London Calling

Stopped by London for a couple days on the way back from Dublin, because if I'm not there at least twice a year, I don't know what I'm doing with my life.

Maybe a dozen years ago, someone asked me how many times I’d been to London, and I had no idea. It was only a handful of visits back then, but it was still enough that I had lost count. It’s probably my favourite city in the world, so I stop by whenever I’m in the area… or whenever I have an excuse to go for an event… or whenever I’m flying BA and have to change planes at Heathrow anyway… 

Basically, anytime I can find an excuse to be in London, I’m in London.

 

But that usually means I’m just popping by for a day or two in between things, with no time to do anything but meander through the Victoria & Albert Museum (V&A), eat a kebab, and sleep. So I’m pretty much confined to my usual ‘hood or whatever’s a short ride on the Tube. 

 

And the same was true this time, which included stops at the Moco, the Design & Disability exhibition at the V&A, a little shopping, and lots of walking.

 

London, like all major cities, is a collection of distinct neighbourhoods that all have their own personality. My London ‘hood is South Kensington, completely by accident. Many years ago, I got a great deal on a brand new boutique hotel there, when it was a part of the city I’d never been to before, and not only did I love the hotel, I loved the area. So even after the hotel got established and I couldn’t always afford to stay there – or when the ownership changed, making me no longer like the place -- I still find a spot to stay in South Kensington every visit. The big draw is the nearness of the V&A and Hyde Park, but I also can’t underestimate the benefit of knowing this area better than the rest of London. I’ve got certain stores I always shop in and a regular kebab shop, and I even know which lines run through the local Underground stations and where I can or can't go on them, without having to look at the map.

 

I don’t know if I'd recommend South Kensington to everyone – neighbourhoods have a personality just like people do, and everyone has to figure out for themselves what they're compatible with – but I highly recommend finding your ‘hood when you visit London. Especially if you're like me and not out doing a whole bunch of social things with friends all the time, having a place that feels quite homely* makes it as if you’re wandering around holding hands with the city itself.

 

I can't say what it is that makes a human feel like they belong in a particular place, but I have a few cities that I’ve never really lived in, that feel like home to me anyway. London’s very close to the top of that list. 

 

 

*I'm using the British meaning here, which is 'like home', not the old USian way of saying it's not very attractive.

Britpop in Dublin

So... what did you do last weekend? Oh, nothing much? Watched some TV? Well, I just took a quick little jaunt over to Dublin...

No, really, I went all the way to Ireland for less than 2 days. By the time I got settled into the hotel after my halfway-round-the-world journey Friday night, it was 8pm, and only about 38 hours until I had to catch my lift back to the airport Sunday morning. So that didn't leave me much time to do anything but go to the Robbie Williams Britpop tour stop that had brought me to town. 

I wasn't too worried about missing stuff, though; I visited Dublin back in 2016 with my ex-Scotsman, and we did all the touristy things then. We saw Dublin Castle, walked along the River Liffey and crossed a couple of its bridges (but not the famous Liffey Bridge, which we did walk past, but it was either closed or too busy... or not where we needed to cross... I don't remember), and (obviously) visited the Dublinia Viking and Medieval Museum. 

On that trip, I even dragged the man with no interest in anything more artistic than a football jersey on a trek across town to the Irish Museum of Modern Art. But once we got inside the grounds, we started noticing that most of the doors to exhibit rooms were closed and locked, and no one else was around except a few guys with tools and ladders... and it dawned on us that maybe it was not open that day, and we had just slipped in with the renovation crew. But sadly we weren't equipped to use our accidental sneak entry to pull off the world's greatest Irish art heist, so we just found our way to an exit and went on with our turismo. 

So since I already took in (pretty much) all the things I wanted to see last time, I wasn't particularly motivated to go out for anything other than food on the drizzly, muggy afternoon before the main event. 

Because as it should be, Saturday night was Robbie Williams night in Dublin. CAN YOU IMAGINE THE CRAIC?!*

I overheard a local on our walk to the gig saying that to her friend, and I had to steal it.

WHAT A SHOW!!! Croke Park was completely sold out -- 80,000 people -- with an amazing crowd. People always tell me that Irish audiences are the best, but I had to see it for myself. I've been to around 20 Robbie shows in various locations and never heard such loud singing along, to whole songs, not just the choruses that everyone knows. Rob said near the end that it was the best crowd he'd ever had (sincerely, not just working the audience), and I believe it. 

I have to say that the view was a bit jarring for me at first, because I got a seat this time, after being in the front standing section for the last few shows. Rob's truly the most amazing entertainer, and it doesn't matter if you're pressed up against the stage or in the very back of the stadium, you'll have a great time and feel like he's singing directly to you. But even sitting just a couple rows away from the field, I was pretty far from the stage, and it took a minute to adjust to him looking 3 inches tall, after having gotten used to watching an actual sized Robert. On the plus side, since I couldn't take that many good photos with my limited zoom anyway, it gave me a reason to keep my phone in my pocket and enjoy the moment for once.

The set list was pretty much the same as the London Britpop shows (catchup post coming on that later!), with a couple small changes. This tour's tradition of 2 surprise guests continued -- one to duet on Relight my Fire, and one with their own song -- but they were both Irish folks I didn't know anything about. I did catch that the one who got a gigantic roar of welcome from those in attendance was Garron Noone, who led a rousing singalong version of Take Me Home, Country Roads. Never thought I'd hear a John Denver song at a Robbie Williams gig, but those peanut butter cup ads are on to something: putting two things I love together made me love them both even more!

All in all, it was an incredible night, and I was totally in it, singing, dancing, and grinning, even during my I'm-so-beyond-sick-of-this-stupid-cover-please-never-play-it-again song (I won't say which one that is, but it rhymes with Bees the Fun), and had a spring in my step on the long walk back to my hotel afterward.

So I'd say the quick visit to Dublin was a success. The show was one of a kind, and we really did have the craic... far beyond anything I could have imagined.

 

*If you don't know what the craic is, look it up your own self! Kidding. It's basically Irish for super fun-ness, pronounced like crack.

Welcome Back (Globe)Trotter

 We're back, baby!

I never did get around to starting a Substack, and I'm glad I didn't, but I didn't really start posting again here either... which I'm not so glad about. 

So I'm back now (with an option to get this as a newsletter if that's your bag), picking up where I left off. And committing to keep it updated going forward.

Look, the world is ROUGH right now. Personally, socially, politically, globally, this is very much The Darkest Timeline. And while I pretty much spend all my time, and energy, and thought every day trying to make that better, sometimes I need a break. We all do. We need to take time to do something we love, to laugh, to celebrate life's small adventures. So here I am, trying to do a little of that now and then.

For the next little while, I'll be going back through a bunch of unpublished posts from the last 2 years, and sharing them until I'm all caught up.

But don't worry, there aren't that many catch-up posts out there, I'm skipping a few trips. Like both of my annual pre-Christmas visits to London and Edinburgh, the time I holed up in Stockholm with a terrible cold, and the several days I sat around Palm Springs doing nothing but reading. 

But you will get fun travel stories like this: I was all queued up to catch my flight to Edinburgh (Heathrow loves lining people up early!), when they announced a technical issue. Not boarding, no timeline. But it's the UK, so everyone just stayed in the lineup. A few minutes later, when the gate agent guy came over to give an update, he came and spoke directly to me, about 3/4 of the way back in the queue, too quietly for others to hear, and walked away... Like I was somehow the only one who needed to know. The boss of the line, I guess.

Stay Tuned...