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My big adventure! I was flying out to the big apple without my safety net (that would be Steve) and I was very excited but very scared at the same time, given my crap sense of direction and having promised to try and get the subway, argh!!! I am normally pretty rubbish at writing blogs too but this trip was so amazing, i just had to force myself to document it!
Saturday
Steve took me to the airport, we had breakfast, which cost an extortionate amount of money, as per usual and then he walked me to the departure gate. Did the whole tearful goodbye bit (it was all very emotional) and then rang him once i’d gone through airport security!
Hit duty free straight away, love it love it!! Got myself some Bobbi Brown eye liner and lip gloss (cost me £22 but its duty free so it doesn’t matter, girls, you know what i’m talking about!) Flew out, flight was pretty pleasant, had to indulge myself with the Jean Paul Gautier gift set (Steve wasn’t there to remind me i’d already hit duty free so I forgot) and then watched a couple of films. I love flying with Virgin because of the amount of film choice you get!!
When I arrived, I dragged my suitcase outside, got a cab to the apartment, and managed to get my rather large suitcase carried up the stairs by our short term landlords boyfriend. I then decided to explore and get a bit of shopping done at the same time, found a great street fair and discovered I was in walking distance of 5th Avenue!! Did nearly 4 miles according to the pedometer!!
Met Marlon, who was under strict instructions by Steve to encourage me to use the subway as much as possible, so I got subway to meet him, by myself, big deal guys!!! Went and had dinner at a great noodle place, ended up chatting for hours, it was great!
We went out dancing after the meal (i'm normally in bed by now due to lack of sleep!) at a place called Dance Sport. This was the second of the congress pre parties (there was a whole week of them!) and I had great time, I even bumped into a fellow midlander!!
Sunday
Had breakfast in the apartment (i’d bought cereal the day before as I am still on my diet so wanted to be good!) and caught the subway to 54th st to do Eddie Torres Shines and Partnerwork class (3 hours, I must be mad!). I bought a camera on the way to Eddie’s class as I didn’t want to cart my huge camera that I use for the site around on the subway. The guy did me a really good deal, the whole brit chick thing really works over there you know!
Eddies class was fantastic, I was under strict instructions from the CDDC girls not to forget anything, so filmed the shines as soon as I got back to the apartment, not before id nipped into Capezio and made a quick purchase though!
Met Lou (El Barrio Music Center) for dinner, he made me walk so far, it felt like my legs were going to drop off! I did get an interesting tour if the East Village at night though! I decided to give the social a miss tonight, good thing I did because after Lou made me walk for miles, I was shattered! We found a really great pastry shop and we bought coffee, Tiramisu and a huge piece of strawberry cheesecake with the biggest strawberries ever, should’ve taken a picture!
Monday
Decided to go and hang out at El Barrio today, good thing I did, Cheo from New Swing Sextet came by and brought in a couple of musicians to meet me. I met Julio Castro, this guy is huge, Tito Nieves started with him, he’s played with Hector Lavoe, needless to say, I set up an interview for Wednesday so keep your eyes peeled!
Went to Session 73 as New Swings guest, very nice it was too, got to hang out in the VIP section with the band, their pianist is a really funny guy from Loughborough! Fantastic night, one of the best so far over the last year, definitely on a par with the Pulpo cd launch in my opinion!
Met DJ Felipe from San Francisco, fantastic DJ, maybe we’ll bring him over at some point, yes, he really is that good! He gave me a few titles to buy and a cd from a band in San Fran, wicked! Grabbed a pizza and a cab home about 1:30am.
Tuesday
Sagi had flown out the day before so we arranged to go to the Statue of Liberty. He had a friend with him called Danielle (who has now become a very firm friend of mine!) from Kilkenny, it was their first time in New York so I was showing them around (me, the subway scardy cat no more!)
We hit a bit of a snag when we arrived, Sagi queued for the tickets and when he got right to the front, they ran out! We decided to go to Ground Zero as Dan had never been so off we went, back onto the subway to ground zero, but not before I behaved like a complete tourist and got my picture taken on a huge bright blue motorbike!!
I took the guys to El Barrio Music Center and made Sagi buy loads of music and selected a few choice cds for Dan too. We went for food and decided against going to Frankie’s class as it would have been a real rush to get back and we were heading to the relaunch of the Link, now known as Side Bar later that night.
I convinced Lou to come to salsa with me, he makes me laugh, my Puerto Rican brother, doesn’t dance a single step but loves to watch us non Latinos folk dance! We stayed out until late, poor Lou had to get up early the next day, I didn’t, ha ha!
Wednesday
Hung out at El Barrio, it’s like my second home, I swear! I interviewed Julio Castro (thanks for the intro Cheo!) and filmed him playing bongos and congas in El Barrio. The guy is seriously talented and so knowledgeable, it’s scary!! I went home to get changed as I was meeting up with Dimas at LQ’s, we tried unsuccessfully, to get an interview with Eddie Palmieri, so we decided to head off to Club Cache.
