We gave our today

Amy OLeave a comment

It was Remembrance Day in the UK on Sunday and we decided to get over to the Cenotaph, or as close to it as possible, to watch the wreath-laying ceremony in tribute to the war dead. As we approached the area near Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, and the Houses of Parliament many roads were blocked off to accommodate the thousands who came to watch the ceremony and the military bands marching along the street. We found a place to watch but there were at least 5 rows of people in front of us and the Cenotaph was quite far in the distance. I was able to view the parading bands, the arrival of the King, and the ceremony mostly through the camera of the very tall man in front of me. Not only was his camera very bright and clear, he was very professional about getting the right view, and proficient with zooming in and out as needed.

Unfortunately, at some point a short man barged in front of him. He, too, was holding up his phone to camera mode, which should have allowed me to view what was going on, but he just wasn’t as good. His camera was often not even pointing at anything interesting. And, because he was in front of the original guy, that guy stopped recording. Still, I had seen far more than I expected when we entered the crowd.

At one point of the ceremony there was a moment of silence. It was so very strange to be in such a large crowd of people–thousands–in the middle of a giant city and experience such silence.

My pictures below took place near where we watched the ceremony. There was nothing I could photograph of the ceremony, unfortunately. (It would just be a guy holding a phone in front of me.) 🙂 I did add a photo my husband took of the Cenotaph from great distance.

“We gave our today” that I used as the title of this post is from an epitaph in the 2nd British Division Memorial at the WWII Battle of Kohima. “When you go home. tell them of us and say, for your tomorrow, we gave our today.”

I hope it is taken as no disrespect to members of the military who have made or offered a unique and complete sacrifice of life that has given all of us a future we would not have without it. But I note that some people who have not offered full sacrifice of their very lives have given their today in a way that impacts our tomorrow. It may not have been uniformly selfless nor was it always clear to them that what they did and gave might have an impact. Or even that it was “giving” at the time. But impact us they have. As we look at what they delivered we can distinguish the things that have been a force for good.

We had a few other experiences in London that reminded me of this.

The Tate Britain

After we visited the Jugged Hare, we walked over to the Tate Britain, an art gallery my husband had visited long ago, but I never had. The Tate Britain focuses on British artists. There was a helpful poster explaining the “don’t miss” pieces in the museum. We saw some of them by happenstance and the David Hockney work, A Bigger Splash, by painstakingly tracking down the proper gallery. I feel like all galleries have the same system. The rooms are numbered and mapped but finding them is impossible. A picture of Hockney’s work is shown below.

In my photos below, I see that I tended to focus on modern art during our visit, not really a perfect representation of what the Tate Britain offers.

It’s finally starting to dawn on me that art isn’t just being able to execute techniques. The best art says something the artist feels we need to hear, see. My favorite display was in the stairwell close to where we entered the museum, a depiction by Chris Ofili called Requiem that offered tribute to another artist, Khadija Saye, who died in the Grenfell Tower fire in 2017. Painted on all walls of the stairwell, it not only honors Saye, an artist Ofili met only briefly, shortly before she died, it reminds us that we are witnesses. Witnesses of all that led to the tragedy, a perfect storm of greed, hubris, incompetence, complacency. Witnesses, too, of unspeakable human loss. Saye, of course, and many others whose gifts we may never know. As witnesses, we cannot look away from what happened here. One wall evokes redemption, peace, transformation we seek as we collectively process this tragedy. I posted a photo of only part of the exhibit below.

Kenwood House

Our first appointment on Saturday before the match was at Kenwood House. It didn’t open until 10 a.m. but we arrived a bit early and walked the grounds. It was a very foggy morning and hard to get good pictures of the house exterior. The house is situated on a large property at the edge of Hampstead Heath. In the fog it was hard to tell where the property ended and the heath began. We found ourself on a path on the heath and every so often a dog being walked on the heath would come bounding toward us. There were a lot of dogs out enjoying themselves.

Kenwood house, as it is now called, was built in the 1600s by a guy named John Bill who was, ahem, the king’s “printer.” Basically the publisher for the Crown’s documents, news and religious texts (like the King James Bible) at a time when publishing was probably pretty effort-intensive. The home was owned and modified by several different families. The last private owner was Edward Guinness. Yes, that Guinness. He bought it in 1925 to house his art collection. He set up his estate to donate the property and all of his art to the British public. That happened very soon after he bought the house, only two years later. It’s now operated by the English Heritage trust.

We were greeted at the door by a guide who told us all about the house and then were invited to wander about. Many of the rooms had a guide who could tell us about the work in the room. This was useful because we needed to keep our visit brief and they were great about providing information and artistic interpretations. The most famous piece displayed is a Rembrandt self-portrait.

Although Guinness didn’t much use the house as a home to live in, the guides also pointed out how the house would have been used by families before him, for example, where an orchestra might have been located near the formal dining room. There was a cool, old piano, pipe organ, and harp in the music room among the art. And the library, which I have a picture of below, was very, very cool.

We’ve visited a number of homes and/or museums in England that are in place because a wealthy person had a collection of art or ancient artifacts that they ultimately left to the public. I love being able to visit them and see the collections and/or the way they lived. They provide a picture that I would not otherwise be able to see and experience and that I think is a force for enriching my life. I’m honestly not sure how I feel about them from a moral point of view. I’m a bit uncomfortable in the idea of so much excess wealth that you can engage in an activity that has profoundly little value to anyone else while you are alive. And is given when you can no longer use it. But would these things exist for us to enjoy without the initial imbalance of wealth? I have to give some credit to the rich guy.

Highgate Cemetery

Visiting a cemetery is literally morbid, but it can also be quite interesting. In how we treated our dead, we learn lot about how we lived, what we believed. And a cemetery is almost always a peaceful place. You can visit the famous Victorian Highgate Cemetery using a day pass and it’s also possible to take a tour. We decided on the 90-minute “Highlights” tour. The tour is through the “west” cemetery which does not include one of the most arguably well-known inhabitants of the cemetery, Karl Marx. Unfortunately, we didn’t have enough time to find his grave in the East cemetery. Another day. I have it on good authority he’ll be there for a while.

The tour gave a flavor for burial practices in the Victorian era, some of which were intended to foil grave robbing which was a thing at the time. Our guide took us through grave sites with stories he found interesting, for example, the grave of James Selby, a famous stagecoach driver. Let’s first marvel that one could become famous as a stagecoach driver. Apparently, in 1888, Selby was involved in a bet worth £1,000 to himself that he could drive a horse-drawn carriage to Brighton and back in under 8 hours. He succeeded with a margin of 10 minutes in his favor, using multiple teams of horses that were changed out with the near-efficiency of a NASCAR pitstop. Unfortunately, he died within months of receiving the prize. It appears that some of the winnings were used for his grave marker, which is decorated with imagery of upside-down horseshoes, symbolic of luck running dry, and a whip.

We also saw the mausoleum where supposedly Bram Stoker, the author of Dracula, was walking past and heard voices coming from a large family vault. The story goes that he peeked inside and saw the living family having tea among the dead. This appears to be nothing more than a fun story. Bram Stoker did have some history of being in the area near Highgate and maybe was inspired by Highgate in some way, and it is true that families of the Victorian dead would visit the cemetery and picnic, but the actual details of the tea story? Perhaps a “truth” story rather than a true story.

That vault is very close to the much newer graves of the Russian journalist and former intelligence officer, Alexander Litvinenko, who was poisoned by Russian agents in 2006, and also to the pop music star, George Michael. The tour also goes into the beautifully creepy Egyptian Avenue and Terrace catacombs. The picture of the grave with a lion on the grave stone, below, was from the grave of George Wombwell, an 1800s collector and exhibitor of wild animals. The lion on his grave was intended to be a likeness of his tame and very docile lion, Nero.

Temple of Mithras

We’ve been to a few sites around London (and elsewhere in England) where ruins from the Roman occupation during the first few centuries AD have been found underground. Sometimes because of bombing during WWII and sometimes because of commercial development. Ruins from the Temple of Mithras were found in 1954 during a construction project and the temple was believed to have been built in 240 AD. It was used by a secretive cult that honored a god named Mithras. The head of a marble statue of Mithras was found near the temple excavation.

The actual remnants of the temple are stored in the London Museum which has been closed pending a move. What you are able to visit is an authentic model of the temple in close proximity to where the real temple was found. It’s accessed from the very modern Bloomberg building. There is also a model of the Mithras head. In the upper lobby of the Bloomberg building are actual artifacts found at the site. What I loved about the artifact display was that it is very, very concise. One wall. Sometimes displays of Roman artifacts are so extensive you kind of lose yourself. This one gives good samples of everyday objects, well organized and easy to digest.

I enjoy looking at these ruins and ancient objects–pins, buttons, pots, jewelry–because they remind me in so many ways that how we live is similar to these ancient ones. We haven’t much changed some objects we have used for thousands of years, just made them more uniform and easier to produce. And humans still are drawn to religious orders and cults which offer much the same as they did thousands of years ago.

