Winner of the Christmas Cracker Car Race
Happy new year! I am back in Chicago – in cold, cold Chicago – after my first Christmas back at home in four years. Usually I sorta skip past Christmas itself on this blog, but to mark the occasion I have some actual Christmas photos for once. While in London we also saw Oslo, a play about the Oslo Accords between Israel and the PLO which began as a secret, unofficial backchannel. I learnt a lot about the process, although of course it is somewhat marred by the fact that there is very obviously no peace at the end of it. In a more upbeat spirit, I hadn’t seen Chicken Run since it came out, and it is amazing. Not enough to put me off chicken pies (I had many pies in the UK) but I did start playing the soundtrack on a loop.
Christmas Dinner
Not pictured: all of the games! From racing the cars inside the Christmas crackers – crackers have really upped their game since my day – to the brutality of Scrabble and, of course, the tradition of charades and my Christmas Quiz. (I don’t think I did too badly as there were no physical injuries.) We also played Codenames, Room 25, Citadels, Coloretto and that one when you have to work out the name stuck to your forehead. Oh, and we watched Doctor Who together! Although it was all a bit ponderous this year, and left me more impatient than ever for a fresh start with a new Doctor and her new adventures.
Christmas was wonderful, basically. Special thanks to Carolyn for hosting us, and to my mum for inadvertently doing some of my present wrapping for me.
Pre-Christmas Dinner
There is some dispute over who has the best stockings
On the traditional Hampstead Heath Boxing Day walk
Observing Network Rail’s horse herding team
After Christmas, Randi and I decided to spend a couple of days in the Peak District before New Year. Our journey there was the most British affair ever, as our train slowed to a halt due to ‘horses on the track ahead’. Network Rail had apparently sent a team to herd them away, but as we inched closer it became apparent that the train was going to perform the herding duties itself. On the one hand, it sorta beggars belief that we have literally had railways for longer than any other country and still cannot figure out a way to build a horse-proof fence. On the other hand, we were in no rush and it gave us an impromptu couple of hours to wander around Sheffield. I’d never seen Sheffield before, and it was nice!
Not as nice as the Peak District, though, which was beautiful and perfect for hiking. We did the famous ridge walk to Mam Tor, which offered great views and also an opportunity to experience some sustained and aggressive hailing for the first time. The next day it snowed, and we did some more gentle walking around Hope and the surrounding villages. It is difficult to successfully ‘stick to the track’ on a public footpath through a field which is completely covered in snow, however. Not even if you have a map.
England’s green and pleasant land (below a certain elevation)
Attack of the hail
On the ridge walk to Mam Tor
I can read maps no problem
Sheep!
Drying by the fire
I’m never able to see everyone I want to see in my visits home, but I did pretty well in the final few days. Randi and I had lunch at Portobello Market with Sanna, and then lots of pasanda and London Underground gossip with Simon on Brick Lane. And on New Year’s Eve, Josh and Anna hosted us and Robert for a quiet night in together. We were much less energetic than we used to be – no midnight pillow fights, just wobbly selfies – but it was exactly what I needed and a perfect way to ring in the new year.
Happy new year!
Given that temperatures in Chicago are reaching -20°C, I do somewhat regret accidentally leaving my coat, hat and gloves behind in London. But on the other hand, it was great motivation to rush to REI and stock up on the most warming winter clothing imaginable. So hit me with your worst, Chicago. I’m ready.
We’re still here! It’s time to celebrate another year without a global nuclear war initiated on Twitter.
Kicking off 2017 in Quito
January
On the first day of 2017 I woke up in Ecuador, and rode a gondola up the Pichincha volcano to admire the megacity of Quito below. These were the final few days of our South America trip, and an amazing way to start the year. Back home in Chicago the highlight was playing games of Secret Hitler in which Chloe was basically always Hitler. Randi and I also saw the surreal Psychonaut Librarians and thumbed nervously through pocket constitutions. I also took my first work trip to Palo Alto and hung out with Jamie, Paul and Lori.
February
We saw Hamilton in February! And it was Non-Stop for the rest of the month too, during which I finally got My Shot to introduce Todd to the Doctor (the original, you might say) and – although I should have been Satisfied to watch the first three Indiana Jones movies, because people told me That Would Be Enough – we also saw Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Indeed, Toggolyn’s living room really was The Room Where It Happens in February, throwing its doors open for another salon on The Godfather. What Comes Next? Second City with Villy and her mum, a trip to Starved Rock State Park with Randi and her mum, a game night with Robert and Emilie where we finally introduced them to (Wait For It) Carcassonne, a lovely Valentine’s Day at La Scarola and a play about the mathematician Ramanujan, A Disappearing Number, which threatened to Blow Us All Away with its crazy divergent infinite series. (So keen were some people to Say No To This that Katie had to intervene in the ensuing Hurricane.)
