I think Def Leppard had a perfect summary sentence for New York City in their song Rocket:

“White light, strange city, mad music all around
Midnight street magic, crazy people crazy sound”

That’s just one side of this big, beautiful, bustling city.

Don’t forget the incessant honking horns from angry drivers, the sheer number of people pounding the pavements, the extraordinarily bright lights of Time Square that overload the senses.

This trip to NYC has been entirely different to my first one here in 2008 when I came to see the US Tennis Open and discover this city as a tourist.

In the 10 days I’ve been here this time around it’s been far more business focused and I’ve met more amazing people than I could begin to summarize in this post. Other highlights include:

• Sitting at the VIP Blogger Table at the NYTimes American Express Small Business Summit
• Filming super fun videos with Natalie MacNeil in Timesquare that included a cop, a horse and a statue
• Being late to meet the NYTimes Small Business Editor!
• Walking – a lot and taking numerous different subways to reach destinations
• Shooting a video interview in Central Park after being kicked out of a shopping mall location
• Holding my social media bootcamp in NYC

• Enjoying way too much great South East Asian cuisine
• Getting to play the semi final with Cone Shots Frisbee team (thanks Nick) and achieving a layout catch!
• Finding too many adorable dogs to stop and pat
• Listening in to all the cellphone conversations you can’t help but hear on the streets – what an insight to peoples’ lives
• Sitting next to a crazy mofo in a cafe who blurted out random thoughts like rap lyrics while studying for a medical exam
• Witnessed an undercover arrest

I really do love this city even though you need a ton of energy just to survive it. I’m enjoyed living in Brooklyn thanks to generous friends who I’ve barely seen.

I appreciate being so close to Prospect Park but have not made enough use of it at all.

Time Square Baby

In fact I realised that this has been the hardest place to keep any kind of discipline. Not one night have I managed to get to bed before 1am. I never set my alarm and am often waking at 5am with thoughts racing.

I’ve not managed to factor in daily fitness, I’ve missed people wanting to do podcast and telephone interviews with me due to dead batteries, flaky wi-fi and bad time management on my behalf.

I’ve also never craved an office so much in my life – a place I can call my own and work in for just one day of normalcy. Yet I know if I had one I’d be bored of it within a few days.

Living out of a suitcase forces me to be creative and discover each location and new people every time. I normally find this a blessing. Full photos on NYC are on my Flickr stream.

Clearly I wrote this a few weeks ago as I’m now in Manhattan Beach, California. I can still smell NYC though.