Monday 6 July

So today began our trials of trying to get on tv. Phil would like to see David Letterman after missing out when he was here with Rick in 2006 and I would like to see a taping of The View.

Standby tickets for The View are released between 8 and 10am each day of taping, so we headed there first. We got there at about 8:15 and were given the numbers 31 and 32 and told to come back in an hour and a half. We headed off to find some breakfast and do another 2 walks (or course). Unfortunately only about 12 people from the stadby line got in so the lesson learned was to be here earlier next time.

Next we headed to Times Square to find out about Letterman. There was some issue with the fact that we didn't have a US contact number, but we got around that, had an interview and left with instructions to call later in the day to find out if we could get in.

We decided to head over to the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) as it was fairly close and thought we should do something cultural. There were lots of interesting things to see including a display of all the wordly possessions of an elderly Chinese lady, collected by her son, a living art work where a guy was marking the height and name of visitors with black marker around the four walls of a white room. There were also some famous pieces by artists including Picasso, Matisse and Van Gough.

A phone call to the Letterman people confirmed we had tickets for the afternoon taping which would be Friday's show, so we had a few more hours to burn.

Our next stop was to the Radio City concert hall. We got to do a backstage tour, and this was awesome. People will mostly know of Radio City for the Christmas season concerts that are held there each year featuring the Rockettes. The features of this theatre are amazing, from the multi platform stage to the sunset lighting, the interior apartment for the guy that originally built the place and especially the restrooms. We even got to have our photo taken with a Rockette.

After a quick trip home to get change we headed back to the Ed Sullivan Theatre for the taping of Letterman. This involved a lot of standing in line again and lots of practice cheering (with no woohooing aloud). It was really strange to be seeing a show taped, especially what goes on behind the scenes. The band were fantastic and play through every ad break.

Phil was in his element! You could not wipe the smile off his face. The guests for the show were Rainn Wilson from The Office and Transformers a comedian and also the band Maxwell. It was a really good show and we really enjoyed the experience.