Hectic life in the USA!

It’s been utterly hectic in America-land this week just gone. My UK friend will need a holiday to get over the busy week she’s had.

So, what have we been up to?

Let’s talk about the trip to NYC for the Dr Oz show.

The bus
I nearly missed my bus to NYC, mostly because I can’t follow the Sat Nav when they put new effing roads in on the I95 in Baltimore! I had to run (in my heels) to attempt to catch my bus, which was just pulling away, and I now know that nothing gets more attention than yelling ‘That’s my bloody bus to New York!’ in a British accent around a group of Americans. Bless them for all cheering when I got on. And off I headed to New York City.

Happy to be in NYC!

The trip
I got three glimpses of New York this time round, only because I was making my way to the ABC studios via cab to be a guest on the Dr Oz show. Why would you do this? some people asked. Why not? I replied. For the record, the NYC I saw out of the cab window was both sunny and cloudy, wintry and Christmassy and as mad and delightful as ever.

Just got a glimpse of the city!

The show
I confess I have never actually seen the Dr Oz show, I’m just kind of aware of his name in a slightly controversial way. Anyhow, that did not put me off. What’s not to like about being a guest on one of the USA’s most successful daytime shows?!

The Dr. Oz Show is a TV talk show, hosted by Mehmet Oz, a cardiothoracic surgeon and teaching professor at Columbia University who became famous for his appearances on The Oprah Winfrey Show. He was very pleasant, to be fair.

In my dressing room backstage

My Dr Oz dressing room 🙂

Slightly enjoying the moment!

He focuses a lot on diet and weight loss, and, in this case, for me, insomnia. I’d spent all week making home videos about my insomnia and sent them off to the producers.

This is how it worked on the day: the TV audience were getting entertained by some ‘comedian’; I get pulled on stage by the crew who show me where to stand etc, then I have 25 seconds before the cameras roll and they show my home videos, and then Dr Oz and a sleep expert (who was very sweet) come and talk to me about how I have or haven’t been sleeping (I tell them and the audience murmurs slightly at my British accent), then Dr Oz and sweet sleep expert tell me what I should do about it (take a 10 step plan to better my sleep) and then everyone claps and cheers and they wish me well.

The show will be aired in January, so watch this blog for more info!

The jacket
However, dear readers, let it be known that Dr Oz’s wardrobe team does not like shoulders on TV. I had been instructed to wear colour, which is hard for me, since I wear mostly black. Yet I pulled out a summer dress, which they liked until I actually wore it, and then they commented that there was too much leg (of course) and too much shoulder (WTF?!). Too much shoulder? I was advised that this is a daytime show. They decided to cover my shoulders. Shoulders are obviously very offensive to middle-American housewives. So they rolled out this dreadful polyester jacket in black (IN BLACK!! I would have worn black anyway if I had been allowed!) that was two sizes too big, and there I stood on set dressed like a middle-aged American school mom with a penchant for JC Penney’s sale bargains. Sigh. I did not feel like me at all!

I did attempt to walk out on to set without the jacket by taking it off and pretending to be hot, but they caught me just before I walked through the curtains. Damn! I salvaged an ounce of street cred by rolling up the sleeves slightly. But that jacket will give me nightmares for a while yet!

Thumbs down for the middle-aged mom jacket 😉

And that was my Dr Oz experience. They were a professional production team, and the dressing room snacks were awesome, so, despite the jacket incident, it was all pretty darn cool for a day in NYC.

The pint
After the show I went for a pint in The Spotted Pig in NYC. They had proper British pint glasses! Way to go, NYC!

A much-needed pint after the show (not recommended by Dr Oz) 😉