Conversely, we can also see ways in which human lives are much changed. For someone to have found these ruins and known they were worth preserving for all: credit is due.

The lobby also currently has an art display by American artist Anne Ryan, called Folkmoot, an old English word representing a public gathering. The imagery is intended to reflect the city’s ongoing rebuilding across time. Quite interesting.

Ah, London. We never seem to exhaust what there is to take in and experience in this city and the people and events who have shaped it.

And that’s a good thing because there is nothing more we want to do than come back again and keep exploring. As of this writing we have no firm plans to return but what we know with certainty: we will be back.

Good/same old Arsenal

Amy OLeave a comment

We had an immensely busy day before the match against Hull on Saturday and got there with just a few minutes to spare. Arsenal discourages people from bringing bags to the stadium because they have to be checked and tagged which supposedly creates delays. The true secret is that going through the bag check line is remarkably faster than entering the stadium any other way. Without the tiny line I had to enter for the contents of my purse to be reviewed and to endure a half-hearted body frisk, I would have probably missed kickoff.

As it was, I was in my seat in the North bank, kind of in the northwest corner even with the goal line, when the teams entered the field. My seat was quite low in the upper bowl, with a great view of the field. My husband’s tickets were in the northeast corner in the first row of the club section. Although you are technically in the stadium “by yourself,” it feels anything but. You are part of the crowd and not lonely. In my case, I often seem to be sitting near someone who initiates conversation and mutual emoting about the match that continues throughout the 90 minutes. There are often hugs or high fives after the match as we go our separate ways at the end. This was the case on Saturday. The seat to my left was empty but the seat next to that held my designated match buddy for the day.

Emirates stadium from my husband’s seat.

Britain’s Remembrance Day honoring war dead was on Sunday and each of the Premier League games included a brief tribute in advance of the official Remembrance Day. There was a tribute before Liverpool’s match with Arsenal last weekend and there was one before the Arsenal/Hull City match on Saturday. The tribute features a military unit presenting the colors, a horn playing a tune called The Last Post, and a minute of silence. The thing there was not, much to my satisfaction, was the playing of “Good Old Arsenal,” which you know is my least favorite Arsenal tradition. I wasn’t sure whether that is a new development at Arsenal matches this season or whether it was not done because something had to be cut to accommodate the extra time required for the Remembrance Day tribute. (A new theory emerged the day after the match because we heard the tune played at the wreath-laying ceremonies at the Cenotaph the next day. “Good Old Arsenal” apparently borrows the tune from a patriotic song called “Rule, Britannia!” Perhaps it would have been considered disrespectful?)

Hull City were promoted to the Premier League at the end of last season and so far have been the team with the least ball possession in the Premier League this season. It hasn’t harmed them terribly. They were in 13th position out of 20 teams in advance of the match, having won a few matches and tying most of their matches. In recent years it’s often been the case that newly-promoted teams finish in positions 18-20 and are relegated within one season. 13th is not bad if they can maintain it. The expectation coming into the match was that Hull City would likely perform the dreaded low block that Arsenal struggle to overcome so much. Mikel Arteta selected the players who are most believed capable of picking that tactic apart.

Hull City had a surprise in store and started the match pressing Arsenal. They dominated Arsenal over the first few minutes and looked pretty dangerous. Arsenal grew into the match and had long periods of domination and ultimately Hull often did deploy a low block. Lots of good things happened, but Arsenal just didn’t seem uniformly sharp. Good passing sequences ending with that one wayward pass. That one extra touch before shooting that caused space to close down too much. Being pressured off the ball. Our striker, Kai Havertz, finding himself offside before being on the receiving end of a pass. Some badly errant shots. Our new left winger, Christos Tzolis, received a beautiful pass from Jurien Timber right in front of the goal and skied it into the Club seats. My neighbor said, “It looks like it’s going to be one of those nights!”

Arsenal were attacking the goal farther from me in the first half and Kai had a few falls that looked like dives even from where I was. A guy sitting in the row behind me was in apoplexy about the falls. “This is embarrassing.” “This is every week.” And so forth. It was not lost on the away fans either. Like the visitors so often do, every time they think Arsenal have gotten away with something–or tried to–they sing a super annoying song: “Same old Arsenal, always cheating.”

Have to say I love the way Brits enunciate the “t” in “cheating.” It’s very clear.

You’ve watched soccer so you know there can be exaggeration to get a referee’s attention. And referees get stuff wrong. Arsenal did not invent or perfect this. Nor do Arsenal players do it more than players of other teams. However, the chant is for sure Arsenal-specific. Supposedly, the origins of the chant are in Arsenal being controversially promoted into the first division in 1919, possibly via bribery, and at the expense of Tottenham. Yes, more than a century ago. The wronged have long memories.

Some people have speculated that the chant became more frequently deployed after an incident in 1999 when a Sheffield United player went down injured during an FA Cup match against Arsenal. So that he could receive treatment, a Sheffield United player kicked the ball out of play. The established sporting behavior for an opposing team’s subsequent throw-in is to throw it toward the goalkeeper of the injured player’s team so he can then start play with a kick. In this instance, an Arsenal player threw the ball toward the Sheffield United keeper, as custom encouraged, but one of Arsenal’s foreign players (who later said he didn’t know there was such a custom), ran onto the ball and scored a goal. It couldn’t be called back by the referee because the throw-in regimen was just a custom and not a rule. Arsenal won the match 2-1. In the aftermath of a bunch of on-field drama, Arsene Wenger suggested that the teams play the match again, which did happen. Arsenal won that match, same score.

There are people that consider the many goals Arsenal scored last year by set plays a form of cheating. Ridiculous, of course, but hey. Fans chant. That’s our job.

Anyway, every time Kai hit the dirt, the Hull City fans raised the “always cheating” chant. Also every time Arsenal were fouled, or Arsenal fouled Hull City, or a Hull City player simply collapsed on the grass. Arsenal fans responded without a second’s delay: “Champions of England, we know what we are.” Such a nice, all-occasion chant to have in your back pocket. And so much more satisfying than “We are top of the league.” Top of the league can be taken away from you.

With about five minutes left in the first half, another incident happened where Kai Havertz fell in the box and remonstrated that he’d been fouled. The Arsenal fan near me who was not having Kai today yelled, “He’s fallen like a sack of shit every week!” Quite a bit of time went by and Hull City had a rare moment of play in our end. And then, quite suddenly, the referee stopped the match. We understood there was a VAR review but were wracking our brains to understand whether that was possibly a penalty against us. We couldn’t think of a time a Hull City player was near the goal. At some point, it dawned on us in the stands that the play being reviewed was the one where Kai said he was fouled, long ago. When the referee is called to review a play onscreen, the result is almost always a penalty being declared. All the fans near me started ribbing the fan who’d made the “sack of shit” commentary.

While the officiating team took their time reviewing the monitor showing the play over and over the stadium became very, very quiet. Like a tennis match, everyone whispering. As it turned out, the referee and VAR ultimately concluded that Kai Havertz had been fouled by being pulled back by his shirt but that he was in an offside position when he was fouled, so no penalty was awarded. Many people think the referees got that call wrong. Kai did not make a play for the ball while in an offside position, so technically he was not offside. And a foul in the box is a foul in the box.

There was a part of me that was a little relieved Arsenal weren’t rewarded a penalty only a week after Jurien Timber committed a similar foul against Liverpool that we were not penalized for. Then again, it’s easy to magnanimously give up a clear penalty when we ultimately managed an undisputed goal far into the second half. Noni Madueke had a pretty good match, finding ways to drive past his defender. He hit a hard shot and the keeper spilled the ball. It was slammed into the net by Martin Odegaard.

Not the prettiest goal but it was a goal. We enjoyed it as much as a pretty one.

At this point the hope was that we would now challenge for a second goal and that is what Arsenal apparently decided to do. But the same little niggles that kept the game tight persisted during the period after the goal. It was good to see us not just try to defend and waste time but there was certainly some risk. The clock ticked down second by second. Nightmare.

That said, a shocking number of Arsenal fans left early. It’s as if they know Arsenal can hold a 1-0 lead. For days. And thus, surely, for 15 minutes.

That is a level of surety I cannot hold. Mikel Arteta was looking as stressed out as he’d been since the beginning of the match. He strayed from his technical area while an assistant encouraged him back in. He looked like he did not appreciate the reminder. I did not see this, but I heard after the match that a foul late in the game had him kicking a chair in frustration.

I stayed until the end. A hug with my neighbor, and then I ran out to meet my husband by the Wenger statue.

It was a funny, quiet crowd we were walking among back to Arsenal station. So used to a 1-0 score line? Too early in the day to have enough beer to be boisterous? More relieved than happy? Hard to say.

It felt so good to be back in the stadium even for–in retrospect–a fairly routine win. Now to try to somehow get tickets again.

