I'm standing in an Irish-themed pub in West London surrounded by sad football fans, talking to a man called Nathan about why he's holding a dead fish in a plastic bag....

The sky is the colour of old concrete when the bald cabbie cocks his head to tell us we've 'picked a nice day to arrive'. I wait a second to see if he's 'havin' a laugh' but he's dead serious, gripping the Black Cab's steering wheel with his tattooed knuckles....

At the end of our United States adventure I made a very foolish decision to spend that one last day visiting the legendary Coney Island area....

There's a cool sign to let you know you've reached New York City's coolest borough and it says: 'Welcome to Brooklyn - how sweet it is'....

It was our lucky day. We bought tickets to visit the Statue of Liberty and they threw in some abuse at no extra charge. ...