March
In sunny Florida I basked in high school sports and free sun cream (seriously, can’t get enough of that sun cream) but also seriously confused suburbanites by walking on human legs. Later, in Colorado, those same human legs took me hiking in Boulder with Jason and roaming around downtown Denver. When not gallivanting around the country we welcomed Francisco to Chicago for the first time, Grace for a brief return visit, and reunited with the wonderful Billy and Taylor for one glorious night. We also gloated over the first of oh-so-many failed Obamacare repeal attempts (the novelty wore off eventually), met Bassem Youssef at a showing of Tickling Giants and watched Spotlight and Gladiator. I’m not writing Randi’s Big Review of 2017, but if I was, I’d imagine that last one was probably the highlight of the year.
Giant Meeple
April
If you want your religious ceremony to endure into the secular age, you could do worse than throwing in a scavenger hunt element. I spent a painfully long time hunting the Afikoman at Passover, and in return I hid a gazillion Easter eggs in the garden for Randi, Jason and Carrie to uncover. Meanwhile, Randi’s dad came to town and cursed the Cubs, strangers at the Adler Planetarium awkwardly ensnared us into their foody board game, Todd followed up on his word by screening The Godfather Part II and we finally went to Kingston Mines. We also saw the satanic Scapegoat, cheered Bill’s arrival into Doctor Who at a big-screen viewing (WE LOVE YOU BILL) and visited Toronto with my parents! (Canada: home of Niagara Falls, ice wine and vegetarian hot dog stands on every corner.) But most significantly of all, Catherine and AJ surprised us with giant meeples. Giant meeples. If you want your religious ceremony to really thrive in the secular age, giant meeples are the way to go.
New Mexico: one of my favourite trips this year
May
One running theme of 2017 was just how smoothly Brexit negotiations went. Barely a day went by without European governments falling over themselves to grant special favours to the UK, and to celebrate this spirit of togetherness we ramped up our Eurovision celebrations with two mini semi-final parties and then a special final watching party in Lake Geneva. I went back to Palo Alto (actually staying in Palo Alto this time), enjoyed Howl’s Moving Castle, ruined Randi’s birthday by ordering the same main course as her (not really) and kicked off a three-month Improv Shakespeare run with Ellen, Emilie and The Mariner’s Mistake. Randi and I also travelled to my 25th state, New Mexico, taking in Albuquerque and Santa Fe and with an especially great stop to clamber up and down a bunch of ladders at the Bandelier National Monument.
June
“Come watch a British election!” I said. “It’ll be a boring, predictable and depressing result”, I said, “but at least you’ll see a parliamentary system deliver strong government”. With these bald-faced lies I lured James into joining yet another David Dimbleby marathon in June, a month in which we also got locked out of a car in Michigan, saw The 39th at a film festival, went to war with the ants in our flat and sold Chicago to Rhi with Kingston Mines and Like It, Love It, You’ve Gotta Have It. I also tucked into hearty Polish comfort food with Karol, watched Wonder Woman with Toggolyn and visited Philadelphia with Randi and Mike – a trip which included a wonderful lunch with the Youmans, an underwhelming return to the Liberty Bell and some unexpected blessings. Also, for my 28th birthday, Katie unleashed Dominion on our apartment, and things have never been the same since.
Photos from Dominion could illustrate many months
July
We spent an intensely relaxing 4th July in Yorba Linda with Randi’s family. (Brief relaxation exceptions: whizzing down the pool slide, holding my breath in the Doctor Who finale and that moment when Randi’s dad almost punched a sleazy guy at an Angels game.) I also caught up with beloved Glamily members Jackie and Jeff in LA. Elsewhere in the country – Indiana, to be precise – we spent a day on the dunes, but didn’t bring our handguns, and also took a failed trip to the Whoa Zone. I also brushed up on my ‘thoughtful films’ repertoire with Following and A Most Wanted Man, saw Pilgrims and The School for Lies in the theatre, completed my Improv Shakespeare trilogy (The Licentious Wink) and kayaked down the Chicago River at night.
August
My extended family is loud. I guess that’s not so unusual. But what I remember most vividly from August, when I flew home for my Grandpa’s final few days – and then his funeral – were the nights around his hospital bed, talking more softly than usual and losing track of time. I recognise that everyone else had been there for weeks already, and were exhausted. I’m just glad I made it. And, of course, London was as brilliant and beautiful as ever. I drank with Josh, breakfasted with Sophie, lunched with Christa and Amy, reunited with Monty for tea in posh Hampstead and slept on the sofa of actual-real-life-homeowners Cat and Matt. I also saw the whole Cooper clan in Norfolk, accidentally introduced Randi to her new love (fish pasanda) and – very excitingly – reunited Team Adipose for the time-strapped Time Run sequel. And if all that wasn’t enough, August in Chicago involved the world’s absolute funniest silly string surprise at Carolyn’s belated birthday party, Memento, a glass blowing workshop, my first American football game and a solar eclipse! (OK, the solar eclipse was completely obscured by clouds. You can’t have everything.)
