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Teddy Bear Times has merged with Teddy Bear Club International Magazine, published by Ashdown.
Dolls House and Miniature Scene has incorporated Dolls House Projects. Janet Kirkwood is editor.
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
two good results last night
Man U 1 Lille 0
Ben's futbol sala team (his debut) 11, opponents 2
make that three
PSV Eindhoven 1 Arsenal 0
let's hope for a fourth tonight at the Cam Nou!
Ben's futbol sala team (his debut) 11, opponents 2
make that three
PSV Eindhoven 1 Arsenal 0
let's hope for a fourth tonight at the Cam Nou!
Thursday, February 15, 2007
Samuel Eto'o and Nina Simone
I now see it. Samuel Eto'o, gifted football striker, is the new Nina Simone, chanteuse, pianist and diva.
Like Ms S, Samuel is moody, petulant and given to massive sulks that from time to time explode into torrents of abuse directed at the ones he supposedly loves. Just like Nina in fact, who was given to missing her own concerts on occasion when she wasn't in the mood.
On Tuesday, Eto'o hijacked his own charity awareness event by letting rip at his manager Frank Rijkaard, his teammate Ronaldinho, former Barca officials and the cat who the groundsmen emply to chase the field mice. Sanctions seemed likely followed by a likely exit at the end of the season.
Then yesterday, Valentine's Day, peace and love reigned again at the club. Some nice diplomatic footwork by club captain Carles Puyol calmed everyone down. Samuel shook Frank's hand, hugged Ronnie and resumed training. Let's hope he sits down at the piano again and scores some goals. he's been out through injury for several months and Barca need him badly.
Sunday, February 11, 2007
News from here
It’s been a long gap since the last blog so here’s a quick catch up.
Despite the Al Gore like temperatures and the lack of snow, Sarah and I snuck off to Masella for a couple of days of skiing. The Gods of artificial snow had laid down enough of the white stuff for blue runners like us to use and we got enough of the buzz, scenery and mountain air that we could have wished for.
Ben meanwhile went off on ski week with his school to Andorra, came back having a brilliant time having jumped over moguls and skied reds backwards.
We had our first night at the Barcelona opera at the stunning Liceu. Not just any run of the mill work but Verdi’s epic Don Carlos which runs to five hours in its full five acts. That meant the performance started at 8pm – almost a matinee by Barcelona standards – and finished as the clock struck one.
There was some weak singing – especially Don Carlos – but the staging of the (Vienna State Opera) production was amazing. It switched between original and modern settings including a surreal interlude in a 1960s suburban house which had the Catalan audience booing.
Even more extraordinary was the royal gala party which was stages as a modern televised event with the guests arriving through the theatre’s main entrance, up the stairs, through the magnificent hall of mirrors and on into the auditorium where the guest of honour were marched up the central aisle and on to the minimalist set where a black tie cocktail party was in full swing. That the audience did love.
The incredible spring like weather has returned – 18C and above. Sadly, Sarah and Ben were in rainy London but Bex and I had a great time; a long walk on Saturday morning through the nicest and quietest streets of the old city.
We found a beautiful doll’s house shop where the miniature details extended down to tiny newspapers and racks and miniscule umbrellas and cakes. We then dropped in at our favourite cheese shop (run by Scotswoman Katherine McLoughlin) and meandered down for lunch at Txakolin, which remains our tapas venue of choice.
It was also a good weekend for old and new. Old staples - Boadas for cocktails and Jamboree for live music (last night was Cuban rumba singer Xiomara Laugart, for a measly 12 euros) - and new finds - Dostrece in the Raval for late night copas and Arroseria Xativa, 10 mins walk from where we live, for the best paellas/rice dishes in town.
And tonight? Eto’o and Messi are back for Barca at the Camp Nou.
It doesn’t get much better than that …
UPDATE: just back from the game. they won 2-0 and looked pretty sharp indeed. Messi ran around for 20 mins and started to look the business. no eto'o yet.
biggest cheer of the night was for Barca's basketball team beating Real Madrid in the Spanish cup final in Malaga. Basketball is the second most important component of Barca bu it's fair to say that there would have been a smilar cheer had victory been chalked up in any other club sport such as indoor football, hockey or baseball, or indeed in any event where there is a winner and loser eg tiddlywinks, donut eating ...
