Well, what a day to start work in New York! Woke up (again!) at 4.30am to a text from the UK telling me about Osama Bin Laden. My first thought was, ‘why couldn’t Obama have waited till we were up?’ So snoozed until I DID have to get up and then got ready for first day of New Job, listening to National Public Radio – very lively special programme about the Osama news – a lot more lively than I remembered from the first time I was here. And then I set off for work. I know people were celebrating outside the White House and at Ground Zero, but everyone waiting for the bus on 2nd avenue just seemed to want to get to work.
I bought coffee from a little shop by the bus stop, and bananas from a fruit seller on the street and joined the zillions of other commuters, all plugged into their headphones, in their own little worlds, doing what they do every day – but I was quivering with excitement at the newness of it all.
The building I’m working in is called – wait for it – ‘the Innovation Luggage Building’. Only in America. And after being given the first of several temporary passes I finally met the lovely man who’s been helping me get here. He’s the boss of the section I shall be working for, and he’s British, very courteous, and a former BBC journalist – which all made sense when he told me, because he has that World Service air about him. However, (Miles) he also worked for BBC Radio WM in Birmingham – so we had a moment of reminiscing about that city while listening to the clamour of New York.
And then the day began in ernest. Never mind that the biggest story for years for America had just broken – I had to go to three different departments, in three different buildings 15 mins walk apart, to fill out and sign dozens of forms, and to be told that I can’t be paid unless I have a US bank account. It was like something out of “1984” – or Little Britain – an American version of “compu’er says naaw”. It took literally 3 hours, and by the end of it I was knackered, starving and not a little pissed off. I did at least have my pass (so I could stop collecting temporary ones) but, when I got back to my building it transpired it didn’t actually let me into my office, because the ‘locksmith’ had to set that up for me. I also need a authorisation code to dial overseas, and a chit signed in triplicate to go to the toilet – ok I made that up, but I wouldn’t have been surprised.
But everyone was really friendly, even the people I stopped on the street to ask directions. And as I was stumbling along peering at my map, at one point I looked up and there was the stunning Chrysler building – so gracefull and elegant, and I was struck yet again by just where I am.
However, I am soooo tired – still on UK time so I’m going to crash – and I walked home tonight – around 50 blocks, so, to bed.
