I stayed in London for an extra week for my Grandpa’s cremation. It was a small family service, the highlights of which were Robbie Burns, a specially-written poem from Alix (minus its forbidden, off-colour verse) and some hilariously mistitled ‘music for reflection’ with Beethoven’s Ninth in all of its stirring Germanic glory. It was a good send-off, which Randi also joined, and so the rest of this post is a recap of the many wonderful things which flow from an impromptu week in the world’s greatest city!
Despite Daryl riding my t-shirt up, a great photo of us at Blo Norton Hall
Cat and Matt sneaking in from the last blog
But actually, I’ll begin a little way away from the world’s greatest city with an outing to Blo Norton Hall in Norfolk. This is a house clearly destined to stage elaborate Agatha Christie-themed roleplays, but we made do with gatecrashing a family reunion of the Cooper clan. (Daryl offensively congratulated me for reaching my final year as a perfect number, which I will bug him about in 2485.) Anyway, it was lovely, and someone even asked me about the ‘writing process’ for my blog (hah!) although I now realise that in response I forgot to talk about my overuse of brackets. (They are a key component!)
While we are off on tangents, you know what’s great about the UK? Food! Food served in gastropubs by servers who are totally unapologetic about not knowing any of the beers on tap and don’t claim to be “taking care of you tonight”, supermarket lunch food lining the sandwich shelves, takeaway food ordered from Big Bite on Willesden High Road where a sausage may be battered at no extra charge and laid on a bed of open-wrapped chips. This was also the trip in which Randi discovered pasanda on Brick Lane, we had a whole evening in The Bull on Upper Street with an amazing 80s soundtrack and lots of desserts, and we continued the tradition of family nights at Sanzio. Don’t listen to the naysayers, i.e. the rest of the world. If you don’t cut your sandwiches into triangles, you’re not in this league.
Tash’s pie! Halloumi breakfasts! Indian dinners! Sainsbury’s meal deals!
A secret selfie
I also got to see two wonderful human beings who I have missed in previous trips home: Sophie, for breakfast south of the river, and Matt in the distinctly un-Matt-like surroundings of Hampstead. No less wonderful was a very wedding-themed lunch with Christa and Boomtingz, which made the days of working for Groupon in London feel oh so very long ago.
Obviously Randi and I also made time for Hampstead Heath, and we also attended an inaugural game of Room 25 with Katie (in co-operative, everybody-wins-today mode) and walked home from Camden Market along the canal, stealing blackberries and looking in at the houseboats.
Randi was very excited by the deer in Golders Hill Park
Randi was also very excited by the abundance of blackberries
ONE MORE THING. Remember two years ago, when the noble Team Adipose experienced the incredible immersive escape-room of Time Run? Well, we got the gang back together for the sequel – The Celestial Chain – featuring more amazing, fast-paced time travel and puzzle solving. The only downside was that the time travel was a little too fast-paced for us to actually solve many of the puzzles, making us feel a little dumb, but we were reassured at the end that our small team of three at least managed to put in an ‘average’ performance. Hmmf. I just wanted to try it all again straight afterwards.
Katie’s eager – again – to get started on our time-travelling quest
[Please imagine a team photo here, as the Time Run Facebook page is neglecting to post ours. Sad!]
Team Adipose strike back!
As usual I don’t seem to watch as many plane movies as most people, but on the flight home I did check out Ghost in the Shell, a live-action adaption of a manga series which has been recommended to me in the past. I enjoyed it, perhaps due to not having an original to compare against, and the world of the dystopian metropolis was beautifully realised.
Tash, Grandpa and me
Last week I booked a last-minute flight to London to see my Grandpa in hospital. After several more nights of having his family around his bedside, he died peacefully on Wednesday morning at the age of 92. He was an enormously kind and gentle man. When I let my mind drift, all the memories which come back are of someone chuckling, guffawing (especially in the cinema… the makers of Wimbledon have a lot to answer for) or of good-natured flirting with anyone who crossed his path. His main fault was an inexplicable admiration for Ronald Reagan, but he was generous to dissenters. He’d just smile, enjoying the commotion. We always felt safe.