'Madrid, cabrón, saluda al campeón ... ' as folk round here like to say ...
Despite the Al Gore like temperatures and the lack of snow, Sarah and I snuck off to Masella for a couple of days of skiing. The Gods of artificial snow had laid down enough of the white stuff for blue runners like us to use and we got enough of the buzz, scenery and mountain air that we could have wished for.
Ben meanwhile went off on ski week with his school to Andorra, came back having a brilliant time having jumped over moguls and skied reds backwards.
We had our first night at the Barcelona opera at the stunning Liceu. Not just any run of the mill work but Verdi’s epic Don Carlos which runs to five hours in its full five acts. That meant the performance started at 8pm – almost a matinee by Barcelona standards – and finished as the clock struck one.
There was some weak singing – especially Don Carlos – but the staging of the (Vienna State Opera) production was amazing. It switched between original and modern settings including a surreal interlude in a 1960s suburban house which had the Catalan audience booing.
Even more extraordinary was the royal gala party which was stages as a modern televised event with the guests arriving through the theatre’s main entrance, up the stairs, through the magnificent hall of mirrors and on into the auditorium where the guest of honour were marched up the central aisle and on to the minimalist set where a black tie cocktail party was in full swing. That the audience did love.
The incredible spring like weather has returned – 18C and above. Sadly, Sarah and Ben were in rainy London but Bex and I had a great time; a long walk on Saturday morning through the nicest and quietest streets of the old city.
We found a beautiful doll’s house shop where the miniature details extended down to tiny newspapers and racks and miniscule umbrellas and cakes. We then dropped in at our favourite cheese shop (run by Scotswoman Katherine McLoughlin) and meandered down for lunch at Txakolin, which remains our tapas venue of choice.
It was also a good weekend for old and new. Old staples - Boadas for cocktails and Jamboree for live music (last night was Cuban rumba singer Xiomara Laugart, for a measly 12 euros) - and new finds - Dostrece in the Raval for late night copas and Arroseria Xativa, 10 mins walk from where we live, for the best paellas/rice dishes in town.
And tonight? Eto’o and Messi are back for Barca at the Camp Nou.
It doesn’t get much better than that …
UPDATE: just back from the game. they won 2-0 and looked pretty sharp indeed. Messi ran around for 20 mins and started to look the business. no eto'o yet.
biggest cheer of the night was for Barca's basketball team beating Real Madrid in the Spanish cup final in Malaga. Basketball is the second most important component of Barca bu it's fair to say that there would have been a smilar cheer had victory been chalked up in any other club sport such as indoor football, hockey or baseball, or indeed in any event where there is a winner and loser eg tiddlywinks, donut eating ...
'Madrid, cabrón, saluda al campeón ... ' as folk round here like to say ...
Sunday, January 28, 2007
Fiestas aren't just for summer
We were walking last night through Gracia (one of Barcelona's more Bohemian neigbourhoods) after watching Flags of Our Fathers (v recommended if a little bloody in parts) when we came across one of the district's largest squares packed with people, a huge bonfire in the middle and knots of people barbecuing sausages and steaks all around.
It was, we found out today, la Fiesta Sa Pobla, which apparently began some years back as a cultural interchange with Majorca. Why they fixed it for late January who knows. But it did get everyone out on the streets on a cold saturday night ...
It was, we found out today, la Fiesta Sa Pobla, which apparently began some years back as a cultural interchange with Majorca. Why they fixed it for late January who knows. But it did get everyone out on the streets on a cold saturday night ...
Adios, porteras
La Vanguardia today has a nostalgic look at the decline of the portera - the apartment block door men and women. 40 years ago there were 11,000 of them, today the numbers are down by 75%. Electronic security systems and the advent of working mothers have been the main causes.
Many blocks, like our old one, now only have live-out porteras who work mornings, Monday to Friday. Our new block, altogether grander, has the magnificent Jose who works 8-8 on weekdays, with the traditional long break for lunch and siesta between 2-5pm when he pops into his flat on our premises.
