Family Fun in New York…

16/04/2016

When I was a New Yorker…

nick and meg screeton - lep fitness - Family Fun in New York

If your a mad movie junkie like me going to New York for your first time is weird. You kind of feel like you’ve been there before as this famous city features in so many films;

Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Ghostbusters, Crocodile Dundee, When Harry Met Sally, Wall Street, American Psycho, Home Alone, King Kong, Spiderman and countless others!

The city lives up to the hype, it’s crazy! Your surrounded by beautiful architecture, and goliath standing skyscrapers that appear to never end, especially when your fully immersed in the gridded and chaotic streets of Manhattan.

I went to NY with my Dad (Mark) and Sister (Meg). To start with we were the ‘typical tourists’ – sticking out like sore thumbs, often looking confused as we scratched our heads trying to navigate our way around this manic city. The tall, grandiose buildings, the 8 million people and the luminous lights of Times Square forcing us to act like rabbits caught in headlights!

We got our bearings quickly though (or should I say Meg and Dad found their bearings and I just tagged along! I never was very good at directions!).

Although we were only there for 4 full days, it felt like we were there for 4 weeks! We averaged around 20,000 steps per day and well and truly explored all areas of the city visiting popular attractions such as…

1) Ground Zero – A heart felt experience of the terrorist attack which ended up in the collapse of the World Trade Centres on September 11th 2001

2) Statue of Liberty – Some famous green statue holding a torch! lol. A gift given to NY by the French in the late 1800’s.

mark screeton - meg screeton - nick screeton

3) Rockefella Building – In my opinion the most amazing view of New York that we experienced.

4) Broadway Show – We watched ‘American Psycho’ the musical and it was incredible. With me being a huge Bret Easton Ellis fan (Author of the book American Psycho) I must say the show was exquisitely done and definitely one of the highlights of the holiday for me.

5) A Helicopter Trip around New York – Yes this was super cool although a little scary

nick screeton and mark screeton in New York

For me though the best part of the holiday was spending time with Dad and Meggy. I can’t remember the last time we spent 4 solid days together and it’s positively reinforced how important and precious family times are.

The attractions and atmosphere of NY City were out out of this world (in a good way!) but to me the most important things, the stuff that will last as long as my memory permits are the small things, the stuff that didn’t cost very much…

The laughter – My dad taking the mic out of cheesy American adverts – you know the massively exaggerated ones where you pay $5 for some product that will solve all your problems! He went of on some 10 minute spiel which had me in stitches of laughter, leaving my stomach feeling as though i’d done 1,000 crunches!

I also loved the morning coffees from Starbucks, the deep chats in the restaurants – talking about the past, present and future, and even the moments when no one spoke, but we were all together. That’s what I loved the most.

Although New York is over, and it kind of feels like a dream I now have this picture on my desk and I know that all I have to do is look at it and all the happy memories will come flooding back…

👱💪 Nick

Moral of the Story…

To me the moral of this blog is to enjoy life, appreciate your family and the one’s you love the most. The small things that stress us out: traffic jams, falling of our diet, bad weather, a little headache are all insignificant in the grand scheme of things.

Make-sure to factor in downtime doing what you love, with the most important people in your life, whether that’s family, friends or work colleagues.

It won’t be the Ferrari or the Louis Vuitton handbag you remember on your deathbed but the happy memories you cultivate throughout your life.