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​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!)

In UK time, it’s my birthday already! But over here, I still have half an hour left, and I just made good use of my last Sunday evening aged 27 to see Wonder Woman with Todd and Carolyn. It’s been long enough since I last saw a summery superhero action movie that I was able to really embrace and enjoy it, especially the opening section on the Amazonian island of Themyscira. It only left a small part of me feeling a bit ungrateful at the end, since concluding the First World War only bought Europe a mere 21 years of peace – much of which was taken up by influenza and/or depression. If a superhero could volunteer to help draft a better Treaty of Versailles, or get a head start on Keynesian economics, that would be much appreciated.

I have been wanting to write something ever since Election Night, but haven’t found the right way to express my contradictory feelings. It was, at least, a much more interesting and exciting Election Night than everyone predicted – which was good, because I’d invited James over to witness parliamentary democracy in action, and feared it was going to be pretty boring. Not so. But still, I feel sad for the country, still drudging towards senseless economic self-harm, led by a tragic, broken figure – who can’t possibly be enjoying the job – whose lamentable, delusional address the next morning was honestly shocking for how poor it was.

A few weeks ago I enjoyed a happier political story – The 39th – about Will Guzzardi’s successful run for the Illinois state government in 2014. (I saw it as part of a film festival block of short films called The One With The Governor – some others were good, some were less good.) Even so, I’m a little tired of seeing and hearing stories from election campaigns. Campaigns are the least interesting part of politics! I realise a film about how awfully state government actually runs (or doesn’t run) in Illinois when no-one is paying attention wouldn’t fit into a good narrative arc… but I would appreciate it. Sequel?

OK, I’m done being grumpy. (Forgive me, I’m almost old.) Lighter diversions in the past few weeks have included a visit to Podhalanka with Karol. It’s a beautifully calm, old-fashioned, homely Polish restaurant nearby where you can enjoy traditional Polish food and complain about Polish politics. And yesterday, Randi and I joined Catherine and AJ in a return trip to the Lake Michigan Shore Wine Festival. So to conclude, here is a photo – stolen from Randi – of the pleasant post-festival hour we spent locked out of our rental car waiting for help. (That’s not sarcasm – it was nice and sunny, and we bought delicious ice-cream and played frisbee on the grasss with my Cubs hat. Best locked-out-of-car experience ever.)

AJ juggles