in May. I very much like her meeting style

We drank champagne and a vat of Sancerre, which I know doesn’t food match with steak and pomme frittes but, hey, when you’re sharing the bottle with Mrs Woog and Baby Mac, it’s all about going with the flow. And flow we did. Right through a very noisy lunch and through to THE BEST CREME BRULEE my mouth has ever had the pleasure of consuming.

“The bottle was THIS big”

Next stop for Sarah and I was an apartment on the Upper East for the launch of Gretchen Rubin‘s new book Happier at Home. Just quietly, I think I could be VERY happy in this home.

It was like being projected into some kind of parallel universe, especially as we rode the subway to get there. And thanks to an invite from Sarah Bryden-Brown to this BlogHer “outside party”, we were very much a part of it, sipping on a popsicle in champagne and soaking it all in. Pretending like this was what we did every day … until …

I may have had a wee stalker moment.

Walking back from the bar, minding her own business in a vision of chartreuse was THE gorgeous Brittany Gibbons. Before Beach Cottage Sarah could gag me, I may have shouted out something subtle along the lines of … I LOVE you, you’re AWESOME (which she is – if you’ve not seen this clip of her TED talk last year, do it now).  

Since the ground did not open me up and swallow me, I think at this point it was only my accent saving me from complete embarrassment and humiliation.

Being an Australian in New York does have it’s advantages and in that moment I played that card. Big time.

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I’m attending BlogHer ’12 in New York City thanks to my favourite toothpaste