September
If I had to list my top three achievements in September they would be, in ascending order: helping to get James assassinated twice during Secret Hitler, redesigning this blog, and finding some fish pasanda for Randi in Chicago. We also celebrated Amanda’s birthday, saw The Audience, went to the Museum of Science and Industry’s ‘After Hours’ event, hung out on McKenna’s rooftop and dined at fancy, colourful Carnivale. Also this month, Cat and Matt received their very own mystery box, I received a custom rap track about dominicself.co.uk and Randi received the ultimate gift of getting to watch Oklahoma! for the very first time.
It’s apple picking time!
October
Cat visited in October! Together we went apple picking, corn mazing, Jack-o’-lantern viewing and ate a lot of diner food. This month I also had some surprisingly fun business presentation training in Palo Alto, saw Blade Runner 2049 with James and did not die of dysentery playing the Oregon Trail. We also saw one of my favourite plays of the year, 1980 (Or Why I’m Voting for John Anderson), met Bernard Edward (dispensing wise parenting advice with a copy of Not Now, Bernard) and saw MisterWives in concert.
November
I firmly believe that the season of mulled wine should be officially inaugurated on Bonfire Night, and we made this happen on 5th November along with a Cat-inspired mountain of potato, sausages and beans. James left for Berlin in a blaze of karaoke, Katie and Brandon popped by Chicago, Ellen’s Master of Peppers left us (as usual) full-to-bursting with chilli, we briefly lived an alternate grown-up life in Robert and Julie’s house with Willow (it was weird: the wine and nice furniture inspired me to put some soft classical music on) and celebrated Thanksgiving in California with gingerbread turkeys and mulled wine batch #2. And on returning home, mulled wine batch #3 at a screening of Voyeur plus the beginnings of Christmas decorations…
Christmas in London
December
We wrapped up the year in Chicago with a couple of films: The Room plus The Disaster Artist, Star Wars: The Last Jedi and, in preparation for Vienna, The Third Man. And then, after popping off to Palo Alto once last time (three cheers for the Impossible Burger!) we set off for our Christmas holidays: Vienna, Bratislava, London and the Peak District. Indeed, I am finishing off this review from a warm pub in the snowy village of Hope. Highlights of the trip so far have included Oslo (an enlightening play about the Middle East peace process), Carolyn’s Christmas dinner, getting through hosting the Christmas Quiz, a Boxing Day family walk on the Heath and our hike to Mam Tor. And I am looking forward to New Year’s Eve!
Wishing everyone a happy new year and a rewarding 2018!
From Vienna we took a holiday-within-a-holiday and spent a night in Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia, as Randi’s parents had enjoyed their visit earlier this year and it looked easy enough to get to. I didn’t really appreciate how easy it would be… the train from Vienna leaves every hour, takes an hour, and costs a mere €10.10 each way. Tickets can be purchased at any time from a mobile app, and of course there are no security queues or passport checks at any point. It does not surprise me to learn that commuting from Bratislava to Vienna is quite common. (I know that this is the normal train experience across Europe. It’s just so great.)
The train!
The centre of town was pedestrianised and lovely
You can’t visit any city (except Toledo, Ohio) without taking a walking tour, so we wrapped up warm for a chilly three-hour history of the Communist era with our guide and two guys from Singapore. (“What is the weather like in Singapore?” “It’s always nice.” “What about in winter?” “There is no winter.”) Despite the cold it was a really interesting walk, including the views of Austria and Hungary from Bratislava Castle. It does seem that every postwar government was prone to inappropriate road-building schemes, whatever their ideology. At least Bratislava got a UFO-shaped restaurant perched on top of a bridge in return, although the authorities had to put up blinds on one side to block out the views of capitalist Austria during the Cold War.
Be wary of the trams sneaking up on you
The castle!
At night we enjoyed the spectacular Christmas market in the centre of town, which was even better (and less crowded) than Vienna’s. The most common food was lokša (known via Catherine as lefse) of which I particularly enjoyed the blue cheese and chocolate options. Meanwhile, Randi was thrilled to discover that the ‘meat and cabbage soup’ meal handed down through her family existed here as kapustnica.
I highly recommend a visit to Bratislava!
