Hot Air

Tony's beaten me to writing about it, but we're in New York at the moment. Judging by today's news, it seems we timed our departure (we flew yesterday) pretty well, although our journey here wasn't entirely without incident. It started well (we blagged an upgrade and waltzed through the 'Fast Track' with a cheeky grin) but when it was time to land at JFK, it seems our pilot was a little surprised to see a plane trundling along our landing runway and only saved the day by gunning the throttle and climbing steeply, split-seconds before we touched down. Blimey.

We've had a string of exciting meetings with a string of wonderful people in a string of amazing venues (the roof of Soho House yesterday, the uber-cool Core Club today). The irony of discussing the way expeditions strip away the layers of pretence and artifice – the 'aftershave and hot air', as John Ridgway used to put it – while sitting by a rooftop pool surrounded by New York's strutting and preening Beautiful People did not escape me.

Off to the Outdoor Retailer show in Salt Lake City tomorrow night. More soon…

— Filed under Rumination, SOUTH