Smartly suited while on duty, Jose handles all the deliveries, takes all the rubbish out, polishes the handle of the big front door (literally), sorts the post, helps take the shopping up and liaises with the many live-in chicas (maids) and visiting workmen. A committed Barca fan, he also leaves his copy of the Sport newspaper for all to read when he has finished with it. At weekends he is replaced by another portera, as are the others on the street, who seems to be very second division and possibly not unaquainted with the joys of alcohol.
We wouldn't do without Jose. But it has to be said that for an awful lot of the day he has very little to do and plenty of time to read La Vanguardia and Sport.
One day no doubt the flat owners of the building will look at their community service bill and wonder whether Jose might do fewer hours or even have the security part of his job done by the closed circuit TV system which is already in place. But let's hope that doesn't happen for a while.
Many blocks, like our old one, now only have live-out porteras who work mornings, Monday to Friday. Our new block, altogether grander, has the magnificent Jose who works 8-8 on weekdays, with the traditional long break for lunch and siesta between 2-5pm when he pops into his flat on our premises.
Smartly suited while on duty, Jose handles all the deliveries, takes all the rubbish out, polishes the handle of the big front door (literally), sorts the post, helps take the shopping up and liaises with the many live-in chicas (maids) and visiting workmen. A committed Barca fan, he also leaves his copy of the Sport newspaper for all to read when he has finished with it. At weekends he is replaced by another portera, as are the others on the street, who seems to be very second division and possibly not unaquainted with the joys of alcohol.
We wouldn't do without Jose. But it has to be said that for an awful lot of the day he has very little to do and plenty of time to read La Vanguardia and Sport.
One day no doubt the flat owners of the building will look at their community service bill and wonder whether Jose might do fewer hours or even have the security part of his job done by the closed circuit TV system which is already in place. But let's hope that doesn't happen for a while.
The furs are out
It's chilly - hardly Arctic and still very sunny - but at least it is cold enough for the good ladies of Turo Parc to get their furs out after the exceptionally mild winter. And they have done so in droves; I counted at least six on the way to the paper stand this morning. There are two or three fur shops around hear and neither they or the wearers seem at all worried about being attacked by the anti-furistas as would be the case in the UK. And very fine they look too; these two dears are just on their way back to their flat for a nice cup of tea and a pastry after a none-too-taxing stroll around the park.
Saturday, January 20, 2007
A big weekend for football
Today Liverpool vs Chelsea which saw the Roman Empire further disintegrating. Great stuff.
Tomorrow its Arsenal vs United at 5pm followed by a very quick dash down Avenida Diagonal to the Camp Nou to watch Barca play Gimnastic of Tarragona, a team that thrilled every Catalan last year by winning promotion after 50 years and will break their hearts by going straight down this year; they have won just one of their first 18 games.
Gimnastic are 13-1 against to win the game. Pretty good odds in a two horse race until you consider that they lost the last away game with Barcelona 10-1 back in 1948.
Tomorrow its Arsenal vs United at 5pm followed by a very quick dash down Avenida Diagonal to the Camp Nou to watch Barca play Gimnastic of Tarragona, a team that thrilled every Catalan last year by winning promotion after 50 years and will break their hearts by going straight down this year; they have won just one of their first 18 games.
Gimnastic are 13-1 against to win the game. Pretty good odds in a two horse race until you consider that they lost the last away game with Barcelona 10-1 back in 1948.
The end of the Indian summer?
It was around 67F today and yet again beautifully sunny - the latest in an Indian summer that has lasted for almost four months. Beautiful for us, disastrous for the ski slopes.
The forecast is for a big dip in temperatures and rain. We all need it and hopefully it will bring some snow for Ben's school ski trip. We shouldnt worry too much- spring is not far away ...
The forecast is for a big dip in temperatures and rain. We all need it and hopefully it will bring some snow for Ben's school ski trip. We shouldnt worry too much- spring is not far away ...
What's in your paper?
Spanish newspapers, like those elsewhere, are facing falling sales and the drift to the web. But they are fighting it in some rather intriguing ways.
Extras are big things here, but rather different from the give away DVDs and CDs you find in British papers. I find those rather strange ways of getting people to papers. They are expensive, require large sums of TV advertising to promote and seem to have little long-term effect. If you buy The Times only because you like its 40 Diva Hits CD you’re not likely to buy it again.