Made of London

Amy OLeave a comment

When we visit London, my husband always wants to enjoy a London Pride, a cask ale that is made by Fuller’s brewery in London and served in pubs. Fuller’s not only brews beer, it owns many pubs in Southern England. London Pride is sometimes available in pubs that are not run by Fuller’s, but it’s always available in a Fuller’s-owned pub.

A “cask ale” is a form of beer that is unfiltered and unpasteurized and experiences a second fermentation inside the barrel. The barrel is delivered to the pub and, traditionally, placed in the basement where it would be chilled to the temperature of that basement. It’s drawn to the glass using gravity (if stored above the bar) or a hand pump (if stored below the bar).

I enjoy London Pride as well, but I’m not as committed to it as my husband. I like Guinness and, while in London, I enjoy exploring drinks with gin, a popular option in England. These are available everywhere. But when the spouse wants a London Pride, the pub scene is more limited.

At some point, we started making it a point to visit the local Fuller’s pubs in any neighborhood we are temporarily living in while we visit London. And later, that became trying to have a London Pride in every Fuller’s pub in London.

There are a lot of Fuller’s pubs in London and there is virtually no way we will hit them all, but we are making an honest attempt. And while I am not quite the London Pride afficionado my husband is, the more I find out about Fuller’s the more I really appreciate what they have done in building out their line of pubs. What I love most of all is that there is no attempt to make every pub like any other pub. Instead, Fuller’s often leans into the history of the pub’s building or neighborhood when naming and decorating the pub. Many of the pubs are in old, historic buildings or spaces that have been pubs for decades or even centuries.

When we arrived in London, we attempted to check into out hotel near Victoria Station, the July Victoria. We were a few hours before official check-in. Interesting and strange: our room was ready and they would be willing to check us in early, but for £15 an hour. We checked our bags and decided to go out and find a pub for lunch.

The nearest Fuller’s pub, The Jugged Hare, was a short walk away. We entered and walked over to the bar and requested a pint of London Pride, but were told that they didn’t have any currently available. One worker went downstairs to find out when London Pride would be available while the other helped us find another Fuller’s pub. We had a long chat with that worker. At last, the other worker came back and announced that he’d hooked up the next barrel. London Pride could now flow freely.

So we found seats and enjoyed our London Pride while perusing the menu for lunch. We also looked up the meaning behind “jugged hare.” Apparently, it’s a dish of old England in which a rabbit was cut up and placed in a jug. The jug was placed in boiling water and cooked for hours. The pub was located in a refurbished bank and had beautiful, dark wood panels. Decor included many different kinds of jugs and rabbit imagery.

No rabbit on the menu. My husband had a steak pie and I had a cheeseburger. My husband asked our server if the pub sold London Pride glasses. She disappeared for a long time and then came back with a glass. A gift from management. It looked like it had been through some things, and we were delighted to have it.

The next day, my husband and I were planning to engage in a number of activities around Highgate in North London (including the Arsenal match), so I’d made reservations at a Fuller’s pub called The Flask. We were threading the needle on timing between visiting a historic house and touring a historic cemetery, and were at the pub at a time that was certainly before the lunch rush. Beautiful historic pub with plenty of seating inside and a beautiful garden with seating outside.

We were seated near a toasty fireplace and served our beer. Our server was friendly and personable and when he heard about our mission to visit many Fuller’s pubs made some suggestions for ones we should target soon. He also told us some about The Flask, parts of which are very historic. The property includes a former stable that has been on the property since 1663 and some of the parts of the building housing the pub date to the 1700s, including what was until only recently the main bar. That area is now a small seating area. It still is surrounded with “bullseye glass” panels from the 1700s.

The name, “The Flask,” references water collection vessels sold by the pub many years ago that people would use to get water from a natural spring nearby.

The pub has a very colorful history and has served famous writers like Byron, Shelley, and Keats. More recently, it’s served the famous songwriters George Michael and Taylor Swift. My husband was shown the exact chair Taylor Swift sat in when she enjoyed her own London Pride. I have great admiration for Taylor Swift but I left her memory alone by remaining by the fire. Our server also told us Taylor had visited a kebab shop in Kentish Town. According to our server there are some amazing kebab shops in Kentish Town, but she went to the worst one.

Taylor, speak with your servers. They will never steer you to bad kebabs.

The Flask also has some resident ghosts, including a barmaid who hanged herself in the basement and a 17th century Cavalier who has been known to show up in uniform. Our server told us he’s never seen a ghost but sometimes at night he’s heard strange noises.

It was so early for lunch I just had a roasted tomato soup with a cheese toasty and an appetizer of roasted artichokes and kale. It was one of the yummiest things I ate on this trip.

Our server not only gave us some recommendations for Fuller’s pubs, he also suggested that we take a tour of the Fuller’s brewery. It had not occurred to us you could do that. So the next day, we trashed our plans for Sunday Roast and made reservations for a tour.

The Fuller’s brewery is in Chiswick and was formerly known as The Griffin brewery, lending to the griffin imagery that is associated with Fuller’s pubs. A brewery has been on site since the 1600s. John Fuller did not become involved in the brewery until the 1800s when the then-owners were in financial distress. His son, John Bird Fuller, was a founding father of the current iteration of the brewery, a joint operation with Henry Smith and John Turner, who had expertise in running breweries and brewing beer, respectively. Fuller, Smith & Turner was formed and has operated the brewery as of that partnership that started in the mid 1800s. The brewery currently operates as a subsidiary of the Japanese company Asahi since 2019. However, Fuller, Smith & Turner continue to own and operate the pubs we know as “Fuller’s pubs,” independently of the brewery.

Our tour took place on a Sunday so equipment was not operating but we were given an education on how beer is made and how “ale” differs from “beer” (used to be no hops in ale but now there is no difference). We were shown how the ingredients of the beer are processed. For example, water from the Thames is treated with gypsum to improve the taste and appearance and barley is toasted and milled to produce flavoring of various beers. We saw giant vats where barley and water are combined and processed to produce mash and the stainless steel vessels (formerly copper) in which the results are boiled and enhanced with hops and yeast. We also learned about the difference between barrels and kegs. We saw where the beer is placed in barrels and left to ferment further and the trucks that transport Fuller’s beer all around Southern England.

The tour concludes with a tasting. Our tour had about 8 people in it and by the time we found ourself in the tasting room, my husband had befriended four of them already. We enjoyed sampling Fuller’s various products while chatting with our new acquaintances.

I hadn’t realized until the tour that Fuller’s has two dark brews normally available, London Porter and Black Cab Stout. That London Porter is going to give my Guinness habit a run for its money.

And as for the London Pride name. There is the obvious connotation, but the beer also shares a name with a perennial flower that grew out of bombing sites during WWII that came to be known as a symbol of resilience. We saw a little planter on site containing the plants, although not blooming in November, of course. (There was also an amazing, centuries old wisteria vine, supposedly the oldest in the UK, growing up the side of one of the buildings. It was not blooming but that must be beautiful in the summer.)

The title of my post comes from a 2013 London Pride ad campaign. Given the history of the brewery, how Fuller’s is made with water from the Thames, and how Fuller’s honors London’s history with the pubs it owns, it really seems like more than a slogan to say it’s “Made of London.”

I created a new page to track our progress through Fuller’s pubs, here, if you’d like to follow along. Many, many more to go!

Mikel Arteta has pictures.

Amy OLeave a comment

I’m learning for the first time in nearly 20 years that you only get to bask in a winning football campaign for so long. Inevitably, the next one starts and you find yourself, more than you want to be, back in the moment. Back in the grind of watching your team trying to eke out wins and defend the title.

I did bask. I basked all summer. All during the World Cup, all during the pre-season. I still find myself basking even with the new season being not so new. Best as I can tell, I’m not special. At every match, home or away, we hear Arsenal fans chanting “We know what we are! We know what we are! Champions of England, we know what we are!”

It has been mostly sweet but a little bitter. The new season has come with a few goodbyes to players who were important in achieving our goal. Their replacements are mostly solid but I have little pangs of sadness when I look at videos of how we achieved the title and see players I love no longer among us.

I know, I know. Time to stop looking at videos.

Manager Mikel Arteta disagrees with the phrasing in my first paragraph up there. He says we are attacking the title, not defending it. However, having watched every game of the season–with our solid defending and not-as-impressive attacking–well, it’s entirely possible Arteta knows something about what we’ll be doing at some later point of the season.

“Attacking” the title or no, we are having a good season. With nine games under our belt, Arsenal are narrowly in top position, followed by Manchester City. Recently, it came out that Manchester City were found guilty of 114 of 115 charges against them for running roughshod over financial fair play rules starting in 2010. As the club attempts to appeal the charges, the team has played with defiance for most of the season, dropping points only in the last two matches. At some point it seems likely they will face a substantial points drop, but whether it will be this season or some season in the future is anyone’s guess. Whatever the situation, we have to aim to beat them. And a few other teams that are performing well. Brighton beat both Arsenal and Manchester City and sit in third. I have some confidence they will ultimately be sorted out by the Premier League, but we shall see.