Despite the sadness, being home has of course been lovely in all sorts of other ways. I ate a gargantuan number of sausages with Cat and Matt, before laughing at hours of YouTube mystery unboxing videos. I caught up with Josh for drinks so we could cross-check our life plans. Tash cooked an amazing pie for the family, while Katie drove me and Tash home from the hospital one night… I hope we were helpful without our constant reminders not to hit things. (She did not hit any things.)
I’ve extended my stay for another week for the funeral on Friday, and Randi is flying out to join us. But before that, there are a few loose ends which deserve an outing on this blog! For example, our trip to Dune Park in Indiana two weekends ago was delightful: we packed a picnic lunch and set off from Chicago by train, before walking a semi-wooded, semi-lakefront trail around the dunes and then swimming in the ‘sea’ at the beach. (I know, it’s not a sea, it’s a lake. But I’d like to pretend.) We did not come with handguns on our waists, unlike one unsmiling couple we passed on the walk with their matching white tops, black trousers and young children. It is such a crime against common sense, community or decency to import lethal weapons into a nice family day out on the dunes, and I hope one day they can feel shame.
We also celebrated our roommate anniversary with Amanda by going out for a wild evening settling in for the night with wine, pizza, a game of Dominion and Memento. (I’m glad to have finally seen this film, although fans kept spinning furiously in my head to keep up with the extra brain processing required. I think I understood by the end, though!) Randi and I also had a fancy Groupon date night at Two, and last Saturday we helped to surprise Carolyn at a belated birthday party in someone’s back garden. The sun shone, the beer keg flowed, the kids splashed us in the paddling pool, and at one point we sat on the grass with Marte to enthuse about the next Doctor. It’s going to be great!
But to return to Grandpa: thank you for everything you were, and everything you did for your children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren. You will be missed.
Hiking in Dune Park (sans handguns)
Happy belated birthday Carolyn!
In the last few weeks, Chicago has been trying to flush out all human life with sunshine and then drown everyone who emerges in apocalyptic storms. I actually can’t remember if I always distrusted lightning as much as I do now, but after that stormy night in a Peruvian tent and my subsequent googling into all the different ways lightning can kill you (did you know it can sneak along the ground and then jump up at you like a snake?) I’ve ratcheted up my defences. So, most of this blog is about staying inside and watching things. However! There has been one outdoor photo-worthy trip: our nighttime City Lights paddle down the Chicago river, courtesy of an excellent Groupon, which was beautiful and fun. (Not pictured: clinging to the side of the river waiting for a giant barge to slowly manoeuvre itself round the bend.)
We got the kayaking team back together again
Happy on the water
Downtown
All kayaks returned safely ashore
Otherwise we’ve stayed mostly dry and indoors, playing Dominion against Amanda (thanks to Katie, we now have a board game enjoyed by the whole flat) and arguing about the pro-predicate do. In our ongoing quest to watch more films we saw A Most Wanted Man (chosen after Eric Ambler put me in the mood for a good thriller) or “how the Americans always mess things up”, and Christopher Nolan’s low-budget debut film Following, which was great. (I know this is anathema to Jason, but some things do work better in black and white.) We’ve also started The West Wing from the beginning: a high-concept fantasy series in which the White House conducts daily on-camera press briefings and leads national policy debates.
Recently we also saw Pilgrims at the Gift Theatre – a “two misfits trapped in a room” play with the slight sci-fi twist of setting the room on a spaceship. I wasn’t quite sure what to make of this one so looked up some reviews to tell me what to think, but they were unhelpfully polarised, so my settled middle ground is that I really enjoyed the characters but think they could have done with a tighter story and a bit less ambiguity. Big props to Jasmine, an excellently-realised robot/avatar-type character who provided suitable comic relief.