Here you have to work for your extras, either by collecting coupons day by day or ponying up some extra dough. Last Sunday, for example, you could have had the following:
La Vanguardia – a very fine stainless steel kitchen ladle, part of a 12-piece weekly set. Four coupons from papers during the week plus 50 cents. I am collecting these religously.
El Periodioco - A free album for historic photos of Barcelona. The trick being that you have to buy the paper every day for two months to get the pictures to fill the album
El Pais - The first in a series of Jazz CDs at €1 with the rest twice a week at €5.
ABC – The first in a series of kids' DVDs, €5 each.
The sports papers are not excluded. One of the two papers that follow Barca here is offering the ‘authentic’ Barca jacket and the other one the ‘real’ one. Either way you need something like 28 coupons to go and get one.
Some of these offers are fairly upscale. You can get a volume of the Larousse encyclopaedia with La Vanguardia every week and from tomorrow, a CD and book set on the great operas of the world. Papers here still have some notion of trying to better their readers rather than just feed them pap about Big Brother.
As a result the newsagents of Barcelona sometimes resemble junk shops with CDs, books and egg whisks. But it does seem a better way of engendering loyalty than just giving away endless DVDs …
Extras are big things here, but rather different from the give away DVDs and CDs you find in British papers. I find those rather strange ways of getting people to papers. They are expensive, require large sums of TV advertising to promote and seem to have little long-term effect. If you buy The Times only because you like its 40 Diva Hits CD you’re not likely to buy it again.
Here you have to work for your extras, either by collecting coupons day by day or ponying up some extra dough. Last Sunday, for example, you could have had the following:
La Vanguardia – a very fine stainless steel kitchen ladle, part of a 12-piece weekly set. Four coupons from papers during the week plus 50 cents. I am collecting these religously.
El Periodioco - A free album for historic photos of Barcelona. The trick being that you have to buy the paper every day for two months to get the pictures to fill the album
El Pais - The first in a series of Jazz CDs at €1 with the rest twice a week at €5.
ABC – The first in a series of kids' DVDs, €5 each.
The sports papers are not excluded. One of the two papers that follow Barca here is offering the ‘authentic’ Barca jacket and the other one the ‘real’ one. Either way you need something like 28 coupons to go and get one.
Some of these offers are fairly upscale. You can get a volume of the Larousse encyclopaedia with La Vanguardia every week and from tomorrow, a CD and book set on the great operas of the world. Papers here still have some notion of trying to better their readers rather than just feed them pap about Big Brother.
As a result the newsagents of Barcelona sometimes resemble junk shops with CDs, books and egg whisks. But it does seem a better way of engendering loyalty than just giving away endless DVDs …
Sunday, January 07, 2007
The elements of a perfect weekend in Barcelona
- Peerless weather - blue skies, sun, 16C all weekend
- A holiday weekend - three kings - so no shops open
- saturday morning walking along the Passeig de les Aigües in the Collserola hills above the city
- saturday afternoon on the beach in town
- saturday evening watching another Powell Pressburger classic I know Where I'm Going
- And then catching the 2nd half of Zaragoza - Seville, one of the best games of the season
- Sunday morning with the papers on an outside table at the Bar Sandor in Plaza Francesc Macià, "sin duda la mejor terraza de Barcelona."
- Sunday afternoon cycling along the Diagonal cycle path to Parc Cervantes along with a 1,000 children trying out their new bikes
- Then a great FA Cup Tie watching Henrik Larsson score his first goal for United. How they miss him here.
- to wit, Barca could only draw a nasty fixture at Getafe, sans Eto'o, Messi, Ronaldinho, Deco and more
- But Real Madrid lost
- er, that's it ....
Thursday, January 04, 2007
Dear Three Kings
It is Three Kings on Saturday, which is when all good Spanish children get their real presents. Forget Christmas Day, this is the big one.
All this week La Vanguardia has been printing a selection of letters to the kings from children where they specify what they want and why. They are cute as hell. I especially like this one from Miguel, 6, who starts off pleading for his baby brother.
