Dive right in

It's such a famous bar. We'd read about it, heard about it - and now we were here, on the streets of New York, umming and ahhing as to where to get a drink and shelter from the rain, when we remembered it.  

It was a dull, late morning and the lights of the store fronts were reflected in the sidewalk, a shiny grey mirror of blurry reds and yellows at our feet, as we made our way through straggles of strangers with their collars turned up, hoping we were heading in the right direction.  And then we spotted it, right there on the corner: 'Nosedive'.  That's it - that's the one!  The cocktail bar, the place which had only ever been a name to us and now we were right outside the real thing.  A couple of steps led us up through a small glass door and into the open lounge area, large but not too large to be daunting, dotted with small circular tables, the bar all along one side.  I was struck by the décor - everything a steely kind of blue, the ceiling, the walls, and the little oval signs at various points displaying the name, black on blue in a slim typeface, modest-looking somehow, like it had no need to shout or show off, its fame already a given.  Pendant lights hung low, lots of them at different lengths, the combination of the subdued illumination and blue colour scheme giving the place an almost underwater feel.

A young barmaid came over to us with menus as we seated ourselves on high stools around a table at one side.  I had no idea what to order but I fancied something coffee-ish, and my friend suggested a few - although I don't remember now what they were called.

And that was it, I was in New York with my two friends, ordering a cocktail on a tin-grey rainy brunchtime, in that bar that everyone has heard about, just as everyone knows of Macy's, or CBGBs, or Cafe Wha? Nosedive.  Isn't it amazing what you can come up with and how vividly real it can all seem - I actually had to check the name out when I got up this morning, just to make sure it really was only a dream.