New York - Part 1

So, what should I tell you first about New York? Firstly, perhaps the most surprising thing. Those of you who know me in person will know that I have a truly terrible sense of direction. Despite having spent thirteen or so years of my life in Loughborough, I still regularly get lost in the town centre. In London I'll drive nowhere other than my local Sainsbury's without satnav, and I still haven't yet worked out how to walk between Oxford Street and Piccadilly Circus.

Yet for whatever reason, this utter lack of directional ability appears to be disabled in New York. I can pop up from whichever subway station, take one glance at the street and avenue, and know instantly which direction to walk in. And am rarely wrong. Partly, I think, this is to do with the fact that New York is based on a grid system... so unless you're totally innumerate (shut up), you can only wander a block or so without realising you've gone wrong. But having spent a total of about 20 days of my life in New York City, in some ways I feel I know it better than London.

The above does not apply to the subway, which was designed by a moron. See http://laurasplog.blogspot.com/2007/04/washed-out.html. Luckily TheBloke (TM) was placed in charge of the subway (not as a full time job - that would have been a bit surprising) and most public transport happened without incident. Though I did have to sit next to a man who decided to read the New York Times out loud to himself. For a full twenty minutes.

I will return for more New York based anecdotes, but in the meantime I will share with you:

• We saw Cloverfield at the cinema (sorry, "movies") in Times Square. Admittedly, tiredness meant I drifted off a bit and slept through some of the loudest explosions, but there was nowhere better than NYC to see buildings you'd walked past earlier that day being destroyed. The mixture of handheld video camera in the style of Blair Witch plus impressive special effects brought an interesting edge of reality to the film. Not sure I'd have enjoyed it as much had we not been on location there.
• It snowed! In Times Square! It felt very New York, and almost made up for the fact that it had been -8 Centigrade the day before.
• I wore a very silly hat for the duration of the trip. Friends can find evidence of this on my Facebook photos.