This is a really cool club, music provided by Mr David Montreal (fab DJ, definitely bringing him over at some point!) and lots of great dancers. If you read this, next time you see me, ask me about the Club Cache Tattoo story, it’s too rude to write!
Thursday
Steve arrives! I dragged him along to El Barrio to see the guys, who made a huge fuss over him and totally forgot about me!!!! Steve was quite ill, so I did the one thing a girlfriend could do, put him to bed, dosed him up with paracetamol and went out with Lou!!
He took me to a place called Camarades, right in the heart of Spanish Harlem. It was a fantastic place, they had a Bomba Plena fusion band called Yerbabuena. Lou had told me about them but as I don’t really listen to Bomba, I was a bit dubious. How wrong was I?! These guys were amazing, I really enjoyed listening to them (the lead singer was easy on the eye too, so that was a bonus, sorry Steve!)
Lou got me to try Mofongo, it's a traditional Puerto Rican dish, I ain’t telling you what’s in it because you’ll all be making it then, just trust me, if you ever go to New York, you have to go to Camarades and try it!!
Friday
Steve and i went to Register at congress, Choco had arranged for us to have VIP passes to say thank you for helping promote the congress in the UK, he is such a nice guy! We said hi to Victor and Burju, i bought another pair of shoes (i had to have them ok, they were red!!!!) and then we went off to meet Lou.
He took us to GB records, they are a huge distribution company and their selection of Latin music was out of this world, it was kids in a candy store experience, to coin an American phrase! Lou made us walk for miles (second time for me!) we went and grabbed food and then headed back to te apartment to get changed for the night.
The night was fantastic, we saw Ocho y Mas first, lead by Willie Torres and then we finally got to see La Excelencia live, it was amazing! The guys tore it up and then they spotted us in the crowd and dragged us back stage to meet the rest of the band, i love my job!!!!
Saturday
Did Eddies class at the congress and interviewed Angel Ortiz and Dicky Colon from Young Bloods, two people i’ve been trying to interview for ages! Steve and i went to see the kids shows during the day, they were amazing, beats some of our performers hands down!
Steve was still feeling ill when we got back to the hotel so i dosed him up again and went to the congress on my own. I hung out for a couple of hours with Danielle, then went back to the apartment.
Sunday
Did Nelsons footwork class, it’s been such a long time since i’ve done one of Nelsons classes, it was great! I forgot what a mick taker he can be in class though and I got dragged up on stage to demo the routine in front of the class, thank god shines are my speciality!
We managed to get an interview with Tomas from Santo Rico, he is very inspiring to watch and the interview was great (you can check it out for yourself)! We went to the Spanish restaurant we found last time, the food was fab but we had an incident with my starter, I got spat in the eye with oil!
I had been chatting on Facebook with Daniel from Baila Society, he was ill when I got to New York so it took me ages to track him down, finally got him and Ahtoy though, the interview Was very inspiring, made me sign up to Baila Society!! Allan and Dimas from Nuevotec had asked me to do some interviews for them, i’m used to being behind the camera so having a large video camera stuck in my face was a bit daunting! I soon got the hang of it though and I interviewed DJ Michelle and Vincent from Casa Latina for them, (their site is www.nuevotec.com) go me!!
Monday
Steve and I met up with Sagi and Danielle for Brunch before they flew back home, Steve went off to El Barrio to interview Papa Ortega and I headed off the the Bronx to have a private with Nelson (Flores), he worked me hard, bully!
Jose from La Excelencia had invited us over for dinner, so I nipped back to El Barrio to meet Steve and say bye to Frankie. Jose lived right in the heart of the Bronx so it was a fairly long train journey. Dinner was amazing, his wife is Dominican and is a fabulous cook, we were stuffed at the end of the meal! I discovered Jose was a Wii fanatic and had to ban him from getting it out or we never would have left! Next time guys, ok?!
We met up with Lou and went to M&M world (it was about 11pm, it was crazy, you have to experience it for yourselves though, seriously!) then had cheesecake and milkshakes in Time Square. Popped into Footlocker to get me some new trainers, I didn’t get any but Steve did, how wrong is that!! I love New York because it truly is the city that never sleeps, Time Square was just as busy at midnight as it was during the day!!
Tuesday
Finished packing and convinced Steve to let me do some last minute shopping. I wanted to get a cab to the airport but Steve convinced me to get on the train, big mistake!! Had a mental trip to airport, got on wrong train a couple of times (Steve’s fault) and arrived at the airport all hot and bothered!! Managed to grab a couple of things in Duty Free (come on, you know me guys!) and then flew home L
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