With many managerial changes in the Premier League over the summer, Mikel Arteta at 44 is now the Premier League’s longest tenured manager. As careful as he’s been over the past couple of years to give no ammunition to anyone else about what he really thinks about other teams, what he thinks about refereeing decisions, or the unusual methods he’s deployed to get the best out of the team, he’s had two weeks of hilarious commentary after matches. After a match in which he received a yellow card for leaving the manager’s area, it was reported that he claimed he has files of photographic evidence of other managers leaving their area with no charge. After a match in which an Arsenal defender was extremely lucky not to give up a penalty when pulling back an opponent by the shirt just as he was close to heading the ball into the net, it was reported that Arteta claimed he has files of photographic evidence of defenders doing the same without punishment.

I read a summary of the first comment on social media and thought, “That must be made up.” It was not. Nor was the second one. He really did say that. Leaving us to wonder if he has made his own library of files or, Trump-style, has some hapless “human printer”-like person on staff.

Very little Mikel Arteta can say would make me love him less, even when I can recognize the thing he said requires somewhat blind love. There are photographs and videos a man might possess that would make me rethink my admiration, but these photographs and videos? I can let this slide.

Meanwhile, I have not a single photo of the Emirates while it’s been the home of the champions. Are you tired of me saying so?: Match tickets have been extremely hard to come by. My husband and I have failed in the lottery every match, followed up by failing on the exchange every match. Even for some pretty pedestrian matches. Meanwhile, the price of airfare has been terrible. Even if we had been lucky enough to get tickets, it’s not clear that we would have been able to justify the cost of getting to London.

But all that is about to change. As hard as it’s been to get tickets to any Arsenal home match, it was reasonably easy to get tickets on the exchange for this weekend’s match against Hull City. And airfare was blessedly ok.

There will be pictures.

Plane ride to paradise

Amy O5 Comments

The next morning it was back to Heathrow and a connection through Dublin, then the long flight to Chicago. I was surprised to see so many Arsenal shirts on my flight to Dublin. In fact, all three of us in left row 28 had been to The Emirates the night before.

Interestingly, Aer Lingus does not land in Chicago in the International terminal so you go through customs in Dublin. After getting off the flight, you are routed through literal TSA, where your carry-on bags go through Security again and then you go through passport control.

In the Security line, we were told by a harried TSA agent to remove our shoes unless we were age 75 or older or under 12. A passenger in the line a few people in front of me asked if he had to remove his shoes if he was Global Entry. The Security agent waited until he was out of earshot and muttered, “Yes, you have to remove your shoes even if you are a prick with Global Entry.”

I took my shoes off cooperatively, hoping no one would think I was over 75. Then I slinked over to Global Entry, which I am also lucky enough to have. It does save a ton of time when you return from a trip. Even if you have to remove shoes along the way.

It never occurred to me that I’d have to get through customs in Dublin and the timing of my connection was kind of tight. I had time to have a cup of tea and we boarded the flight to Chicago shortly thereafter. I had spent time in both Heathrow and the Dublin airport reviewing content after the Arsenal match. Since there was so much activity after the match, it was a while before the normal manager interviews were produced.

One thing that surprised me in the Mikel Arteta interview was his comments about Man City’s match with Bournemouth which was to take place that same night I flew back to Chicago, Tuesday. Up until that point, Arteta had been dogged, when the press asked him what he hoped would happen in any upcoming Man City match or would he be watching Man City’s next match, that he was only focused on what he can control. He insisted each time that he can only focus on the next match his team plays. And they would work as hard as possible to have the “right” to win it.

In contrast, every time Pep Guardiola, Man City’s manager was asked a similar question he spoke openly about how he was rooting for Arsenal’s opponent. When Arsenal were going to play West Ham next, he said jokingly that he had offered to West Ham to serve as an assistant coach. He had said there was “no doubt” that Burnley could take something off of Arsenal. And with regard to Arsenal’s last match of the season against Crystal Palace, he openly supported them. He made a special point after Man City’s match against Crystal Palace to shake the hands of many Crystal Palace players, to put an arm around them in camaraderie.

So it was interesting in speaking with the press after the Burnley match that when Mikel Arteta was asked if he would watch Bournemouth vs. Man City, he said he would watch it with his family and that he was going to be Bournemouth’s biggest fan. No more being focused only on his next match and what he could control. A strange turn of events.

To review the title race as it stood on Tuesday morning, if Arsenal won the last match against Crystal Palace away, there would be nothing Man City could do to stop Arsenal from winning the title. If Man City won both of its upcoming matches, the one against Bournemouth and the one against Aston Villa, and Arsenal tied or lost to Crystal Palace, the title would be Man City’s, decided on the first tiebreaker, goal difference.

There is no way Man City was going to lose to Aston Villa. Aston Villa are managed by Arsenal’s old manager, Unai Emery, and he usually radiates tremendous bitterness against Arsenal. And Aston Villa were solidly in Champions League spots for next year with no concerns they might fall out. And finally, Aston Villa were playing in the final of the Europa League this week, Wednesday. They had a great chance of winning, and winning equals party and, let’s face it, after that who cares about winning the last match against Man City?

So that left two hopes for Arsenal. #1: Win away from home on Sunday against a good team, Crystal Palace. Or #2: hope Man City ties or loses at Bournemouth. It wasn’t a crazy hope. Man City didn’t look good over the weekend, regardless of their ultimate win, and Bournemouth has a great record at home. And Arsenal lost to Bournemouth when they visited recently.

But you know. It’s Man City. I felt pretty resigned to having to sit through a tight, horrible match against Crystal Palace next Sunday. And the many things can happen in that match.

I was going to be on the plane back to Chicago during the Bournemouth v. Man City match and almost certainly would not be able to watch it. I’m pretty sure I would not have even tried. I feel like when I watch, Man City inevitably scores. Especially if they are losing or tied when I start watching. I usually try to not even follow the score line, which probably would have been possible even on the plane.

But the match was going to be over several hours before I got off the plane and I was hoping to be able to know our fate at some point before that.

It did not happen. I was unable to connect at all with wifi on the plane. I watched three movies, two of which I had seen before. I ate pasta lunch and a snack. I listened to calming music for the last 45 minutes. I had my phone fully charged so I would be ready to go the second we touched down in Chicago.

And remember, I was hopeful, but I kind of just knew we were going to have to get through that last match on Sunday. It’s been that kind of year.

The wheels hit earth and we were still skidding to a stop when I had my phone in hand and off airplane mode. A few seconds later I was trying to open the BBC Scores and Fixtures page in Chrome. It loaded interminably and then, bing, bing, bing. So many text and What’sApp messages coming up, one after the other. Congratulating me on the title, woohooing at me, OMGing me. All from different people who don’t know each other, so surely they were not banded together to punk me?

And then the BBC page loaded. It was already Wednesday in England so the BBC page was showing the upcoming Aston Villa match in the Europa League rather than Tuesday’s results. I clicked back to Tuesday and there it was. Man City had only managed a 1-1 tie with Bournemouth. A gap in points they could not overcome with only one match remaining.

Arsenal were Champions. For the first time in 22 years. For the first time since they’ve been my team. And it doesn’t matter what happens on Sunday.

I was overcome with joy. And so much relief. And on a plane with a bunch of strangers and not able to shout out with glee. I was harboring so much of it in my body. Tears rose in my eyes.

The rest of it is a blur. Since returning to Chicago I’ve wasted so much time watching the celebrations all over the world, including the Arsenal players celebrating from their training center where they watched the match together.

One thing stands out more than anything. As Man City was playing and it was looking like they would not win, Arsenal fans started leaving their houses and flats all over the city of London. They walked, rode, and drove over to The Emirates like Monarch butterflies coming back to their home.

Thousands of people around the stadium and on the streets of North London. Hugging, crying, singing, celebrating. Being washed in champagne. In this moment where there was nothing planned by the club and no one expected even to see the players, they needed to be together.

They stayed there for hours. A few players did get over to The Emirates at about 5 a.m. and took selfies with the remaining die hards.

The other thing that stands out in all my viewing is the wonderful video released by Arsenal that I think sums up this season so beautifully. The club was ready to go if the moment struck, but that video might have been consigned to the trash heap. Probably several others have in the past few years. Arsene Wenger to kick it off! You know I love that.

Mikel Arteta was nowhere to be seen in the videos of the players celebrating for several days when finally a few photos were made public of him with the team in a nightclub somewhere in London Tuesday night or Wedensday morning.

It came out more recently that Arteta did not watch the match with his family as he said he would in the interview after the Burnley match. A plan for players and staff to watch the match at the training center had been made at the request of the players on Tuesday. Martin Odegaard had asked Mikel and his staff to be there. But at the last moment, Arteta found himself in the viewing space and realized he wasn’t in the right frame of mind to be present. Instead he drove home, where he found his family watching the match. He went into his yard, lit a fire, and commenced barbecuing. He stayed outside for the entire match. He said it felt like forever. At last his son came out the door. He was crying. “We are champions, Daddy.”

