The day began with a whirl of cleaning and tidying in preparation for our guest, Tree - not just any Tree - the Tree! Deanna's friend Catriona (Tree for short) was landing in NY to spend a few days before they both fly off to Bermuda to visit Alex for a week. Ok, it's 5 days they are going for but that just didn't seem to work linguistically - could be the lack of sleep, could be a lack of brain, anyway - I digress (no surprises there).

The apartment was made ready in anticipation of Tree's arrival, we finally managed to wash the couch covers and de-fur the throw cushions which had all been thrown in the corner to be dealt with later - 'twould appear this was later. Half a roll of sticky roller thing, a wash and 2 cycles in the dryer later and we FINALLY got rid of all the cat fur in the apartment!!!! This was truly a day worth celebrating - quick happy dance in the lounge room and we noticed there was not enough room to dance in the the lounge room. Clearly, it was time to rearrange the furniture - sorry, it had to be done, fear not we will return it to it's original resting place before we leave.

Plug in the blow up mattress for Tree, it's big although we didn't know how big as it began life about the size of 2 rolled up sleeping bags - and by that I mean 2 well rolled up sleeping bags, not the way I roll them up which, lets face it, starts as a roll but ends up looking like a carton version of arms and legs flailing everywhere and me tied in a pretty bow made out of sleeping bag. We sat, watching, riveted as it slowly unfurled and inflated growing and showing more of itself second by agonising second. It was like we were watching an interpretative dance performance. Many oh's and ah's (you'd think we just came off the turnip truck yesterday), and the bed was inflated - knee high, double in size and fully inflated in less than 5 minutes, I was expecting a li-lo situation and worried about how we blow it up with a dyson, clearly my fears were unfounded. All I could think now was that we had a bouncy castle in the apartment this whole time and we didn't know????

We go in search of a Doona (that's a down quilt for our US cousins). Found a body pillow made for 2 (WTF??? If there are 2 of you, you A. don't need a body pillow and B. DON'T SHARE A BODY PILLOW) the only spare blanket that was left for us is smaller than a throw blanket. it's tiny - this will not do! I can't let the poor girl freeze, we'd have to go to Target to purchase one.

Apartment clean, and I get stuck into work for a solid 8 hours. Number crunching, email going through, repeat, repeat, repeat, interrupted only by some delicious home made pizza courtesy of the talented Deanna mid way and the arrival of Tree which clearly signalled the end of my working day. Two 18 yo girls in the apartment - the only thing to do was leave.

Tree needed feeding - she was over airline food - so we headed to Shake Shake (our first time and maybe not the best choice seeing as she was after real food) on the way to Target for that Doona. After freaking out the lady behind the counter - Can I have your name? Carmelina. What - sorry? Carmelina - it's Carmel with an i-n-a on the end. Why didn't you just say that? Well, if we really need to answer that it's because you asked for my name not for me to specify a way for you to get it easier. Let's not get into the fact that it's phonetic you pronounce every letter in order and it makes the name. Or you write it as it sounds.
OK, OK - so replace from well, if we really... with a smile and a conversation between three Australians about giving fake names because no-one understands your name, and the speed with which we were all speaking and the poor woman behind the counter had no hope. She handed me a buzzer, at which point I began to wonder why we needed the whole name thing happening anyway.

Dear readers, at this point I'd like to say we purchased the Doona and returned home. I really would, but no. On the way to the registers the girls stumbled upon Christmas pyjamas and thought it would be amusing to buy matching sets, but which ones the blue ones with the lights or the ones that look knitted with fa-la-la?? After descending into mass giggles in the change rooms - I think they made the fitting room attendants day - I saw you chuckle!
the girls decided that XL was the way to go - so we have to small sized girls frolicking around in well oversized size jammies that match - seems like a good idea. A set for Alex? I suggest - just because it's fun to watch them burst into laughter again. She'll hate them - we have to do it. We passed on the light up elf slippers but apparently they are returning for them today. What have I created?

Our new Tree (on the right) planted firmly into our New York life.  Re-landscaping of the apartment is now complete. — Our new Tree (on the right) planted firmly into our New York life. Re-landscaping of the apartment is now complete.

We return home with plans afoot about how they can drag a reluctant Alex into the fold. Home, PJ's on and this is the result - oh the Joy! See how they laugh, see how they - oh feck it. Prepared for the evening the girls settle in with their matching PJ's to watch the Victoria Secret fashion show. I'm for bed - got me my own set of jammies, ;) Night all.