Tripping over Sunday Brunch

I have received an email telling me that I am officially 'The Tripper of the Week'. For clarification, I refer you to Wikipedia:

Tripping may refer to a psychedelic experience.

Tripping may also refer to:

• Tripping (ice hockey), a penalty infraction
• Tripping (pipe), the act of running or pulling drill pipe into or out of a wellbore on a drilling rig
• "Tripping" (song), from Robbie Williams' albumIntensive Care
• Tripping International, a global network of travelers

Readers may be reassured that I have not been having any psychedelic experience, playing hockey or singing songs, the accolade has been given to me by the latter mentioned San Francisco-based organisation, Tripping International, which puts like minded travellers in touch with each other. This is their revealing interview avec moi:

https://www.tripping.com/blog/blog/2012/03/29/tripper-of-the-week-mike-souter/

It being Sunday, Laura kindly suggests that we go out to Sunday Brunch at the Seven Seas restaurant in Great Neck (www.sevenseasgreatneck.com). It's packed, but people move in and out pretty swiftly and we are given a booth where the occupants have left so recently that the seats are still warm.

There's hardly time to digest the enormous menu, never mind the food, when the server arrives to take the order. I forget that I have to specify which way I want my eggs cooked; the man looks blank when I say brightly 'just on one side' , so Laura translates with a 'sunny side up' which seems to compute.

Laura is amused that I divide my order into sweet and savoury, with eggs, bacon and sausage eaten before the giant pancakes with butter and maple syrup. Apparently that's a very un-American way of doing things!

Even with my healthy appetite, the final pancake defeats me, a bit like Swansea who, as we have been eating, have been on the restaurant's giant TV screens playing against Spurs.

Laura takes me to see 'where the other half live', an upmarket area called Douglas Manor in the next door neighbourhood of Douglaston.

The area is filled with huge colonial-style houses overlooking Little Neck Bay on the northern side of Long Island and including a New York City Park of wetland meadows. We pass the Douglaston Club, housed in the former Van Zandt family home built in 1819. The club boasts Americas Cup yachting and Grand Slam tennis winners amongst its former members.

It's hard to believe that this tranquil scene is still within the New York City boundary and within sight of the Bronx.