My NY.

Since returning from New York to a very dreary London last Wednesday, my friends, family and colleagues have all been asking me what the best part of my trip was. And every time I'm asked, my mind goes blank - not because I'm struggling to remember the good parts, but because I can't actually decide what the best bit was.

After the initial couple of seconds where I must look, to the questioner, like I've never even heard of New York, I usually stumble out with some generic list of the obvious attractions that Jenn and I visited, such as the Statue of Liberty and the Empire State Building, but in truth, I loved it all. Every single minute. Except perhaps when the radiator in our hotel room would turn on at stupid o'clock in the morning, waking me up with it's freaky impersonation of some sort of woodland creature, and then keeping me awake with it's ability to melt lead. But that, to be truthful, hardly registered a blip on the radar of what was an excellent holiday.

The hotel was, in fact, excellent. Our room, whilst not the biggest I've ever stayed in, was more than ample for our requirements and in superb condition. The staff were nothing but friendly, and the location was fantastic. On our first evening, despite having a vague idea we were relatively close to the theatre district, we were pleasantly taken aback when a brief stroll to get our bearings unwittingly landed us in the middle of the bustle of Times Square. It was perhaps the best possible start we could've hoped for.

To summarise (because there's no other way I could describe the trip without sitting at this computer for nine hours), some of the highlights were: crossing the Brooklyn Bridge in the rain; drinking at The Peculier Pub; exploring the Museum of Modern Art; witnessing a Saturday Night Live rehearsal; being deemed pretty enough to be allowed entry into Duvet; the views from a blustery 86th floor of the Empire State Building; staying awake past 2:00am every night; Spamalot; drinking tea from a different Starbucks nearly everyday; counting the number of Irish pubs within walking distance of our hotel; taking millions of pictures at the Statue of Liberty; taking millions of pictures in general; the shower in our bathroom; having a barman give us free shots of vodka on a particularly drunken evening; riding the subway; ice skating in Central Park (I didn't fall over, unlike someone); juggling in Central Park; eating cheesecake for breakfast (which Jenn described as "better than sex"); walking miles and miles and miles...

I could go on.

A word of warning if you've never been to New York and are contemplating going - have an idea of which attractions you want to see before you go, and make sure that either you or your travel partner (should you be lucky enough to share the experience) can make decisions (I can't, it transpired). There is simply so much going on in the city, that even after five days there were things that we had wanted to see - such as the Guggenheim and Met museums and a large portion of Central Park - that we were forced to miss out on. That wasn't a result of poor planning or bad decision-making on our part (despite my attempts to be at my indecisive best), there just simply weren't enough hours in the day - even less so on the Saturday night the clocks went forward, which resulted in us finally settling down to sleep at a staggering (and chilly) 5.00am.

The (quite possibly drunk) lady that sat next to us on the flight back to London, who had just spent six weeks in Guyana, said she had hated New York when she had previously visited. She had already had a rant about airport security taking her bottle of rum before boarding the plane, so I kept quiet, but I couldn't have had a more differing opinion than if I personified New York and married it. I think - and don't think of this as anything more than a throwaway remark in the heat of the moment (although I'm sure I said it more than once whilst there) - I could quite possibly even live in Manhattan, should the opportunity arise.

Of course, living there would be an entirely different kettle of fish. The experience would, I imagine, be dampened by the monotony of having to go to work five days a week, and visiting the same places - beit a major attraction, a bar, or one of the hundreds of Starbucks - wouldn't be half as exciting on my own as it was with Jenn.

Y'know, I think that's it. The best part of visiting New York is, actually, being able to share it with someone. It's all well and good saying you've seen the lights, the sights and the, uh, Museum of Sex - but I'm so much more grateful for having someone else there with me, someone to share a laugh with when I handed out incorrect directions to fellow tourists, someone to actually make me stop, look up and savour the moment whilst another photo was being taken. One thing's for sure, however busy New York's roads got with the endless streams of yellow cabs, it would've been a much quieter holiday for me had I gone on my own.

Without Jenn, I doubt I'd have done a lot of the things I did whilst there. Without Jenn, I wouldn't have anyone to be nostalgic with after the event. And without Jenn, I wouldn't now have countless new photos of myself queueing up to be my new profile picture on Facebook. So here's to that random conversation the two of us had whilst making tea at work one day in December, when the ball first got rolling.

God bless America? Perhaps. God bless tea? Definitely.

Passport, check.

One of the things I want to do more of this year, along with writing and attracting people, is travelling. I haven't been out of the country for 18 months, and so on Thursday I'm heading off for five nights in New York City. I haven't been before and I've wanted to go for a while, so when my friend Jenn accepted an off-the-cuff invitation during a tea-run at work back in December, my mind was made-up. And that's pretty impressive, given how indecisive I can be.

In truth, the actual booking process was littered with vast amounts of indecision (not least over the flights and hotel), and despite both of us working in a so-called Planning department, I sense there's going to be a good deal of seeing where our feet take us once we get there. But I quite like the idea of that. Not knowing a great deal about the immediate future used to freak me out slightly, but these days I'd like to think I'm a little bit more carefree. Others that know me may disagree.

Of course, we're not completely hopeless. We've got tickets for a Broadway show sorted, we've earmarked the sights we want to see, discount passes for attractions have been purchased, and Jenn has politely insisted we visit a particular club one night where the clientele lounge about on beds and all appear to be hideously good-looking and well-groomed. Being neither of these things, I intend to compete with my charming British accent.

I do still feel a tad disorganised at this late stage, however. Possibly because procrastination has reared it's ugly head and I find myself - amongst other things - updating my blog instead of, I don't know, packing. I think it's fair to say, in James' world, there will always be something more appealing than the actual task in hand.

Out of curiosity, and also to waste some more time that could be better spent figuring out how to fit x number of clothes into an undersized suitcase, I flicked through my iTunes library this evening to see what sort of New York related playlist I could create (and undoubtedly not listen to, ever). The result is eclectic, to say the least...

1. David Gray - Last Boat to America
2. Ryan Adams - New York, New York
3. Blur - Magic America
4. U2 - Angel of Harlem
5. Belle & Sebastian - Piazza, New York Catcher
6. Simon & Garfunkel - The Only Living Boy in New York
7. Counting Crows - American Girls
8. Stephen Fretwell - New York
9. Jesse Malin - Brooklyn
10. Goo Goo Dolls - Broadway
11. Death Cab For Cutie - Marching Bands of Manhattan
12. The Pogues & Kirsty MacColl - Fairytale of New York
13. The Drifters - On Broadway
14. Ben E. King - Spanish Harlem
15. Everclear - The New York Times
16. Fountains of Wayne - Hackensack
17. Idlewild - American English
18. U2 - New York
19. Five For Fighting - The Last Great American
20. R.E.M. - Leaving New York

Obviously I've cheated a bit with the inclusion of some slightly more vague titles. Also, Hackensack is in New Jersey, but it's never a proper playlist of mine if there isn't at least one Fountains of Wayne track.

Oh yeah, I like music. I should've said that already.

Okay, it's late, and I feel I've procrastinated enough for one night (yet another worthwhile training session in my bid for Olympic gold). I shall return next week with stories aplenty from across the pond. Or, at the very least, a photo of me falling on my ass whilst attempting to ice skate in Central Park.