Saturday, March 01, 2008

Off to New York


First, the story of my last forty-eight hours. Late last night I suddenly decided that I was going to find my passport. I'd need it on Sunday when I flew out to the States, after all. On finding it I discovered it expired in December. Calmed down. Rang the passport service. They had no appointments till Monday. After another panic, which I hope didn't sound too pathetic down the phone, I asked if they had any appointments in offices elsewhere in the country. They had one, at 9.00am on Saturday - in Wales!

Given that there are no trains from London that get you in to Newport by nine on a Sunday I would have to drive or make it a two day stint. After a train ride back to Letchworth to get the car, six hours driving and four hours waiting for it to be produced in Newport I am now the proud owner of a brand new passport.

All those heroics mean that I will be travelling to New York tomorrow. Blogging will be light but hopefully, when I can find a bit of time, interesting next week as I'll be at this conference till Tuesday and then taking a bit of a holiday to explore New York. Normal service will be resumed the following Monday. I'll still keep an eye on the comments and my e-mail when I can - if anyone has any New York-related recommendations please post them in the comments to this thread.

8 comments:

Mr Pineapples said...

Bleedin' hell. how facinating...your car trip to NEWPORT.

Gee - buddie...like thanks...most entertaining.

How about describing your kitchen wallpaper to us, We need to know right away.

jmb said...

Lordy, lordy, by the skin of your teeth.
I'm sure you'll get lots of advice from people there but one of my favourite places to visit in New York (where I go once a year to see my daughter) is the New York Public Library, near Grand Central Station (another place to take a quick look at) at 42nd. I did a post about the library last year here.

Gracchi said...

God, Matt- poor you- I hope you enjoyed Wales!

Seriously though enjoy your time in New York- I'm sure you will- have fun with all those climate guys. Looking forward to catching up when you get back- we should go catch a film or something- there is a good season at the BFI. Have fun though and don't spend so much time ranting about climate change that you forget to enjoy yourself!

Dave Cole said...

I confess to having made the trip to Newport in the past myself...

James Higham said...

Newport, RI, long way from Blighty by train, Matt.

Meg said...

If my thesis weren't due tomorrow I'd try to come down to NYC and meet up with you for lunch before you leave... hope you're enjoying it!

Ruthie said...

How exciting!

If you're still there and looking for something to do, you HAVE to go to Lombardi's pizzeria on Spring Street in Little Italy. It's the best pizza in the world. If you want soul food, there used to be a place called Amy Ruth's in Harlem that's really good too.

Central Park and the Met, of course. And the Museum of Natural History. The Bronx Zoo is really cool.

If I were you I would skip most of the big touristy places like the Statue of Liberty or the Empire State Building because the new security takes hours and it's just not really worth it.

Ahhh! I wish I was there! I was planning to go to New York on Tuesday but it didn't work out. Hope you're having fun!

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