It’s most definitely summer, which in our family also means it’s peak birthday season. For mine, we had a family dinner at Took Took in West Hampstead, followed by a little walk along the path through Fortune Green and behind Hampstead Cemetery which we used to do on my birthday every year growing up.
Randi and I also spent a lovely evening at Angela’s new flat, which – happily – is right around the corner from us. We also spent a wonderful Saturday at Simon and Fleur’s barbecue with a mix of familiar faces and some new people I’d never met before. Not only did I consume a healthy mix of beer and burgers, but I also got to test-drive an empty buggy around the block under the influence of this beer plus burger mix. Apologies to the people of Hassocks if we looked very strange.
On the way home our convoluted train route led to an unplanned stop at Kartuli in East Dulwich for dinner, and therefore some unexpected khachapuri. This was delicious, even though – strictly speaking – it wasn’t really khachapuri weather. Equally delicious was our dinner at Dishoom with Robert a few weeks ago, who was passing through London for a night and spent his evening with us. Coincidentally, I also enjoyed a Zoom-based Groupon catch-up with Todd Webb later that week, who made me even more nostalgic for the days when we were all in an office together.
Recently I also went out for an evening with Jill, although we quickly abandoned our usual haunt thanks to it being live music night at The Island (nothing against it, but not great for talking) and switched to Curry Nights instead. I also swapped stories of product management with Katie’s friend Caitlin over drinks in Southwark, before grabbing food at Mercato Metropolitano and accidentally taking home one of their food buzzers. But our big social achievement was finding a weekend for Josh, Anna and Cora to visit our place for a sleepover! Together we made tacos, invented new games to play with Dominion cards, danced to the Mosquito song (the Minidisco playlist of the classic Spanish holiday resort having been updated since my day) and, in the morning, ate loads of pancakes before exploring the Horniman Gardens.
Randi was in Scotland last weekend, so I took a couple of days off work and made a slightly impromptu trip to Chicago. My short stay was clearly a bit suspicious to the immigration officers (“you’re here for two days?” “well, three days if you count today!”), but the double round of questioning at customs was more than made up for by the shortest queues I’ve ever enjoyed at O’Hare. Then I was nerdishly delighted to get one of the newer Blue line trains for the journey into town – spick and span and filled with suburbanites travelling into Chicago for 4th July the next day. That train from the airport is how Randi and I always take the temperature of how Chicago is doing, and this time the omens were very good.
Todd and Carolyn very kindly hosted me on this trip, and that afternoon I enjoyed a few beers in the sun with Todd and Dolly Dietz – Robert’s very adorable dog, who they were looking after – before ordering Antique Taco for dinner. I also playtested Todd’s murder mystery (albeit sadly not in its ultimate setting of the Bahamas) and enjoyed a can of Salted Lemonade courtesy of Benno and Shelby’s Five Corners beverage company. While I haven’t seen these guys in years, the fact that they are running an independent husband-and-wife business surprises me not at all, and made me smile.
The next day was 4th July (or July 4th?) so we headed over to Robert and Julie’s, both to return custody of Dolly and to celebrate freedom and independence etc. etc. I was inordinately proud of not being the first to be eliminated from Bernie’s drawing-based game, although he was probably just being kind, while Grant (accurately) labelled me a weirdo when I was being weird. The only thing I was less thrilled about was the start of all the random neighbourhood fireworks, which – at least when you’re at ground level – feel less like fireworks and more like a coordinated attack of the well-regulated militia. But I’m aware that I’m in a deep minority here – only Dolly felt the same way! – and at least once we joined the neighbours’ rooftop we could appreciate the spectacle from a safer height.
Since Robert had told a very long story about watching Landman on a plane, Todd and I resolved to watch the first episode before going to bed that night. It was excellent, in the sense that it was terrible, and so there was a lot to enjoy. I did also get some genuine satisfaction at hearing ‘advertisement’ being spoken in a Southern accent with the same pronunciation as my British accent.
The next morning, we brought Carolyn up to speed with the culture she had missed over breakfast at Bang Bang Pie & Biscuits, where I had some very tasty biscuits and gravy. Then, I attempted to introduce Toggolyn to Jet Lag! I’m not sure if I fully converted them, but we all agreed that chasing your friends around Switzerland by train is much more fun than getting blown up together at a malfunctioning oil well. And finally, Todd allowed me to wander around ancient Athens for a bit within Assassin’s Creed. The original intent was to find Socrates so that we could have a nice argument, but in the end I just took to the random murder of innocent bystanders, surprising both Todd and myself with my ability to run away quickly enough from any retribution.
I had one more stop to make before flying home that night. This was a very special afternoon at Catherine and AJ’s, who are only one week into welcoming the newest member of the family. I felt incredibly lucky to be able to hang out with them all together, and at this point in my life it’s also deeply reassuring to see everybody doing so well too.
The journey home was all very smooth, and the week afterwards we did some transatlantic hosting in reverse when Melissa came to stay for a few days! Along with a decent sampling of our local pubs, on Tuesday night we all went out to see Nye together at the National Theatre. This play is a tribute to the life of Aneurin Bevan, the founder of the NHS, and its existence alone does something to capture the peculiar relationship between Britain and its healthcare system. As you’d expect, Michael Sheen gives an amazing performance, and the play does an excellent job of zooming around Bevan’s life and career. I particularly enjoyed the staging of the climactic showdown with the BMA in 1948.
This week we also went to Kirsty’s summer party (where I hit my quota of strangers to talk to) and enjoyed a relaxed Friday night with my mum. Finally, shortly after hitting publish on this blog we’ll be off to Sidcup to spend the afternoon with Tomas and Roberta, which I’m very excited about! [Update: we did indeed have a wonderful afternoon hanging out together with their family in their sunny garden, eating delicious salmon, sharing Randi’s lemon & blackberry cake and making out like bandits with a giant pile of baby things. Thanks guys!]
