In July 2004 I took Neelam on a work trip to New York. It was an eventfull week, which started very well with us meeting Spice Girl Emma Bunton (travalling with her mother and associate) in the BA First Class lounge at London's Heathrow. I remember being amused to hear Miss Bunton negotiating with the BA receptionist to allow her to bring in two guests on her Executive Club Gold card.
Anyway the upshot was that Miss Bunton was very pleasant and pleased to sign an autograph for an excited 11 year old. I chose not to take a photo or video on this occasion, to avoid invading her privacy and not wanting to bring too much attention to ourselves. We had a pleasant chat, before boarding the plane.
Later the same week, Neelam and I were sitting on a bench on the perimeter of Central Park, when a familiar face asked me directions to the famous "Dakota Building" - where John and Yoko lived for many years and where ultimately John met his untimely death.
The stranger in question turned out to be Football Boss Martin O'Neil who was managing Celtic at the time and on a pre-season tour to the US. I was pleased to meet Martin personally and thank him for the great years he gave Leicester City (my home team); and to enquire as to his prospects for taking the England Manager's job in the near future !
Anyway, this time around I did take photos and had the video running whilst Martin signed an autograph for Neelam. I chatted with John Robertson (the Nottingham Forest European Cup winning contemporary of Martin and his long standing assistant manager)
For 3 nights running just outside our hotel window Hugh Jackman was to be seen signing autographs for fans outside the theatre door; and Kanye West was appearing on MTV at their studios just down the block on Times Square. Evil Knieval's son was also in town making a motorcycle jump on top of the aircraft carrier anchored in the Hudson River. Neelam was impressed there were celebrities everywhere ! "Is it like this everytime you come to work in NY Dad ?" she asked
During a busy week in Manhatten we took in a broadway show (Mamma Mia), scaled the Empire State Building, took the ferry boat over to Ellis Island, and toured the Statue of Liberty and paid our respects at Ground Zero for the victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.All was going fine, until the very last moment on Friday evening going back to the hotel to pick up our bags before heading off to JFK and the trip home...
...and here's the punchline....the hotel concierge had somehow managed to loose our luggage - possibly handing out my laptop case and valuables - including laptop, passports, ipod, and yes the two autographs from Emma Bunton, and Martin O'Neil to another guest by accident. I never did see that bag or my luggage again - but the hotel did pay out for compensation, and 18months later so did the insurance company. I'll never forget the look on Neelam's face as we sat in a delapidated Police station filling out the report sitting some 6 feet away from some guy they'd taken in overnight clearly under the influence and handcuffed to his chair (circa 1960s). It was like a scene from NYPD Blue, or Kojak or something.
Anyway thanks to the hotel we got to spend a free weekend in NYC before the British Embassy were able to oblige us with new temporary passports for the flight home on Tuesday. Phew....what a week that was !
