Drink in hand, tonight I've just been going through some old boxes and found a stack of old photos. Some are of a five week random jaunt I took when I turned 21 in 2003 which I've not seen in years. I was in University (Stoke UK at the time), my third year and when it hit January I thought - "I need to book and go away somewhere to celebrate finishing in May".
So with no plan, one cold winter night, I booked myself a solo flight to New York from Manchester on May 27th 2003 (my birthday and rough finishing Uni date) and a return flight 30 days later. That's it. No months of planning really. Just a list of some hostels and a sense of adventure. It was an amazing trip of discovery all in (with a few damn hairy moments and the benefit of hindsight now thinking this was insanity with no planning). I met some wonderful people (and scary people and Dan Akroyd and James Belushi funnily enough) and some great times but this thread really is about when I decided to take a bus from New York to Washington D.C a week into the trip (a cheap bus from Chinatown that ended up with me and 50 odd Chinese people who spoke no english for several hours that descended into joyous, funny singing)
When I got to D.C I spent several days there, checking out the White House and soaking the place up. After spending years of hearing of D.C (and probably lacking invention), one afternoon I was thinking I may of made a mistake of coming as I couldn't find that much to do to justify another few days there (mid way point) before heading back N.Y way. Beer in hand and enjoying my own company, I saw some music starting up on a stage by the Ronald Reagan Centre so sat down in the sun to chill out. A solo girl came out on the makeshift stage outside and sang 10 songs and she was really good. Throughout the set, I started to really enjoy the serendipity of finding this free music and felt a lot better about how the day was panning out. I believe she was one of a two warm artists before (again my memory is hazy here) Sixpence None The Richer (of 'Kiss Me' song fame) headlined the afternoon.
After this solo girl came off, she came over to me and said "Hey - just wanted to say thanks for staying for my whole set - I saw you and really appreciate it". At this point there wasn't a big crowd and what crowd there was interchanged, so I probably did stick out not far from the stage sat down. I said 'no worries' to her and wished her well. She asked me where I was from and we had a small chit-chat. She got her mate to take a picture with my camera of me and her and that was that
I continued back to New York, proceeding having adventures then came back to the UK and now 14 years later I'm married with two kids. And I see this photo tonight and wonder what happened to this girl - did she make it with her pretty good music and keep up the gigging across D.C / U.S? She gave me a nice afternoon of tunes in the sun many years ago and a smile tonight. Again it was early June 2003, in D.C outside by the Reagan. No idea of songs / band name / her name at all.
Also: who are the background people in your life you wonder how it panned out for?
Banish me to Stoke on Trent 14 years ago if dumb thread idea.
UPDATE SOLVED IN MERE HOURS: Gaffer Monchi-kun identifying as Roya Vakili, checked a cover of hers on YouTube and yep, that's her.
You guys rock. Thanks for indulging my memory lane trip
So with no plan, one cold winter night, I booked myself a solo flight to New York from Manchester on May 27th 2003 (my birthday and rough finishing Uni date) and a return flight 30 days later. That's it. No months of planning really. Just a list of some hostels and a sense of adventure. It was an amazing trip of discovery all in (with a few damn hairy moments and the benefit of hindsight now thinking this was insanity with no planning). I met some wonderful people (and scary people and Dan Akroyd and James Belushi funnily enough) and some great times but this thread really is about when I decided to take a bus from New York to Washington D.C a week into the trip (a cheap bus from Chinatown that ended up with me and 50 odd Chinese people who spoke no english for several hours that descended into joyous, funny singing)
When I got to D.C I spent several days there, checking out the White House and soaking the place up. After spending years of hearing of D.C (and probably lacking invention), one afternoon I was thinking I may of made a mistake of coming as I couldn't find that much to do to justify another few days there (mid way point) before heading back N.Y way. Beer in hand and enjoying my own company, I saw some music starting up on a stage by the Ronald Reagan Centre so sat down in the sun to chill out. A solo girl came out on the makeshift stage outside and sang 10 songs and she was really good. Throughout the set, I started to really enjoy the serendipity of finding this free music and felt a lot better about how the day was panning out. I believe she was one of a two warm artists before (again my memory is hazy here) Sixpence None The Richer (of 'Kiss Me' song fame) headlined the afternoon.
After this solo girl came off, she came over to me and said "Hey - just wanted to say thanks for staying for my whole set - I saw you and really appreciate it". At this point there wasn't a big crowd and what crowd there was interchanged, so I probably did stick out not far from the stage sat down. I said 'no worries' to her and wished her well. She asked me where I was from and we had a small chit-chat. She got her mate to take a picture with my camera of me and her and that was that
I continued back to New York, proceeding having adventures then came back to the UK and now 14 years later I'm married with two kids. And I see this photo tonight and wonder what happened to this girl - did she make it with her pretty good music and keep up the gigging across D.C / U.S? She gave me a nice afternoon of tunes in the sun many years ago and a smile tonight. Again it was early June 2003, in D.C outside by the Reagan. No idea of songs / band name / her name at all.
Also: who are the background people in your life you wonder how it panned out for?
Banish me to Stoke on Trent 14 years ago if dumb thread idea.
UPDATE SOLVED IN MERE HOURS: Gaffer Monchi-kun identifying as Roya Vakili, checked a cover of hers on YouTube and yep, that's her.
You guys rock. Thanks for indulging my memory lane trip