OK. enough about naughty Sergio. Now me:
All this week La Vanguardia has been printing a selection of letters to the kings from children where they specify what they want and why. They are cute as hell. I especially like this one from Miguel, 6, who starts off pleading for his baby brother.
I'd like it if you bring Sergio lots of games, although he has been very naughty.
OK. enough about naughty Sergio. Now me:
I've been very good and I'd like a book on the planets, a batman, a robot, a remote control car, a remote control motor bike, a Spiderman, a Superman, a sword and a videogame.
Some good news
1) The number of deaths on Spanish roads dropped 10% last year - including a 15% drop from when a UK style points system was introduced in July.
2) Cava sales have recovered to previous levels after being hit in 2005 by the prissy metropoltian elite who took umbrage at Catalonia's new autonomy charter. Which shows they're either too feeble to make a boycott stick or they like cava too much.
2) Cava sales have recovered to previous levels after being hit in 2005 by the prissy metropoltian elite who took umbrage at Catalonia's new autonomy charter. Which shows they're either too feeble to make a boycott stick or they like cava too much.
Buried among the storms and the New Year
was the news that ETA - allegedly in peace talks and having declared a ceasefire - let off a huge car bomb at Madrid on Saturday which meant that two innocent Ecuadoreans never made it into 2007.
As the La Vanguardia columnist put it today:
As the La Vanguardia columnist put it today:
ETA has now eliminated two dangerous enemies of the Basque people. That just leaves six billion people on earth.
Nice work guys.
Sunday, December 31, 2006
It's goodbye to 2006...
From a humungously wet and windy Glasgow. Even the Scots say it's pretty rough out there and who am I to argue with that?
Three highlights of 2006? Try these:
Three highlights of 2006? Try these:
- Dinner at El Bulli with Sarah
- Barca winning the Champions League
- Not being 50 yet
Friday, December 29, 2006
The journey begins
... With the first of the 11 Powell and Pressburger films in my Christmas DVD set - A Matter of Life and Death. Just a wonderful and surreal love story. It was almost as good as watching The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp for the first time.
But not quite.
But not quite.
Wednesday, December 27, 2006
Ain't no sunshine ...
Number of days in London: six
Number of minutes sun has been seen: zero
That apart it has been a terrific Christmas, as indeed was the run up to it. I signed off from Barcelona in Bacchanalian style, with two rescheduled meals concatenating into the same day barely separated by a couple of hours in the recovery room.
The first one - the now ‘annual’ Christmas lunch with my friends from the Catalan Ministry of Education – was particularly special – held in a tiny, crowded neighbourhood bar in the back end of Poble Nou, not one of the city’s more travelled barrios. But the food that poured out of El Porrón’s tiny mom and pop kitchen was sensational, from the oysters, kidney and liver we had to start with to the arroz bogovante – a soupy Murcian version – that was the main course. This was after I was almost taken out by a chilli, bitten right on the seed, that lurked within the octopus stew.
The drinks, Catalan style, came arse about face with red wine followed by cava and finishing off with gin and tonic. It reminded me of the Guardian’s fictitious cricketer columnist Dave Podmore who once organised a reverse gala dinner which started with the assembled party vomiting in the car park, followed by cigars and brandy and ending six hours later with canapés and cocktails.
Ah yes, Christmas. We left one tale of airport woe (South Americans seeing their Christmas home go up in dust after budget airline Air Madrid stopped flying) to another one (Heathrow shut down for three days because of fog). And it was foggy. The first we saw of Luton airport was when we touched down in the mist and the next day Ben and I crossed Hampstead Heath in truly sepulchral dense fog. It’s cleared but only to leave a uniform greyness that does London few favours.
But since then almost every minute has been sparkling, catching up with friends and family, eating various Christmas feasts or lazing around reading and watching TV. Two shows were taken in – the peerless Monty Python’s Spamalot and Mary Poppins – while Santa was more than good to me with a wonderful selection of books, CDs and best of all, the complete films of Powell and Pressburger in one box set.
We’re off on Friday to New Year in Scotland. Have a great one…
Number of minutes sun has been seen: zero
That apart it has been a terrific Christmas, as indeed was the run up to it. I signed off from Barcelona in Bacchanalian style, with two rescheduled meals concatenating into the same day barely separated by a couple of hours in the recovery room.
