Englishman in New York (State)

At 5am on a dark autumnal morning the taxi arrived that would take me up to Heathrow ready for the trip out to New York. Having done all this before there weren't quite so many nerves with having to do the whole travelling thing and only having to do one flight made things a lot more straight forward.

The flight itself was fine, watched lots of films and ate what was claimed to be breakfast and lunch (actually the pizza wasn't too bad). Upon arrival made it through immigration with no problems, mentioning that you work for IBM still has a couple of advantages. Heading into the arrivals lounge Zippe and Debbie were there to say hello (and have a chat and a coffee) before they had to head out to someone sunnier and I had to pick up the hire car.

Having already driven in the states on a previous trip being on the wrong side of the car and not having to change gear didn't really phase me. Having been forced to hire the smallest class, I was expecting something I might struggle to fit in, however the Honda Accord feels bigger than my normal car. Being on the wrong side of the road wasn't a problem due to driving on major roads and them being in effect motorways (albeit with a slightly slower speed limit). Cruise control is my favourite toy when in the states, press a couple of buttons and all you've got to do is point the car in the right direction.

The drive itself was quite pretty, ignoring the rain and after a quick tour around the town having missed the turning for the hotel (there are houses with white picket fences) I got all checked into a quite frankly huge suite which will be home for the next four weeks (photos below). A very nice goody bag was presented on arrival and the bottle of wine will most likely come in very handy as the project goes on.