The last post I put up here was about my pre-kids travels and explorations. It was written as part of a Netflix Stream Team competition to celebrate the launch of their huge new series Marco Polo.
A few days later I got a call to say I had won and would be jetting off with a guest to the world premiere in New York as the UK and Ireland Stream Team representative.
Holy shit.
I must have sat at my desk for half an hour in shock. Oh shit. Oh crap. Oh no. Oh my God. Oh wow. Oh brilliant. Oh oh oh...
The one and only time I have been to New York previously was when I did a stint working there briefly in a different life about 15 years ago. I fixed the inflight entertainment systems in the British Airways planes that flew into JFK airport for about three weeks. Like I said - a different life.
During those weeks I only had to be in work for a couple of hours a day and the rest of the time I had to myself. Very much to myself. In fact I knew not one person in the city and I stayed in a soul sucking hotel beside the airport. The loneliness and boredom got the better of me by the second week and I moved myself into a YWCA hostel in the city in a bid to improve my fortunes. It didn't. I wandered the streets alone. Ate in cafés alone. Visited the Empire State Building alone. And took a tour of Harlem alone.
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| Macys New York - as seen from the Empire State Building. Alone. |
To be honest I couldn't wait to get the hell out of there.
But now, finally, I am able to exorcise the demons. I get to go and experience a different New York. The cold, Christmasy, snowy New York. The glittery star-studded New York. The New York of bars and diners and shopping malls and yellow taxis. The New York of Central Park, Greenwich Village and Manhattan Island.
So now all I have to do is break it to these guys that they're not actually coming...
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| The maps are out |
Wish me luck.