The first one - the now ‘annual’ Christmas lunch with my friends from the Catalan Ministry of Education – was particularly special – held in a tiny, crowded neighbourhood bar in the back end of Poble Nou, not one of the city’s more travelled barrios. But the food that poured out of El Porrón’s tiny mom and pop kitchen was sensational, from the oysters, kidney and liver we had to start with to the arroz bogovante – a soupy Murcian version – that was the main course. This was after I was almost taken out by a chilli, bitten right on the seed, that lurked within the octopus stew.
The drinks, Catalan style, came arse about face with red wine followed by cava and finishing off with gin and tonic. It reminded me of the Guardian’s fictitious cricketer columnist Dave Podmore who once organised a reverse gala dinner which started with the assembled party vomiting in the car park, followed by cigars and brandy and ending six hours later with canapés and cocktails.
Ah yes, Christmas. We left one tale of airport woe (South Americans seeing their Christmas home go up in dust after budget airline Air Madrid stopped flying) to another one (Heathrow shut down for three days because of fog). And it was foggy. The first we saw of Luton airport was when we touched down in the mist and the next day Ben and I crossed Hampstead Heath in truly sepulchral dense fog. It’s cleared but only to leave a uniform greyness that does London few favours.
But since then almost every minute has been sparkling, catching up with friends and family, eating various Christmas feasts or lazing around reading and watching TV. Two shows were taken in – the peerless Monty Python’s Spamalot and Mary Poppins – while Santa was more than good to me with a wonderful selection of books, CDs and best of all, the complete films of Powell and Pressburger in one box set.
We’re off on Friday to New Year in Scotland. Have a great one…
Sunday, December 17, 2006
Good news, bad news
Good
- the sun is still shining in Barcelona and it remains freakishly warm for this time of year
- the city is aglow in soft, white and very calming christmas lights
- the markets are looking magnficent. we went to La Boqueria to pick up a goose and a duck for a pre-christmas dinner with friends and we reminded what a special place it was.
- the very bourgeois delis and wine shops around us have the christmas best on with displays of whole hams, cava, nuts, dried fruits and turron filling their windows, while the flower stalls have dozens of poinsettias for sale.
- It's Chanukah! and the city's jewish community celebrated with an open air party in the park by our flat. Yiddish music in the heart of Barcelona
- We ate at Cinc Sentits and it was as good as ever
Bad
- It looks like the Ashes are over
- United and Barca both lost. Not a goal between them
- Too much sun means no snow in the Pyrenees. The ski resorts lost the December holiday weekend and now it looks like they will lose Christmas as well.
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
Two more reasons to hate Chelsea
1) craven attempts to muzzle the press: From 101 Great Goals
2) ludicrous attempts to be the 'biggest brand in the world'. From Matt Dickinson in The Times:
I bumped into two gangs of English lads walking into the Nou Camp last week before Barcelona’s Champions League match against Werder Bremen. They were on a trip to Barcelona to pay homage to one of the world’s great clubs, with its cathedral of a stadium. They took in the museum and then were among 100,000 fans treated to a spellbinding show from Ronaldinho. No doubt a few beers were sunk afterwards.
When Peter Kenyon, the Chelsea chief executive, recently talked of his aspirations to build “the world’s No 1 club”, it was hard to think what would be an accurate measure. Perhaps this is it. Chelsea can claim that honour when you walk into a random match at Stamford Bridge and bump into a group of gawping, awe-struck Catalans.
The Daily Mirror turned down an interview with Jose Mourinho, once the clubShame on those papers
demanded copy approval. Chelsea demanded the interview appear in question and
answer form and also demanded “a 400-word sidebar about Chelsea’s charity work - written by the club - that could not be substantially changed.”
The interview with Mourinho ran on Friday in the Times, the Daily
Telegraph, the Daily Mail and the Sun. All four papers ran the requested sidebar
about Chelsea’s charity work with children’s cancer charity CLIC Sargent.
