My first job when I finished university was with an American investment bank.  I must have been mad going into banking, but the promise of a five month training programme in New York City was a big factor in my choice of job.

The night we arrived we were put up in The Vista Hotel (which became the Marriott) in the World Trade Center complex.  I remember clearly craning my neck to look up at the Twin Towers and thinking that I really had arrived.

The following day I was taken to my corporate apartment on 33rd and Third – with a fabulous view downtown – and thus began an intense but wonderful summer in New York.

I went back several times after that, but since that day five years ago (when the Marriott hotel was also completely destroyed) I haven’t really had the heart to. 

But I still really ‘heart’ New York.