This afternoon we also enjoyed The School for Lies, an English adaption of Molière’s 1666 comedy of manners The Misanthrope with some added mistaken identity runarounds and a much jollier ending. Obviously the rhyming verse isn’t a patch on the original French, but it was very funny nonetheless. (I kid. I do not speak French, and I’m basing my comparison solely on Wikipedia. Je suis désolé.) Earlier this week, I also tagged myself onto another Improv Shakespeare outing with James, Keleigh, Munchie and a gang of interns. The Licentious Wink was particularly notable for its extended BBC jokes and Great British Bake-Off scene, featuring an uncanny Paul Hollywood impression. Great stuff.
Jumping into the best garden pool you’ve ever seen
As you may have noticed, most of the trips I go on with Randi are characterised by a lot of running about from place to place, so it was deeply relaxing to spend the long 4th July weekend staying firmly put at Randi’s childhood home in Yorba Linda, California. Mostly in their family’s swimming pool, to be honest, because it is for sure the best swimming pool I have ever seen in someone’s back garden, and the water was so warm! We basically only ventured out for food and an Angels vs. Mariners game, at which we received free Albert Pujols bobbleheads (no, me neither) and spent roughly one third of the time queuing for Philly cheesesteaks. (What can I say, I enjoyed my introductory cheesesteak in Philadelphia… where they make them more quickly.)
At the Angels game
With a free morning in LA on Wednesday before my flight home, I also stopped by on Glamily favourites Jackie and Jeff. (I guess I don’t actually have favourites, but they are pretty great.) They treated me to breakfast on the beach at Santa Monica before taking me to the Getty Centre: a fancy LA art gallery built atop a hill which you ascend via a special tram, giving it a slightly rarefied above-the-clouds atmosphere as if you’ve just stepped onto the Starfleet Academy campus. Anyway, we saw a great exhibition on eighteenth-century European crowd scenes painted with tremendous detail. I felt sure that Wally must be hiding somewhere in there, but couldn’t spot him.
Oh, and I guess the other component of the weekend was being emotionally jolted around by the Doctor Who finale. I never really understood why the Cybermen were my dad’s favourite Doctor Who monster… until the return of the incredibly chilling originals this series, worthy of a Black Mirror dystopia. And it should be noted, amongst the all-American burgers and hot dogs and homemade sangria (well, maybe off-script there) on 4th July itself, three people started conversations with us about this series and Peter Capaldi and Bill Potts. Three people! Even in Yorba Linda, you’ll find plenty of sofas to hide behind.
My first convertible ride
Playing 6 Nimmt with Alex and Shelby
I have one fish. Randi has many fish.
Stopping by Jackie and Jeff
This weekend we tried to relive some of the California sun-and-water magic by going to WhoaZone on Lake Michigan with Jason and Carrie. And we got so close! Alas, there were “too many waves” today to allow anyone to play, although curiously we were allowed to swim in the exact same waters alongside it. Still, a good beach excursion to Whiting, Indiana was had by all.
Whoa Zone: off limits
Two more random things:
- If you’re still reading this but secretly hankering for better stories from an upgraded sibling, why not donate to Tash’s team leading in Malawi? Everything goes to the Voluntary Service Overseas organisation and will help fund their work.
- Last night, at Karol’s impromptu birthday drinks, we ended up talking to his friend who works in a steel mill about how steel is made. It was like listening to an obscure Radio 4 programme about a subject you’ve never thought about before… in other words, it was terrific. I asked some stupid questions like “so what can’t we do without steel?” and learnt a lot. (He was full of praise for German steel in particular. Another win for Germany!)
Like Florida, I had Pennsylvania down in my mind as a state left in an untidy state. I had visited the city of Philadelphia before, back when I looked like this…
At the Liberty Bell!
