Peter White In The USA

Fixing interviews from three thousand miles away can be a deeply frustrating business. Producer Cheryl Gabriel and I have just been to the States covering stories both for You and Yours and In Touch.

Americans are charming people, who will promise you the earth if you can ever get them to answer their phones, but will then studiously ignore your emails and calls as you try to finalise the details; which is how we came to find ourselves gate crashing a press conference in New York's City Hall, on a subject in which we had no conceivable interest, with scarcely a working eye between us, trying to attract the attention of a man who couldn't see us either.

New York's governor David Paterson is himself visually impaired (which is why In Touch wanted to talk to him), but we'd been told, despite former assurances to the contrary, that he wasn't going to be in New York that week. For some reason, in a week in which he was being accused of messing up the state budget, and of giving too much support to an adviser facing accusations of domestic violence, an interview with the BBC wasn't high on his list of priorities. So we did the only thing we could do: stepped out in front of him as he left the conference, brandishing white cane and magnifier, and introduced ourselves. It worked! As his aides spluttered impotently behind us, Mr. Paterson indicated that he'd heard of the programme (online is a wonderful thing), and would be delighted to give an interview. New York political machine nil, blind mafia one. You can hear about how he tackles his job on next week's In Touch.

Travel generally posed its challenges on this trip! We were in a taxi when, after some persistent schmoozing from Cheryl, we got the tip-off about the governor's whereabouts! It meant that we had to change our destination for the third time, causing the driver to eject us because, as he put it "we were spending too much time in his cab". Strange; but then New York cabbies are under pressure at the moment! They're being accused of an overcharging scam (accusations they hotly deny), and you'll hear the inside track on that story too on You & Yours in the next few days.

At odds with the cabbies, we turned to the trains, but they too, with their unfamiliar lines and ticketing systems can pose problems for blind and partially sighted travellers! After a few journeys spent hurtling in the wrong direction, we came across our most exciting rescuer! As we struggled to get our pre-ordered train ticket from Boston to Albany, we were helped by a charming man whom Cheryl, employing that famous magnifier, thought looked vaguely familiar. It turned out to be Jimi Hendrix's cousin, on his way to play a gig with some of Hendrix's former band in Providence, Rhode Island. Cheryl and Kenny Barber, that's his stage name, are now email buddies! Just another example of the bonuses to be had from needing help!

• Peter White is the Presenter of You and Yours and In Touch.

• Bookmark with:
• del.icio.us |
• Digg |
• Reddit
• - What's this?