New York City Wardrobe Watch: Day 3

Rain in New York. I misjudged and put on one of my chunky knits when I went out for the day, but it's warm and humid, thus I ended up far too hot and had to carry my coat most of the time. Don't see it getting any colder than this, and so must reluctantly register a FAIL for the cardigans. They were added as a last-minute impulse to an otherwise perfectly calibrated case: note to future self, ignore the impulse urge.

Meanwhile am experiencing a love-hate relationship with the New York subway. Points in favour: it's cheap. It's fast. It runs all night. It is air-conditioned - every time i get in to a busy carriage I brace myself for a London-style wave of fetid human bodyheat, but it's always blissfully cool. (Sadly not cool enough to justify the cardies though.)

Points against: it is totally beyond man or beast to understand. Particularly beast, I'd imagine, but basically there's a totally confusing map where it would appear that certain train lines all go the same way, BUT trains from different lines stop at different stations on the same trajectory, AND not all trains of the same line stop at all the stations on their line - it depends whether they are local or express. To further complicate matters, after a certain, non-defined, non-signposted time of night, some of the trains stop running and other express trains become local trains. You are supposed to know when this happens by some kind of New York ESP. Also, sometimes, without announcing it, they decide against doing this non-defined change, or they decide to do it but at a different time then usual, or do it, but then fox you by changing back. Result: I am becoming intimately acquainted with the subway stations of Harlem.

If that weren't enough, for some subway stations, there are separate entrances for the uptown / downtown platforms, and if you go in the wrong entrance you can't get to the other platform through the station, but nor can you exit the station using your Metrocard, cross the road and go in the other side. When I did this I had to be summoned and lectured by the subway superintendent, an utterly terrifying woman who gave me a long lecture about how I had to READ the SIGNS, and then who finally said that she would let me onto the correct platform "as a courtesy" but that I must NEVER DO IT AGAIN. She also informed me that if I *did* do it again, the mandatory amount of time that I had to wait before I was allowed onto the correct platform was 18 minutes. I would love to have been at the meeting where that was decided. 15 minutes not enough of a punishment; 20 too stringent.

I can't say I exactly miss the expensive, sweaty, early-closing tube, but somebody needs to sit the people in charge of the Subway here and have a long, firm talk about signposting.