What a beautiful moment for the young man who has worked so hard in his first managerial job. And for his family who no doubt bore much of the stress. And for the players and all of us who joined them on this journey.

There is a different takeaway. Arteta didn’t watch the match. I didn’t watch it. I understand Declan Rice didn’t watch it. We were controlling what we are able to control, which is making Arsenal succeed by not letting Man City see us looking at them.

You’re welcome, Arsenal community.

Penultimate challenge

Amy OLeave a comment

The club had been so happy with how things went before the Atletico Madrid match a few weeks ago they suggested for the Burnley match that fans “Greet the coach.” When I first saw the announcement from the club I thought it was some event where you get to see Mikel Arteta. But then I rewound in my head what happened before the Atletico Madrid match. They asked the fans to be in the road outside the stadium to welcome the team bus. Bus = coach.

It was quite early, though. They suggested arriving for the event at 5:45 p.m. and then the bus–er, coach–would come through at around 6:15. But the match would not start until 8, a long time to be at the stadium.

I decided I would go. Being all riled up before you enter the stadium seemed like a good plan for all concerned. I did take the precaution of acquiring a sandwich and some chips from Pret a Manger to eat before going into the stadium. The stadium grounds seemed kind of empty as I stepped out of the Arsenal station. I had expected a lot more people. But then I got to the west end of the stadium. It was packed. And the road beneath it was jammed with thousands of people. I waded in and joined the chanting. The fans went through all the player chants they could think of and then the general chants. Suddenly, people began lighting red flares and red smoke was everywhere. It had a pretty overwhelming smell but I found as a short person I could keep my nose mostly under it. And then, there it was, looming through the red smoke like a giant whale in bloody water. The coach carrying the players. Just as quickly, it was gone.

The fans gathered there hung out for quite a while. While I was waiting for the coach I had spotted the famous tunnel where an artist known as “Northbanksy” has placed graffiti art focused on Arsenal players. As many times as I’ve been to the Emirates, I never knew where it was. I wandered over and took some photos and then went back through the grounds and sought out a picnic spot. There is a lot of seating near the Tony Adams statue but I decided that the area near the Arsene Wenger statue would probably be a bit less populated. I would have one peaceful moment before entering the stadium.

As I walked over, I did notice a large group congregating by the statue. But I was right. On the benches facing the statue there was only one other guy. Like me, he had a Pret a Manger bag. We raised our bags toward each other in salute. And in front of the Wenger statue was an enormous group of delighted Asian Arsenal fans. They took dozens of pictures of their group in various poses in front of the statue. After enjoying his dinner, my picnic companion leaned in toward my ear as he left the scene. “They must have paid a fortune for tickets!”

Having eaten my sandwich I walked all the way around to the other side of the stadium and entered, made my way up to the concourse outside my section in the Clock end. There was so much time, I invested in a Guinness and watched the pregame analysis on Sky Sports as well as you can with no sound on the television. By then the starting lineup had been announced and it was a nice-looking one with Martin Odegaard and Eberechi Eze both starting in midfield and Kai Havertz at striker. Most else exactly as the game at West Ham, which started pretty similar to Fulham and Atletico Madrid. Big exception being no Ben White, who was seriously injured in the West Ham match. He won’t be back this season and was replaced in this match with Cristhian Mosquera. And of course with Odegaard in the lineup, Myles Lewis-Skelly was listed as a substitute.

Since I last wrote about Arsenal’s standings in the league, not much had changed except for after the win by Arsenal at West Ham, Man City had a match at home against Crystal Palace, which they won handily, 3-0. Which means no matter what happened in Monday’s match against Burnley, Arsenal could not win the league on Monday. And, if Arsenal did win the match, the title race was going to go into the last week, probably even into the last game. Man City had won the FA Cup on the prior Saturday against Chelsea. To be honest, they didn’t look like much but they had enough in the tank to win by scoring once, late in the match. Their next Premier League match would be Tuesday against Bournemouth. And then both Arsenal and Man City would have matches on the last day of the season, Sunday.

And if Arsenal did not win against Burnley? Well, technically all would not be lost but we’d be out of the driver’s seat. We’d have to hope for a lot of bad stuff to happen to Man City. A club for which not much bad stuff usually happens.

Burnley has a player formerly with Man City, Kyle Walker. I saw reports in Social media that Kyle Walker had promised Burnley would take something off Arsenal. Given the state of social media, I don’t know if that comment actually was made. I also saw that Man City’s coach, Pep Guardiola, had said he has “no doubts” that Burley could produce something. However, you ask yourself, if Burnley could win at will, why they didn’t win enough games to stay in the Premier League? Their relegation has been certain since April 22. And who did they lose to that day? Man City beat them 1-0 at Burnley. Still, in their most recent match, they did manage a draw at Aston Villa, often a tough place to visit. And even though as a team they have very little reason to dedicate themselves to a win, the players have individual reasons to impress. When they go down to the Championship, Burnley might need to lighten their salary load so some players may find themselves sold back into the Premier League. Scoring a goal against Arsenal might give a Premier League team reason to consider your plight.

I made way to my seat where exactly one other person was already sitting in the row and it happened to be right next to my seat. We chatted a little bit about the seats (his was a season ticket), kids, jobs and, naturally, Donald Trump, as the section started to fill up. He told me my seat was owned by a guy who moved out of London and, yes, the change in match date and time had been what contributed to him selling on the exchange. The fan to my left also had bought his seat from a season ticket holder and was as delighted as can be to be there. He introduced himself to everyone around him and received a warm welcome. Speaking of warm, because it was a night game, there were cannons all along the East side of the stadium shooting flames into the air. We were far from the cannons but the warmth in the air when they shot into the sky was unbelievable. The people on the East side of the stadium must have been cooking.

Like every team, Burnley probably has three kits. The one they chose for this match, light blue and and lighter blue stripe, had an effect from distance similar to Man City’s home kit. It did make me feel uneasy.

The stadium was loud loud loud. North London Forever was about as intense as I’ve ever heard it and the chants were nearly nonstop. Because I was in the Clock End, Arsenal were driving toward the goal in front of me for the first half. Burnley started strongly and a bit worryingly, but Arsenal regained control. As expected, Burnley kept many players behind the ball at all times and breaking through was challenging. Working in such close quarters, Burnley would get the ball and lose it to pressure, followed by Arsenal getting the ball and losing it to pressure. There was a lot of time wasting, particularly by Burnley’s goalkeeper. Kyle Walker was booed every time he touched the ball.

Arsenal were able to get several shots off. One, by Saka, was deflected out for a corner kick. Saka took the kick and went short. Even though Arsenal fans seem to hate short corners, no one near me complained. There was a near-glorious moment a bit later when Leo Trossard took a thundering shot that hit the goal post farther from us. The ball rebounded to a place the nearest Arsenal player was unable to get to it. Not too long after that, Burnley managed a scary counterattack that ended with a misfired shot. Phew.

A bit later Saka drove into the box and as he went to kick the ball it looked like he was fouled. Never before in that stadium have I heard such sustained boos for the referee when he waved it away. The subsequent VAR check agreed with the referee. We didn’t like it. I’ve seen that one on TV after the match and still think it’s a foul on Saka. The defender only gets to the ball because he’s hooked Saka’s foot. I’m just glad Saka was not badly injured. That was one of those awkward moments where something bad can happen.

After some sweet team play ended with a shot by Odegaard being deflected, Arsenal were given another corner kick. Saka took the kick again, across the goal into a place that I think many goal keepers would be able to get to. Kai Havertz jumped into a cloud of blue shirts and had no problem hitting the target using his head. We went crazy as he ran in front of us to celebrate in the corner. A trademark set piece goal for this crazy season. A lot of hugs and high-fives in our section.

Saka had one more shot before halftime that wasn’t far from the goal, but a miss is a miss.1-0 as the stadium emptied out for beer and a bathroom break.

At this point, many teams might open up in quest of an answering goal, but it seemed Burnley were determined to limit the damage. They deployed roughly the same strategy in the second half as the first. It was frustrating for sure. There were a couple good Arsenal attempts on goal that ended with missed shots by Eze. There was at least one attack by Burnley into our end that resulted in an errant shot well above the goal. The most worrying event involved an incident with Kai Havertz. It occurred far from where I was and I did not have a good look at it. Havertz apparently fouled a Burnley player and received a yellow card for his troubles. But the incident went to a long VAR review to determine if it shouldn’t really be a red card. We would have played 25+ minutes with 10 men if VAR intervened.

VAR’s determination was that the yellow card was good enough. Gyokeres had been warming up on the sidelines before this was happening so perhaps the subsequent substitution Mikel Arteta made did not 100% reflect a decision to not take any chances with Havertz on a yellow that referees might be inclined to take make-up action on later. Whatever his reasoning, Havertz was removed for Gyokeres shortly thereafter in a three-sub replacement that also saw Myles Lewis-Skelly replace Eze and Hincapie replace Califiori.

