Having very mixed feelings about New York – it hasn't changed, but I have and no longer feel the same way about a city that has been a passion of mine for a while.
When I first envisaged moving to the US, New York was top of my choices of places to work. There's an undeniable energy that comes from cramming seven million people into a tiny space, adding a dose of capitalism and pressing the fast-forward button on social evolution. It's a place where you can get almost anything you want whenever you want it, where the poshest shops share a street with scuzzy corner stores and it'll always be the the best place in the world for bagels and pizza.
But New York no longer has the same hold on me that once it had. I first came in 1999 and was entranced, and the city pulled me back again and again. It has a buzz like no other place, I've laughed, cried, loved and lost here and regret nothing, well, maybe one or two things but you know what I mean.
Maybe it was the oppressive heat and humidity, or the rudeness of people, or simply the fact that I've got older and softer, but I'm no longer so besotted with the place. M summed it up best - it's kind of like a relationship that once burned hot and hard, and has now mellowed into a sort of friends-with-benefits deal. I'll always be fond of the place, but now it's somewhere you visit, have a good time and then wave goodbye to. Northern California has won my heart now, although I'll always love the green rolling hills of Derbyshire.
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