Home > The Magazine > Features

Thursday 4 December 2008

Dare to dream and make your ultimate trip a reality

The latest culture as recommended by our staff

Michael Henderson

Michael Henderson suggests

Email registration

Free weekly email update

Great products and special offers for Spectator readers

Click here for great value events

Click here for exclusive articles, offers, tasting notes and discussion

Farewell to the NYC dating scene

A final farewell to the dating game in New York

Amelia Torode

Wednesday, 3rd October 2007

The wedding of the author’s wing-woman

Wiping away a dollop of mayonnaise that had found its way to his cheek, Barry said, ‘Well, technically I’m a receptionist in an accounting firm, but I have been trying to break into the theatre for a while now. I have had some plays performed off-Broadway.’
‘Really, where?’ I asked.
‘New Jersey,’ he replied, a bit sheepishly.

Then suddenly he stopped eating and put down the sandwich carefully. ‘Do you have any idea what it’s like to see people stand up in the audience, swearing and heckling the characters on stage? Every night most of the audience left. One woman was physically sick in the aisle. It was very upsetting.’ Barry looked as though he might start crying on me. What do you do if a large, grown man you’ve never met before suddenly starts weeping on you? It was like having a date with Ignatius J. Reilly from A Confederacy of Dunces.

In the end I texted Alison while he was in the toilet. I instructed her to phone me and call me away on some urgent matter. This date lasted 34 minutes. I never did find out what exactly his plays were about.

Those were the good dates.

There was the young Wall Street banker with a broken arm who admitted on the third date that he belonged to some kind of Staten Island chapter of Fight Club, and that is why he was in plaster; the lawyer who decided that English girls drank too much and were too messy to be seen with in public; the son of a Brooklyn policeman who turned out to be such a racist that he felt unable to come to my apartment in my mainly Hispanic and black neighbourhood. A sense of humour and a sense of perspective were essential.

And through all of them Alison, my wing-woman, was there to pick up the pieces and help me move on. Bonded through romantic adversity and the exchanging of heartbreaking war-stories, singledom had surprisingly never felt more social or oddly amusing as it did with her.

So as I book our flights to JFK for Alison’s wedding I suddenly feel rather old at the loss of my connection to Manhattan singledom. Luckily the Sex and the City film is currently being shot in New York, so I might try to watch some of it while I am out there. My vicarious living of a single girl’s New York life will now have to be through the characters of Carrie, Samantha, Miranda and Charlotte. Somehow I don’t think that it will feel quite the same.

Amelia Torode is head of digital strategy, VCCP; www.ameliatorode.typepad.com.

Previous page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4

More articles from: Amelia Torode | this section

Print this article | Email to a friend | Permalink | Comment

Post this entry to: del.icio.us | Digg | Newsvine | NowPublic | Reddit

What I learned from the Somali pirates

Aidan Hartley

Aidan Hartley says that Somali piracy is very well-organised and efficient and is opposed publicly only by militant Muslims — who may yet seize power in Mogadishu

New Sondheim: enjoy it while stocks last

Gerald Kaufman

Gerald Kaufman is enthralled by the first Sondheim premiere in 14 years. A minor work Road Show may be, but it is still worth much more than anyone else’s musicals

The law applies to Damian Green, too

Rod Liddle

Rod Liddle is reluctant to join the journalistic herd in its unqualified outrage at the Tory MP’s arrest. But it is certainly time to put the police under the microscope

After Baby P: the crisis in child foster care

Mary Wakefield

Mary Wakefield talks to a courageous woman who blew the whistle on the deep systemic failures in the foster care service — and whose only reward was to be hounded and vilified

The global force behind Mumbai’s agony is in our midst

Stephen Schwartz

Stephen Schwartz and Irfan Al-Alawi say that LET — the Army of the Righteous — is a worldwide Islamist organisation which is well-established in Britain. The Mumbai atrocities are further proof that the march of Islamic extremism is the central fact of our time

Thank goodness we can have a run on the pound when we need one

Martin Vander Weyer

Martin Vander Weyer looks ahead to next week’s Pre-Budget Report and reflects on George Osborne’s contentious remarks about the devaluation of sterling. It looks like Gordon Brown is getting away with his borrowing binge — leaving the Tories isolated

Ashley Cole deserved to be booed for all that he personifies

Rod Liddle

Rod Liddle says that the magnificently horrid England defender exemplifies the greed, lack of respect for the fans and whining self-regard that is ruining football

The masters of the universe have turned to drink

Venetia Thompson

The failure of the $700 billion bail-out has driven her former City-boy chums to despair, says Venetia Thompson. But they must rally soon to keep the market moving

If Miliband becomes PM, I’ll join the right-wing coup to topple him

Rod Liddle

Rod Liddle is outraged by the Foreign Secretary’s alleged comparison of himself to Michael Heseltine: like comparing a Big Beast to a stumpy little Muntjac deer. Where have all the political giants gone?

The tightrope walk and the terrorists

Sarfraz Manzoor

Sarfraz Manzoor talks to Philippe Petit, whose stunning walk between the Twin Towers in 1974 is the subject of a new film — and discovers the mirror image of the horrors of 9/11