Christmas market in Bratislava
Market food
With this cheerful fellow
Randi and I spent the week before Christmas in Vienna, which neither of us had been to before and seemed like a suitably Christmassy place. Since there is an awful lot to do in the city we decided to buy a 6-day Vienna Pass at the outset, which lets you into almost anything and makes it feel acceptable to swan into the Belvedere or Schönbrunn Zoo for half an hour. And with that, we were away!
Christmas in Vienna
Randi discovers lángos
On our first night we headed straight for the biggest Christmas market where Randi discovered the goodness of lángos (deep fried dough with garlic butter) and I was delighted to find a stall where I could load up a kartoffel with mais and schinken. (Why has America never embraced the jacket potato as a fast food option? It’s inexplicable.) And on the topic of food innovation, it is worth highlighting how Austrians make hot dogs. Rather than sliding it into the side of a bun, they take a baguette and impale it on a heafty spike before entombing the sausage neatly within and adding sauces. It is such a superior hot dogging system that I have opened my eyes to the inferiority of the English-speaking world on this point.
At the Christmas market with City Hall in the background
St. Stephen’s Cathedral
Vienna has museums for everything. We visited Mozart’s house – with a strikingly sad reminder that even a rich and successful man could lose four of his six children in infancy – and Freud’s home and office before he was forced to emigrate to London by the Nazis. (This is a much more sympathetic angle to view Freud from rather than as the father of psychoanalysis.)
We also saw one of the two Jewish museums, toured the famous Royal Opera House and watched the white Lipizzan horses of the Spanish Riding School do their morning exercises. To be honest, their morning exercises are not especially athletic, although they do seem to involve some diagonal trotting. The Schönbrunn Palace is amazing and well worth a visit, although by that point we were tired of audio guides and just wandered through the rooms making up their likely purposes.
We’re in the Opera House!
Schnitzel! I ate so much schnitzel…
Everyone we met was very friendly and (of course) could switch seamlessly into English mid-sentence after seeing our gormless faces. And I don’t just mean waiters in restaurants, I mean ‘the woman in the lift at our AirBnB apartment block’ or ‘random teenagers on the train’. However, I do also want to salute a few amusing moments of customer service, which is what you expect from a German-speaking country which doesn’t withhold people’s income in expectation of tips. For example, the guy at tourist information at the airport was full of disdain when I asked for a 6-day Vienna card rather than a 6-day Vienna pass. “There is no 6-day Vienna card!” he said, as if I had failed a test.
Props also to the guy who suddenly stepped out and took my photo on the way up to the Donauturm without thinking to let me know what was about to happen. I didn’t buy it, so unfortunately you will have to imagine my surprised expression.
Drinks in the Imperial Hotel
Trying to recreate the scene from The Third Man on the Riesenrad without being able to remember what it looked like
Public transport is obviously fantastic
In the beautiful State Hall at the National Library
One highlight of the trip was seeing a concert at the Musikverein. We saw the Artis-Quartet perform pieces by Mozart, Einem and Bruckner, during which everyone in the audience mysteriously knew when each piece was actually over (and it was OK to clap) and when they were just taking a little break (when it was clearly not OK to clap). The venue also nearly defeated us with its seating plan before the concert had even started, as they divide each row into ‘left’ and ‘right’ sections, meaning that two ‘number 11’ chairs sit side-by-side in the middle of every aisle. If you don’t know this in advance, it can lead to some awkward interactions when you find people in ‘your’ seats. (Turns out we were in the wrong hall anyway. You can tell we were tourists.)
Christmas trees all over town
Roll your eyes all you want, however, because one of my favourite outings was our tour of the Austrian parliament. Parliament Building is a grand and impressive place, though we discovered it’s also a place which is closed for three years for refurbishment and fire safety upgrades. But never mind about the building, because Austrian politics itself is at a moment of tension right now. Our walking tour on Monday was re-routed to avoid the protests against the swearing-in of their unpleasant new government: a coalition of the right and far-right which does not bode well for the general European trend. (We actually only saw a dozen people ‘protesting’ by riding their bikes slowly through the city centre and playing some music, but were assured that others were around.) With all of this in mind, it was cool not just to be able to see the temporary parliament but even sit in the chairs in the National Assembly. They never let you do this at Westminster.
I made sure I was sitting in the Social Democrat side
Thanks to Amanda for her suggestions for things to do in the city, including eating Sachertorte in Café Sperl, which we did after working up an appetite by wandering through Stadtpark and Naschmarkt. I was also planning to include our side-quest to Bratislava in this post, but seeing at the length already I will save that for another post. To be continued…
Schönbrunn Palace Gardens
Todd on 2024: My Year In Books: “I know what Glass Hotel is about. It’s about a bunch of loosely connected, barely developed characters, with their timelines…” Jan 4, 17:17