At this point, the crowd was trying hard to stay behind the team but it had been painful. Not much good had happened. Not much bad either, but that’s besides the point. We were hanging onto a one-goal lead. Logically, Burnley had done very little to trouble us, but it only takes a moment. And we had taken a number of shots that for one reason or another failed to hit the target. Fouls were flying fast and furious. I was almost more worried someone would get injured. We need everyone to stay healthy.

That’s a lie I’ve told myself. The thing that had me more worried than anything was, without a doubt, that they might score.

The fourth official announced 7 minutes of added time we had to get through. Then David Raya was fouled badly and fell awkwardly right in front of us. He looked to be in a lot of pain but eventually was able to continue. And again, yes, I’m worried about injuries. Briefly. There were more Arsenal subs. And now, with the pause in play for David Raya’s injury and the subs, no one in the stadium knew how long we had to hang on for.

I’m dying.

After a long lifetime, the whistle blew. We had won. 1-0. I was shaking, more than I’ve ever experienced. And I’ve felt shaken at the end of a match many times this season.

And then, because it was the last home match of the season, even though it was late “on a school night,” most people in the stadium stayed in place to hear speeches by Martin Odegaard and Mikel Arteta and celebrate the players as they walked around the pitch to cheer and be cheered. When Mikel Arteta stepped to the microphone the stadium broke out in the must uproarious version of “We’ve got Super Mik Arteta” I’ve ever heard. It was repeated again and again, each time louder than the last.

He might never have gotten to speak, but he broke in. He sounded close to tears as he thanked everyone in the club and the fans for their support. He reminded us we have one more match in the Premier League to go after.

We would have to live in this uncertain world for one more week. After which we would know if we have what it takes to bring this title over the line.

Did I feel confident? I’m an Arsenal fan. We have been through so much. 22 years since we last took the title. I’ve been a fan for more than 15 of those years. Too much could happen. Has happened.

So, while I felt hopeful and I thought these players, this manager, could do it, “confident” was a bridge too far.

What fools these mortals be

Amy OLeave a comment

My flight into Heathrow arrived later than normal because flights were pretty expensive. I ended up booking a flight that connected through Dublin. The extra leg was welcome because it allowed me a bit more sleep before getting on the Tube. I often fall asleep on the Tube from Heathrow to wherever our hotel is, but usually my husband is present and awake to be part of ensuring we get off at the right stop. Not this time. Although he, my son, and I kept trying to get tickets for the match even after I booked my flight, no tickets materialized.

I held off booking my hotel until two days before I departed since we were hoping my son and/or husband might make it. Do you book a hotel for one, two that are married, two that are not married, or three? I ended up hedging and selecting something appropriate for two that were married, a room at The Exhibitionist, a tiny, somewhat kitschy hotel in Kensington close to the South Kensington Tube stop. Easy access to the airport and on the same line as the Arsenal stop, albeit not super close to the stadium. Great neighborhood we’ve been in a few times and it worked well for me. They checked me in immediately upon arrival and I took the opportunity to take a short nap before showering. A full bath with both a tub and a separate shower, and the rain head was serious about my cleanliness.

I’d booked cheap groundling tickets to A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre for the evening. Good activity to do on your own, reasonably priced so you can bag it if you’re too tired or the weather is bad. This is a comedy in the star-crossed lover genre and one I know pretty well. It’s probably one of the more accessible Shakespeare plays and very popular among park theatre productions.

It was a Sunday evening and although the play was well-attended, it was not incredibly crowded either. The Globe does a great job of involving the audience to keep things fun and interesting and they outdid themselves on this occasion. Before the play even started, they had the audience singing in rounds, practicing dance steps, and reciting sections from various Shakespeare plays. The groundling section was mostly populated with young people who were happy to participate and, once the play began, seemed to really enjoy it. The play was fun and well acted, but being in a really engaged audience made it even better. The actors occasionally brought members of the audience onto the stage to perform various roles and everyone had a wonderful time.

The play started relatively early and ended at dusk. The walk back to the Tube over Millennium Bridge was particularly nice. There were very few people out on a Sunday evening and I was surprised to be able to hear the birds calling as I walked over the bridge and enjoyed the views to St. Paul’s Cathedral and the Shard.

Sleep was somewhat elusive that night (reference the afternoon nap described above). I had made plans for Monday in light of the match in the evening and the fact my husband was not with me. Visiting gardens is probably not at the top of his list, but I figured that would be fun for me. A few months ago, I had watched a movie on Netflix called Dare to be Wild, based on a real, past participant in the Chelsea Flower Show named Mary Reynolds. I won’t pretend to know everything that happens in the Chelsea Flower Show, but part of it includes a landscape competition. Mary Reynolds had a big idea and applied to enter the competition. Her idea was selected to be built out and the movie was about all the problems she had to overcome to bring her vision to fruition, and win. Anyway, the Chelsea Flower Show was days away from my visit and therefore not a possibility, but an event that takes place starting in advance of the flower show is “Chelsea in Bloom.” During this festival, many shops in the Chelsea neighborhood decorate their storefronts with floral displays. This year, around the theme, “Out of this world.”

I had decided to spend some time visiting Chelsea in Bloom, but my bad night’s sleep had me out in Chelsea much earlier than I originally planned. This was a good thing and a bad thing. Chelsea in Bloom started that day and some shops were still just working on their displays when I went through. To the good, though, I was able to enjoy most of the displays before the crowds set in. Most of the displays used real flowers. Not only were the displays beautiful and sometimes just fun and creative, I enjoyed how different shops interpreted the theme. There was a lot of outer space influence, as you might expect, but sometimes “Out of this world” was interpreted as out of the world of England. For example, there was a floral exhibit of cactuses. And sometimes it was interpreted as imaginary creatures, like unicorns and mermaids. It was so lovely and fun to see how people walking to work or to school were reacting to the displays. Everyone seemed so happy.

After walking all through Chelsea I decided to revisit Fortitude Bakehouse, a bakery near Russell Square my niece had told me about that I visited once last year. Famous for their cream-stuffed beignets that aren’t available until 11 a.m. It’s lunch! Fortitude was not really close to my hotel or Chelsea in Bloom but whatevs. I had time on my hands. Today’s flavor was pistachio and raspberry. Half of one would be plenty, even for lunch, but I took mine into a pretty park and ate the whole thing. With tea to wash it down. Delicious. Not health food.

I stopped by the hotel for a quick nap (yes, making a habit of this on my short trip to London) and then set out for a nearby garden called Kyoto Garden in Holland Park, a few Tube stops and a short walk from my “home” Tube station, South Kensington. Kyoto Garden was a small, peaceful, and lovely Japanese garden. I enjoyed visiting the “Dutch garden” as well. Not much was blooming there but it was very nice, with orderly plots.

I headed back to The Exhibitionist for a quick change into my Arsenal jersey. It brings good luck. And we need everything to go our way. Including, but not limited to, luck.

Adrenaline junkie makes a decision

Amy OLeave a comment

Not long before I retired, I was working with my tech counterpart on a thorny problem in our financial planning software that we needed to solve quickly. I had been working from home since the pandemic, and while we were working through the problem, happened to run into my husband on a trip to the kitchen to get more coffee. “Why did I get into this profession?” I asked rhetorically. My husband scoffed, “Because you’re an adrenaline junkie.”

My life post-retirement involves very little adrenaline. I work occasionally in a food pantry, menial tasks like making sure shopping carts are returned from the parking lot to the pantry or breaking up boxes or packaging diapers. I take fitness classes. I work in my garden, where I am currently establishing the hardscape for what I am calling my “secret” garden. I listen to a lot of podcasts. I read.

Frankly, only my life around Arsenal involves regular adrenaline. Watching games, I’m almost always in a state of anxiety. Maybe more this season than in other seasons, because the stakes are so high and the games have been so tight. So many games decided by only a goal. A few games lost because we let a late goal in.

In a year in which we are so close to winning the Premier League and the Champions League, imagining the good things that could happen–or the bad things–have actually made me lose sleep. It’s an admittedly stupid reason to lose sleep, but explain that to my wide-awake self in the middle of the night. It will fall on ears that can’t begin to care what you have to say about it.

My available time has caused me to build more of my habits around matches. Podcasts come out before the match, to anticipate what may happen, and come out after the match, to revisit what happened and why. So in a normal week this season, there has been a match over the weekend and a match during the week. That is a minimum of two matches and four podcasts. Plus I almost always watch more than just our match in a given week. Usually, much much more. Sometimes with high stakes for Arsenal and some not. And every day I take in news–from the club, from news sources covering football, and from blogs. Way too much from social media. I’ve learned that there are some sources that are actively bad for me and I’ve tried to cut them out or at least minimize their presence in my life, especially at a sensitive time. After a bad loss, for example, I will lean on sources that are more thoughtful and steer clear of click-bait and hot takes. But then I’m left to my own brain, which is its own fun house of histrionics.

