I've been working on my big, once a year, update thing for quite a while now, with the idea of posting it today. Ironically, it actually starts with that, even though 'today' is sometime in June. What a strange time this year has been, my first complete year in a relationship (hopefully), my time spent in New York in the summer, my first full year in my new job, living on my own, broadband access, switching to a Mac, learning to sing, meeting a whole load of new people (both at Reading, by finally meeting up with Hannah - see, I'm not an Axe Murderer afterall) - overall it's been pretty crazy. It's also been a year with it's sadder moments, and one cannot forget the shit that's going on in the world. I'm sick of the propaganda that mass-media seems to take. I'm also sick of the UK press and their obsession with sticking their fucking oar into other people's lives. You've gotta feel sorry for Les Dennis and Amanda Holden, for example - their marriage is going through troubles, so the papers run front page headlines about them every day. I'd like to go for a drink with Les, he seems like a very down to earth, decent bloke. Les, if you're reading this, email me. I have pretty much given up on television entirely now, and am seriously considering buying a monitor and VHS player (not recorder) in order to save myself paying the BBC Television Tax (a license seems wrong). Indymedia is a good thing of course, and I have a meeting with someone shortly to sort out an Indymedia around here, which'll be cool.
So, New York, New York.
I spent 12 days in New York, and it was some of the most amazing time I've ever spent. New York was everything I had expected, and then some. I really enjoyed the city, and I had decided before I went that I wouldn't be doing the whole New York touristy thing, I bought a flight, a hotel room and some currency, went to Heathrow, and began the new stage of my own life. I hadn't even flown before, like ever ever, and here I was, about to travel to the largest city in the world, on my own, to spend a weekend socialising and working with a bunch of people I'd read about and listened to on the radio for as long as I care to remember. At 21 years old, the introvert in me, stood down, and up stepped my outgoing, making groups of strangers cry laughing, socially acceptable persona. Having survived a plane journey, and the appalling in flight NBC crap for nigh-on nine hours, I arrived at JFK, to be herded into a little line, to explain to a man with a gun, why I wanted to come to New York and not Canada, strangely. People had always warned me that it's not a good idea to be funny to these people, but I couldn't resist cracking a few jokes that fell on deaf ears, if you go, I highly recommend asking why he has a gun, asking his name, and shaking his hand when you're done... oh, he'll staple a huge bit of paper into your passport too.
New York Taxis are pretty random, the guy driving me to the hotel, seemed convinced I spoke Italian, despite me saying that I didn't every time he spoke to me... he seemed to understand the $10 tip though. :)
As soon as I stepped out of the cab at the Hotel Pennsylvania and looked across at Madison Square Garden, I knew I'd made the right choice. I was helpfully ushered into the hotel, helped with my bags, and everything. I hadn't eaten properly in 9..er..11? Well, quite a lot of hours, I hadn't eaten, or had a drink. Still, a few people in the lobby clocked my hat, and combined with my thick British accent (my posh one, which is what I talk like when I'm actually thinking) and kindly pointed me in the direction of a little store in the lobby where I could buy Vanilla Coke and Mountain Dew (Mountain Dew!!!!) and after that, I retired back to my room, to munch on a packet of Extra Strong Mints, and think back to leaving my place, getting a taxi, a train to London, a hurried Paddington-platform lunch with Emily, getting the Heathrow Express out there and finally boarding the plane, to spend all that time talking to the man to me about the conference, openly flirting with the American stewardesses, asking them all sorts of random and embarrassing questions, and finally deciding that I quite liked me.
The next morning was amusing to say the least. Having travelled all that way, I was the first person to show up for the conference, before any of the actual organisers... finally the familar face of PorkChop showed up, though I was a bit unsure if I should actually say something like 'hello, I'm a complete freak who travelled across the planet for this, we've spoken on IRC a few dozen times' - eventually, a few others showed up and we got talking, until Emmanuel showed up and we were all sitting on the floor by the escalator to the mezzanine (I love this word, I'm going to have one in my house when I'm older) chatting. Yeah, that was cool. I spent most of the morning setting up stuff for the conference, including meeting fellow Brit, Jigsaw... in the afternoon, meeting Kat (who came all the way to my hotel lobby, bless her) and spending the afternoon walking around New York. We went to loads of different places, most of which I don't know the name of. We rode the subway, and we even caught a city bus (Kat's first time too) - Unlimited ride Metrocards are a wonderful thing, especially to someone who thinks London Transport is cool..
The three days of the conference were fantastic, the first day I worked a few hours on the information desk, met a bunch of new people... that night, Jigsaw and I did the drunken New York thing, I'll say this, some the bars on 7th Ave around 32nd and 33rd are fan-bloody-tastic. Go. Now if you can.
Eventually I wound up setting up a second home on the information desk, spending a full 17 hours on it.
