The Wind Beneath My Wings

Yesterday turned into yet another lazy day but the sun was shining and Ralph and I wandered up 5th Street in search of breakfast. We found a beautiful, faux French restaurant that served the most delicious poached eggs imaginable. Rarely has breakfast been such a taste sensation.

Later, further down 5th, we popped into Benny’s the barbers and I had a really relaxing wet-shave, whilst Lola Siciliano had his roots done. In the evening we hit 5th again and I shared a mammoth steak dinner with Tyron. I didn’t quite realise how early it still was and by 8.00 I was knackered and bursting at the seams. As the boys travelled off to see Nomi perform in Manhattan, I headed for bed and slept like a baby. Things had to change and they did this morning with a real sense of determination and adventure I headed to Manhattan and joined the Tony Dapolito Recreation Centre on Houston Street.

Their pool is all of 24 yards long and was packed to the hilt on a Sunday morning – thankfully not full of beautiful bods but more or less the same mix of pensioners ladies as Streatham Pool.

Upon returning home late afternoon I discovered that Ralph & Tyron had only just got up. Apparently Nomi didn’t perform until 1.30am and they never got home until 3.00am. The evening was rounded off with probably one of the more bizarre happenings of my life. Ralph was offered work on the cover of German Vogue. Preparation was in progress for a set of exquisite wings to be painted onto the back of a model. The model was flying in from Paris and would not arrive until 9.30pm so as there would be no time on the shoot for the work she came straight over to the flat, stripped and the work began. I had helped Ralph with the prep and painting the outline of the feathers on the models back. I was less successful with the shading – Dura Paint is really odd to use – and to be honest I was knackered. I awoke at 4.00am and the boys were still at it. By 4.20am the model, who had slept through most of the ordeal, was leaving and the boys were clearing up. In 3 hours they would need to be at the shoot ready for finishing touches.

It was fascinating to see so much dedication to the job and the boys attention to detail was amazing. I can’t wait to hear how they get on today but as ever, I am stuck in this peculiar vortex whereby I can contact no-one as my phone doesn’t work over here. Ah well, at least my sleep patterns are relatively back to normal.