…but another trip was required, so I could make it ‘official’ and take lower-quality pictures of grown-up me with the same underwhelming Liberty Bell like this…
Back at the Liberty Bell!
At the Magic Gardens
…so that is exactly what we did. Together with Mike, Randi’s friend from New York, we enjoyed a whirlwind but quite glorious weekend in Philly. I’d forgotten how much I liked the East Coast! Since we were only there for one night we stayed in a ‘proper’ B&B (the kind with cooked breakfast and free wine in the evenings) as an extra treat, right in the historical centre, which put everything within easy walking distance. We saw the quirky Magic Gardens, took an excellent walking tour, hung out by the harbour, ate lunch at Reading Market, visited Independence Hall (“we don’t really know what the actual layout was, and this isn’t the original furniture, since the British burnt it all”) and were treated to lunch by my something-something-somewhat-removed cousins Roger and Lily Ann. Oh, and before leaving I made sure to eat a proper Philly cheesesteak too. All in the sunshine!
There is a lot of history here, but ‘Franklin walked down this alley’ is pushing it
Our walking tour guide outside (surprisingly cheap) historic homes
Ice cream: easy to obtain, harder to eat
Lunch with Roger and Lily Ann
I turned up too late for my constitutional input to be recognised
The most unexpected experience, however, came in the last few hours of afternoon wine at the B&B. In the living room, a cheerful couple from Georgia introduced themselves, explained that Southerners will always start up conversations with strangers, and told us that they were on a trip to celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary. Things got a little weird when they started to enthuse unironically about the ‘life-sized’ Noah’s ark in Kentucky, and it soon became clear that we were sitting opposite two bona fide creationists.
“Were you brought up in the church…?” asked the man. You have to understand that he had the sweetest, kindest face you can imagine, sounded a little like Bill Clinton, and we were all having a warm and friendly conversation. So we certainly didn’t want to start fighting with them. Randi parried the church question with her Jewish upbringing (which earned warm smiles and much praise for Israel) while I tried to use “I’m English!” as a euphemism for ‘godless heathen’.
I really wanted to gently introduce the a-word at some point, just so they could go home and tell their own stories about meeting out-and-out atheists at a B&B, but sadly I never quite worked up the courage for fear of derailing the vibe. Instead, when Randi and Mike left to catch their bus to New York, the couple asked permission to say a prayer over them for their safe journey. Later, once Randi and Mike had gone, the three of us tiptoed around the topic of healthcare together, and I saw again how the “some people are cheating the system” feeling can be so overpowering of all other rational consideration.
To be clear, I’m not trying to mock them. They were obviously wonderful people, and while I’m sure we were not that far away from reaching more uncomfortable topics, they actually said nothing ‘offensive’ on the Great Culture War issues you can easily think up. But I did feel sad, because creationism always makes me sad, and despite being sat on a sofa opposite them we might as well have been on different planets. No possible way to get through. As a human being, it’s a terrible thing to not know what you are, what you’re made of, and were you came from. (That’s why the moment Buzz Lightyear discovers he’s a toy is so devastating!) And yes, I know they feel exactly the same way in reverse.
At the Kingston Mines with Rhi
Earlier in the week, back in the secular bubble I inhabit, I had a birthday to celebrate! Randi prepared a carefully curated list of restaurants to eat at, and naturally I picked our nearest Indian place because (a) I’m unimaginative, and (b) Cumin is really and truly delicious. For a few days we also hosted Tash’s friend Rhi on the Chicago stop of her around-the-US trip (by train, obviously). We wanted to make sure Chicago made a good impression, so lined up a blues night at Kingston Mines plus Like It, Love It, You’ve Gotta Have It at Improv Shakespeare. (It was a particularly good production, as two dairy farmers sought revenge on the King for murdering their cows.) Rhi is the kind of sophisticated, thoughtful traveller who has already written her own blog post on the visit so you can judge for yourselves how successful we were on Chicago’s behalf.
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
