Shop 'til you drop

For a girl who loves her factory outlets, Woodbury Common is a scene of plastic fanatastic. Sunday was spent entirely at Woodbury Common, an hour's drive north of New York City, and home to a staggering 220 factory outlet shops.

The shops are stand-alone "shacks" in a bizarre ski-village type setting amidst the mountains. There are four giant parking lots and enough reduced tags to send any sensible shopper into an adrenalin-frenzy.

There was regular watch checking with reference to map movements (you really could get lost out here) and more than a couple of shopping bags were filled.

Monday involved another day trip, this time to Hoboken, New Jersey (now stop laughing New Yorkers). From what I can gather, New Jerseyans are oft looked down upon, mainly for their lack of driving skills in a population-bereft state (compared to New York).

The PATH train begins at the World Trade Centre, and we had a contemplative visit to the Twin Towers site beforehand. It's hard to fathom the events of that day and the timelines, people's stories and memorial plaques were all touching and sobering.

We had actually chosen to take a PATH train just so we could head through the World Trade Centre site, as the subway no longer stops at Cortlandt Street. There were some great views of the Financial District on the other side of the river in Hoboken, and we were pleasantly surprised by the wealth of eating options.

We found a fantastic wholefoods eatery, the Frozen Monkey Cafe, which makes all its own spreads, uses artisan bread and sources hand-made mozzarella. My grilled panini with arugula (rocket), roasted peppers, fresh mozzarella and pesto was divine, and I had the black bean soup which was thick, chunky and deliciously spicy.

Our freshly made blueberry pancakes were absolutely chockful of blueberries although we weren't so enamoured with our roasted almond fudge Tasty D-Lite ice-cream, which tasted of marzipan (bleargh).

Coming back to the World Trade Centre, we foolishly joined the Christmas crush at Century 21, the bargain department store for all New Yorkers. It was utter chaos and confusion. I have no idea what we were thinking!