Am sorting out the details for my trip. Feeling kind of nervous and excited. Not sure what is going to happen or even if I’m going to get there, but I’m sure I will!  Have practiced being a lone visitor in Berlin and it was weird but worthwhile. It’s not just about going somewhere far away to see what’s there but also about finding things out about myself which you can only do when you’re far from your comfort zone.

Why New York? Well, it’s the home I never knew apart from blasts of beat poetry, jazz and the folk scene. It was the sounds of the Velvet Underground in my suburban home in Leicester. It was the skyscrapers and Superman. It was the abstract expressionists and the weird goings on in the Andy Warhol factory. It was the complete fantasy. It was Positively 4th Street, where I am staying just round the corner in the Jane Hotel. It’s the Statue of Liberty and countless black and white movies from the 50s. In short, it was a dream of an alternative reality that I had always been part of but had never been to. I am going to pursue a dream. Is this wise? No, but I am driven to it like a moth to a flame.