2) ludicrous attempts to be the 'biggest brand in the world'. From Matt Dickinson in The Times:
I bumped into two gangs of English lads walking into the Nou Camp last week before Barcelona’s Champions League match against Werder Bremen. They were on a trip to Barcelona to pay homage to one of the world’s great clubs, with its cathedral of a stadium. They took in the museum and then were among 100,000 fans treated to a spellbinding show from Ronaldinho. No doubt a few beers were sunk afterwards.
When Peter Kenyon, the Chelsea chief executive, recently talked of his aspirations to build “the world’s No 1 club”, it was hard to think what would be an accurate measure. Perhaps this is it. Chelsea can claim that honour when you walk into a random match at Stamford Bridge and bump into a group of gawping, awe-struck Catalans.
Sunday, December 10, 2006
The good and bad of London
Sorry. Posting has crawled to a snail’s pace what with work, travel etc. Just back from five days in London – the longest I have spent there since we moved here - where I got a dose of everything that was good and bad about the city.
Good was seeing my family, making time to meet lots of old friends, a terrific Citywire Christmas party, the elegant Christmas lights of Bond Street and discovering two (in their own ways) great places to stay: here for cheap, clean, all rooms look the same with the lights off and here for affordable (by London standards) luxury.
Bad? The sheer crappiness of the spine of the city centre – most of Oxford Street, Tottenham Court Road, Charing Cross Road and Shaftesbury Avenue - just cheap, grimy, tacky and downright unattractive. Is there any major city in the world that lets its commercial heart wilt like this?
The shops in these areas are almost uniformly trashy – Selfridges and John Lewis excepted. A new report by a Mayoral commission here backs this up and says in effect ‘something must be done’. Yes, like Crossrail, a cross twon fast rail project which has been in limbo for the thick end of 20 years now.
More? mind-numbingly expensive taxis and public transport that gets worse as yet more money is spent on it. And the press – nasty, brutish and trivial.
Here’s a really crap story from the trip. After a fantastic night out of Japanese-style karaoke (ie with friends, not in front of 150 strangers; try it here) we faced the task of getting the two female participants back to south London at 1am.
We somehow hailed a black cab and a mini cab at the same time. The black cab driver refused to take them as it was more than 12 miles (as is his right) but he then became very threatening when they tried to get into the mini cab (which was not licensed to pick up on the street). He wedged his cab in front of the mini cab, got out threatening and screaming at us and started to dial the police.
In other words - he wasn’t prepared to help two women get back home in the small hours and he was quite prepared to ensure nobody else did.
We demurred, the caveman departed and the women got back in their mini cab. But what an unpleasant experience.
Good was seeing my family, making time to meet lots of old friends, a terrific Citywire Christmas party, the elegant Christmas lights of Bond Street and discovering two (in their own ways) great places to stay: here for cheap, clean, all rooms look the same with the lights off and here for affordable (by London standards) luxury.
Bad? The sheer crappiness of the spine of the city centre – most of Oxford Street, Tottenham Court Road, Charing Cross Road and Shaftesbury Avenue - just cheap, grimy, tacky and downright unattractive. Is there any major city in the world that lets its commercial heart wilt like this?
The shops in these areas are almost uniformly trashy – Selfridges and John Lewis excepted. A new report by a Mayoral commission here backs this up and says in effect ‘something must be done’. Yes, like Crossrail, a cross twon fast rail project which has been in limbo for the thick end of 20 years now.
More? mind-numbingly expensive taxis and public transport that gets worse as yet more money is spent on it. And the press – nasty, brutish and trivial.
Here’s a really crap story from the trip. After a fantastic night out of Japanese-style karaoke (ie with friends, not in front of 150 strangers; try it here) we faced the task of getting the two female participants back to south London at 1am.
We somehow hailed a black cab and a mini cab at the same time. The black cab driver refused to take them as it was more than 12 miles (as is his right) but he then became very threatening when they tried to get into the mini cab (which was not licensed to pick up on the street). He wedged his cab in front of the mini cab, got out threatening and screaming at us and started to dial the police.
In other words - he wasn’t prepared to help two women get back home in the small hours and he was quite prepared to ensure nobody else did.
We demurred, the caveman departed and the women got back in their mini cab. But what an unpleasant experience.
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