One of the reasons I love watching matches live at the Emirates is there is counterpoint action to my anxiety. Something about shouting or singing together with others can be a bit of a change of subject as the action is unfolding before you. If I’m singing that Gabriel is the king of Brazil because of something awesome he just did, I might feel less inclined to have a fit over someone’s subsequent misplaced pass. Or I might have a defensive or protective reaction if the crowd starts to show its frustration over something that happened on field. I love this team so much; how can anyone be mean to them?

And so many things happen in a group that big that bring a smile to your face or are especially touching, like when the Arsenal fans sang to Smith-Rowe when he was injured in the Fulham match or when everyone sings North London Forever at the beginning of the match. And when things have gone well, there is nothing better than sharing that moment with a giant crowd. We overcame something together and now we’re on an adrenaline high together.

I enjoy watching football on my couch in the Chicago suburbs, or I wouldn’t do so much of it, but it’s not the same as being in the stadium.

Ever since I was able to first attend a number of matches during the 2015-2016 season, it’s been my goal to try to be at the last home match of each season. That’s because I’m always sure this is the year we’ll get the Premier League trophy and it will be bestowed upon us on that day. Because my original access to tickets involved a share of season tickets, I would make a request at the beginning of the season to have that last match. Usually, no one competed with me for that date. That was in the days where I guess no one except me thought winning the Premier League was going to happen. That got harder after I successfully got the tickets for the last home match in 2023 and Arsenal really did come close to winning it for the first time in a long time. They just kind of ran out of gas at the end and Man City won.

After that year, the demand for tickets increased a lot and for whatever reason there wasn’t room for me in the group that shared the season tickets anymore.

That’s when my husband and I joined Arsenal as “Red” members so we could participate in the ballot and, failing that, in the Arsenal ticket exchange. It’s worked out pretty well for us. We normally ballot for every match unless we know for sure the timing won’t work. When we’ve really wanted to attend but didn’t succeed in the ballot, we’ve almost always been able to get tickets on the exchange, but it requires a lot of work and repetitive clicking. And you can’t ballot until very close to the match, usually less than a month out with results being shared several weeks out. Then you have to be able to set up flights on short notice, which sometimes means big expense. We’ve mostly gotten lucky on that, too.

Always if we’ve failed to get tickets, we’ve failed to get tickets for both of us. Usually, that failure has come for the most important matches. Matches in the quarter- or semi-finals of the Champions League, for example. Last matches of the season when the title is on the line. For example, the last match of the season in 2024, when Arsenal might have won the league if only Man City lost that day. (We could not get the tickets, but Man City also did not lose in the end.)

Arsenal’s last home game this season was to be against Burnley, a team that appeared to be headed toward relegation at the time the ballot was made available for application. But Arsenal were doing well and the ballot was especially popular. We learned we were not successful in the ballot on March 31. For about a month I tried to get tickets on the exchange with no success and really very little selling activity visible. Then Sky Sports, the broadcasting company that gets to control the world, decided to move the Burnley match from a Sunday afternoon to a Monday night. Terrible for the fans who had tickets and made travel plans, etc. And not a great time for a match.

But for us, that created opportunity since it meant the new game time might not work out for everyone who had a ticket and maybe there would be some action on the exchange.

Now that I’ve explained this, I think you might see that dealing with the exchange is a different, sick source of adrenaline in my life. I was listening to an episode about gambling on the podcast This American Life a few weeks ago and one of the things they mentioned is that a gambler who is not addicted to gambling will process a near-miss while gambling, correctly, as a loss. But a person who is addicted will process that near-miss as a win and double down. That’s how I am on the exchange. If I see a ticket for sale and I’m not successful in buying it, that will count for me as a near-miss and I will become dogged about continuing to try. Fortunately, counter to gambling as an addiction, there is not much money I can lose due to my addiction to the exchange. I usually can’t even get to the stage where I can give them my money.

Because Sky Sports is a jerk, a few tickets did come up as I anticipated and I was able to snag one within two days of the date change. On the exchange, you can designate people in your friend group and it’s possible for me to buy a ticket and assign it to anyone in my group who is eligible, in this case, myself, my husband, or my son. My son usually can’t attend because he’s a tax accountant and the Spring is so busy, but he wanted to attend this one.

I always assign the first ticket I get to myself, then work on a ticket for my husband. I always jokingly say it’s because of the airline’s admonishment to “put your own mask on first before helping others.” In reality, it’s because getting to most matches is probably more important to me than it is to him. And getting to this match, the last home game of the season? That’s my value, not his. Still, he is happy to attend, likes to attend. So, as usual, I assigned that Burnley ticket to me.

And that was it. I was never able to get another ticket despite hours of trying across 2-3 weeks. And I saw so few, I had very little confidence one would turn up late. Neither my husband nor my son were able to find a ticket either.

My husband and son only wanted to come to London if they had a ticket for the match and only I had a ticket. At some point a decision had to be made. Do none of us go? Do I go alone?

I had a fair amount of guilt about being the only one with a ticket. I second-guessed my decision to always assign first to myself. And it didn’t feel quite right going without them. I’m the biggest Arsenal fan in my household but love of Arsenal is shared with my family. It’s a pleasure partly because it’s shared.

At the same time, it’s the last game of the season. In a season in which Arsenal really might win it all and really might be awarded that trophy that night. And even if that didn’t happen, would still be an important game.

My husband was pressing me to organize my flight before fares rose prohibitively. I sat with him on the same couch I normally stress out watching Arsenal and described why I was struggling to make a decision. My husband is a good listener and as we discussed my reasons for going or not going it became clear even to me I was not being logical. At all. I didn’t have good reasons to go or not go.

I put my headphones on, started listening to the Arseblog podcast, and went out to work in the garden. The podcast was about the West Ham match we had just won, barely, and with some late drama that almost saw us conceding a goal until it was ruled out (rightly, say all Arsenal fans) by VAR. A tie would have put a serious dent in our quest for the title.

At some point, even though I still didn’t have a logical explanation, I knew what I should do. I came back in the house and booked a flight.

Where they belong

Amy OLeave a comment

“I’m in tears.” That was the text message from my former colleague at the conclusion of the Arsenal semi-final match vs. Atletico Madrid. I had not heard from him for more than two years when he left the company we both worked for. He is a huge Arsenal fan and if we have little else in common, we do have that. He even has “Arsenal” tattooed on his forearm in giant, brand-correct letters. And that tearful sensation seemed to be the feeling many Arsenal fans had, including me. You just wanted to reach out to people who can understand what we’ve all been through. And relive it. And smile for once.

What a wonderful week! It seemed everything came good. Arsenal managed to beat Atletico Madrid in the second leg of the Champions League semifinal and on aggregate, putting us into the Champions League final in Budapest for only the second time in Arsenal’s history.

And Man City dropped points in the Premier League the day prior by only tying Everton. It was a mad match, with Man City scoring first near the end of the first half, then Everton scoring three unanswered goals, then (of course they did) Man City scoring two goals near the end of the match. We vowed not to watch the match on TV. It’s been established as bad luck. But we did occasionally check in on the scores.

Which means Arsenal are in the driver’s seat for the Premier League. Win the three matches remaining and we are Premier League champions. And in Champion’s League, we have to win just one more match.

I say that as if it’s easy. Only the math I employed there is easy.

My husband and I were not ultimately able to get tickets for the Atletico Madrid match, which we understood was a likely outcome at the outset. We put in the work on the exchange, but it was not to be. We ended up watching the match, somewhat coincidentally, in The Hope, the pub where we watched the Real Madrid quarter-finals when we couldn’t get tickets that time either. It’s not really an Arsenal pub and it was not packed with people but most of the people who were present were Arsenal fans. And we got a good result in that pub for Real Madrid, so it seemed like a good place to be.

I say that as if it was just fine we couldn’t be there in person. It was not fine. The atmosphere at the Emirates looked amazing. Best ever. The club encouraged fans to be on hand to greet the players’ bus as it rode into the stadium and it looked like pure pandemonium. There was a big light and cannon show before the match. A huge, new tifo. And the stadium was so loud. Definitely a good counterpoint to the first leg that was in Madrid. Which was loud and came, bizarrely, with numerous rolls of toilet paper unfurling.

Mikel Arteta surprised everyone by rewarding the starting players who had done so well in the Fulham match, contrary to the prevailing narrative that he would use players he rested for that match. He didn’t make a single change in the lineup. And they rewarded his reward by playing well and dominating most of the match. There were a few scary moments but Arsenal looked really solid.

Only one goal was scored, but it was enough. Just before halftime, William Saliba spotted Viktor Gyokeres starting a run down the right flank and made simple, long pass. Gyokeres was given some time to control the ball and loft it to Trossard on the opposite side. Trossard pushed the ball toward the goal and made a solid shot, which the goal keeper punched out. Atletico’s defenders seemed asleep at the switch, but there was Bukayo Saka to hit it past the keeper and into the net. Not beautiful in the traditional sense, but it created some beautiful feelings.

Most matches do not seem won when Arsenal are up by only one goal, but this one kind of did. Arteta was able to make earlyish subs in the second half and get some rest into players who had done heavy lifting over the week and we were able to keep Atletico under control.

