Lost And Damned Fansite Event: Arrival

I watched an eipsode of Scrubs and then decided to watch the movie "How To Lose Friends And Alienate People". Only problem was the flight landed before it finished. Was a pretty good movie though. Simon Pegg is great as always.

After getting off the plane, I got my bags and got through passport control or whatever you call it. The grumpy woman on the booth asked why I was here, and I said Rockstar Games flew me over the play their new game. She's like "Do they pay you to play it?" and I'm like "no..." and she's all "So you get nothing for it..." I'm like "Err... I get a whole free trip to New York..." lol. Stupid bitch.

As I left the airport I found my driver. He had my name stuck to his jacket. Much better than last year where the guy just had a random number held up on a board. Took about 30 minutes to get to the hotel from the airport, and I honestly thought, after taking 2 flights and spending about 9 hours in the air, I was going to die in a car crash. I remember from last year that New York drivers are insane, but this guy had a death wish! Who accelerates while people in front are braking!? Well, he does, then with about 10 feet remaining until the imminent crash and fireball, he swerves into a different lane. I wasn't in that much of a rush to get to the hotel!

Once I arrived, I went to check into the hotel but no one from Rockstar was there to meet me, so eventually the guy at the check in counter got things sorted and I got my room key. My room is pretty nice. It's not exactly huge, but it's only for me anyway so it doesn't need to be. I can see the Empire State building from my window. The room's got an awesome mini bar too. We've got all sorts of American candy and drinks. The guy downstairs at check in wanted me to leave a credit card in case I eat any of the stuff, as we have to pay for it, but Rockstar can cover the costs haha.

Grabbing Some Food

I text Chris from TheGTAPlace and he told me that everyone was downstairs at the bar, so after getting my bags sorted, I went down and saw everyone. The only guys who were there were Chris, along with Adam and Jevon from GTA4.net. And Mike (number 1) from Rockstar. They'd all been there since 11 or 12 noon and I got there for about 7 PM, but Mike told me that we had a reservation at a restaurant a few blocks away. They all disappeared and got their jackets, then we made the 15 minute walk to the restaurant. I can't remember the name, but it had some weird fortune teller in the entrance. Just after we arrived, another Rockstar dude, Diego, joined us.

It was actually pretty nice inside. We got some meat and cheese to start with, salami and what not, and then I chose the roasted duck breast for my main course. It was a pretty small portion, but it was lovely. I pretty much scoffed the whole thing in about 3 minutes. Mike asked me how my duck was, because he got it too, so I just showed him my empty plate and said "that's how good it was".

I had a few bottles of beer with my food. A german lager called Pilsner or something, and then Mike suggested I had Anchor something or other. Some American thing. Tasted like a mixture between Guinness and Newcastle Brown Ale but it was nice. We all had a decent chat during the meal too, about random stuff like Bear Grylls, Survivor man, Red Dead Redemption, Chinatown Wars and a bunch more stuff.

Hit The Bar

Mike grabbed us two yellow cabs to take us back to the hotel then once we got back, he said himself and Diego were going to hit the bar across the street. None of the other webmasters fancied it, but Mike didn't have to ask me again, so I went over for about an hour with them. The bar was country music themed, and Mike says you see a load of cowboys and bikers in there. It was pretty empty, but the music was loud and the two bikini clad chicks behind the bar were completely wasted. One of them kept muting the songs and pulling out a megaphone and screaming at people haha. Fucking nutter. It was a "real" taste of America, as they put it...

I had two pints of Guinness in there, which to be honest tasted nothing like the Guinness I get back home, and then Mike and Diego got some shots, so I had one of them. Not sure what it was, whiskey I think, but it was strong. I'm sure it was a double shot...

After my drinks I went back to the hotel. I fell asleep at about 11:30 PM (NY time) which is about 4 or 5 AM UK time. Not too bad.