Go Gadgets:How do you get to the Lower East Side? Take the 2 to 72nd, change for the 1 and the 9 to 59th, swap for the downtown B and D, cross over to the F and the V before Broadway/ Lafayette, and get off at 2nd Avenue. Got that?
Welcome to New York, where subway directions would make as much sense if they'd been spoken in Klingon. Even the most street-savvy locals carry credit-card sized MTA subway maps, available at news stands around the city. But for a lasting memento of the city's subterranean alphabet soup, pick up a stainless steel wallet-sized lower Manhattan subway map (€9, postage extra, from www.suck.uk.com - Paris and London underground maps are also available).
• Take a stand against airline socks, before Michael O'Leary and his cost-cutting kin banish them from the skies forever. Raise sartorial standards with ballerina-style slippers from Brooke Shoals in Dundrum and Greystones (€34.95). Smirk at the jealous stares from across the aisle when you pull your dazzling silver slippers out of their matching sequined drawstring pouch.
• Think that snowboarder seemed lost in his own world? He was probably listening to Ludacris via Skullcandy, a helmet-based wireless music system that links to MP3 players and phones. There is a volume control and phone/music toggle switch on the earpad. Available from www.smithoptics.com, or the Great Outdoors in Dublin (Chatham Street, Dublin 2, 01-6794293, www.greatoutdoors.ie), sells the audio system for Red helmets (€65 for the audio kit).