The celebrations at the final whistle were incredible. Some fans were in tears, some players were in tears. There was a lot of jumping and singing. Cannons were shot off again. Even Mikel Arteta did a crazy little dance with Trossard. In a funny turnabout, instead of giving his jersey to a fan, a fan gave Saka a scarf. Declan Rice was interviewed after the match and said the dressing room was “chaos.”

We’ve been home for more than a week now and Arsenal have already played West Ham in the Premier League, a cagey 0-1 win. One of the narratives for the half week until the West Ham match was played was Arsenal haven’t won the Champions League competition, why have they celebrated so much after winning only the semi-final? Celebrate when you win something. So in the press conference before the West Ham match, Mikel Arteta was asked what he thought about that.

Arteta said he hadn’t heard that kind of talk. Ultimately, he said, “You have to respect every opinion and place them where they belong.” The reporter who asked the question followed up, asking where Arteta has placed these opinions about the over-celebration. “Where they belong,” he said, obtusely, with a smirk.

Man oh man, I love this guy. I love this team.

Paris Saint-Germain won their second leg against Bayern Munich in the other semi-final a day later, so Arsenal will face PSG in Budapest at the end of May. PSG was chill about the win that placed them in the final. In one form of celebration, their fans lit cars on fire in the streets of Paris.

PSG are certainly favorites to win the competition, but I’m counting on Arsenal to give it a go.

And, naturally, hoping to be able to complete at least one sanctioned celebration this month.

Planet Earth is blue

Amy OLeave a comment

Our trip to London to take in the Fulham match (and hopefully the Atletico Madrid Champions League semifinal match), was oddly dominated by David Bowie and water. That, and clicking in the Arsenal exchange every spare moment for a ticket to the Atletico match. My husband’s childhood friend was in London at the same time we were, so we also had fun catching up with him.

David Bowie had been a minor character in my teen world. I knew some of his music, most notably Space Oddity, a rock ballad about an astronaut who goes to the moon, but something goes wrong and he floats away, never to return to Earth. That particular song, a line from which I’ve borrowed as the title of this post, was initially released in 1969 but was re-released in the United States in 1972. Other versions have been released since then, but it’s the 1972 version I’m familiar with. Something about that song really captured my imagination. In my interpretation of the song, Major Tom decides not to go back to earth and enacts his ship’s malfunction. Apparently that is not how David Bowie saw it. Major Tom floated hopelessly away in his broken spaceship.

My interpretation is better.

I remember one of my high school classmates declaring “David Bowie is so gross.” I didn’t know enough about him to have an opinion but I had seen pictures of him and knew he did something very few men did at that time: he sometimes wore makeup and clothing more commonly associated with women. I was living in a conservative area of the country, but there is probably no place in the world that despises individuality and demands conformity more than high schools of the 1970s.

I had really loved Queen in high school. Funny now that I think of it that David Bowie would possibly be “gross” but Queen was A-ok. Bowie’s music took a turn that intersected more with my mainstream sensibilities in the early 1980s. I loved the collaboration he did in 1981 with Queen’s Freddie Mercury, Under Pressure. It’s still one of my favorite songs. And later it rubbed me the wrong way that Vanilla Ice’s Ice Ice Baby started with the same musical hook. (I feel more inclined to forgive Vanilla Ice now that Arsenal fans use Ice Ice Baby as the base of a chant to honor Declan Rice. Rice Rice, baby.)

David Bowie exploded into the mainstream with Let’s Dance in the early 1980s. I had moved to Denver after college and was working, but didn’t yet have enough money or income to buy a car. I was carpooling with one of my colleagues every day. He was the first openly gay person I’d ever known and often he would cajole me into accompanying him to one of the gay bars in our neighborhood before he dropped me off at my apartment. So many handsome men. None of them interested in me, other than as a human. It was pretty sweet. Let’s Dance and Modern Love were big hits on the dance floor. I think that’s where I decided it’s always ok to dance alone. And was the start of me thinking everybody just wear what you want. Be who you are. Try out stuff until you’re clear. Even you, David Bowie. (And I think he would say “No shit. That’s what I did.”)

Anyway, that is a long preamble to our visit to the new David Bowie exhibit in London called You’re Not Alone at Lightroom, a “multimedia spectacle” that will “transport visitors into the iconic performances and creative mind and spirit of one of the world’s most visionary and influential artists.” It reminded me of Frameless, the interactive art exhibit we visited when we were last in London.

After a brief introduction to a life timeline for Bowie, you enter a large auditorium-like room, the walls, ceiling, and floor being used to project images, video, artifacts supporting narrative about how and why Bowie created as he did. I guess it’s technically a documentary but creatively delivered and very well done. There’s very little I enjoy more than being immersed in creative process, and David Bowie left behind exceptional records about his work that were the basis of the presentation. And it did include Space Oddity in full, which allowed for some interesting visual effects.

We found that so interesting that we made a point on a different day to head over to V&A East and V&A East Storehouse, new extensions of the Victoria & Albert Museum.

At V&A East we visited fascinating exhibits on “Why we make,” focused on the impulse to create and the process of creation. Not merely creation of art, but furniture, clothing, housing. I have found the Victoria & Albert museum in Kensington to be overwhelming, but the V&A East is very, very manageable and no less interesting. Bonus: it has a patio with a great view of the area where the Olympic stadium is. Which, by the way, is currently the home of West Ham. Arsenal were to be playing West Ham at London Stadium the weekend after we visited. We made sure to walk over and spread our Arsenal cooties all around the ground after visiting the exhibits.

The V&A East Storehouse is a short walk from V&A East. I’ve never seen anything like this. It’s literally a storehouse for objects owned by the Victoria & Albert, but not currently on display in the museum. Except it’s the fanciest Storehouse you’ll ever lay eyes on. It’s a museum-like storehouse. You can walk around and look at the objects, which we did.

You can also visit a special area devoted to David Bowie. The David Bowie Centre is a permanent archive for David Bowie’s possessions that was given to the V&A. It contains a small exhibit that includes some iconic costumes worn by Bowie, objects he owned, and a narrative and artifacts about how some of his music was written (including hand-written starts at several songs, including Space Oddity, which was written almost like a play). It also includes archives of interviews, articles, reviews that are not on display but can be accessed upon request. He must have understood his own importance or he would never have retained all that stuff. And I guess he was right about his importance or the V&A would not now have it. Great exhibit.

Space Oddity tells us “planet earth is blue,” and we understand it’s blue because of the water on its surface. Our visit to London, coincidentally, included several water-related activities. The River Lea lies between the V&A East and London Stadium and there’s a place on the edge where you can rent a swan boat. Along with a bevy of school-aged kids, we decided we needed to do that. We discovered that swan boats are just the right size for me to peddle at 5′ 2″ and completely wrong for my husband at 6′ 2″. After a very short trip down river, we crossed this activity off our list.

On one of the days we were in town there was a boat festival, the IWA Canalway Cavalcade, near something called “Little Venice.” Having seen Bangkok’s version of “Little Venice” in January, I wasn’t expecting much that resembled Venice. Although the one in London did not, in the end, look at all like Venice, it was very charming and fun to see all the houseboats gathered together. There were many vendors and activities for the kids and we enjoyed walking along the canal on a nice day. My husband noticed that you can take a boat from Little Venice over to Camden so we hopped aboard and enjoyed the scenery for the 45-minute ride.

We also did a walking tour of the hidden River Fleet. This is a river that once visibly flowed through early London but became nasty, dirty, stinky and was covered with roads in the 1700s. It’s now, more or less, a sewage canal. Once before we had tried to find the headway for the river, but with construction near it along the Thames it’s impossible to see. But you can “see” and hear it underneath streets in parts of London.

Tourist taking photo of picturesque River Fleet.

We did a few things that have nothing to do with David Bowie or water, but do take place on Planet Earth. We visited the Somerset House for the 2026 SONY World Photography Awards exhibit. The exhibit included entries by amateurs and professionals in various categories, including portraits, landscapes, still life. I have no idea how they picked winners. It was all so good.

We also went over to an event called Sicily Fest. This was in a big hall in Islington, and held a bunch of vendors selling Sicilian food and drinks as well as a very popular Sicilian band. We attended a church service at Southwark Cathedral, home of Hodge the cat, who indeed was wandering around during the service and stopped by to sniff my husband.

And, as always, we found ourselves in a number of Fuller’s pubs. In my favorite experience, on the first day we were there, we really loved the glasses the Sutton Arms served our London Pride in. They had a depiction of the Thames that was very cool. We asked the bartender if it were possible to buy one. He said “Just take one. We have so many. And they always just walk away, especially with people drinking outside.” We were not quite in the sticky fingers frame of mind. While we sipped, ate a very delicious pizza, and watched the world go by through a large, open door, I googled how easy it would be to buy a glass. We found that Amazon could deliver such an item to us in the UK but not in Chicago. We enjoyed our beer in those beautiful glasses and left them behind. Here’s hoping enough will be retained by the London pubs for us to enjoy one again on a future trip.