Month: December 2024

Merry, miserable Christmas trees

Amy O1 Comment

Ridiculously, after returning to Chicago for a few days in which we purchased a Christmas tree and put lights on our house and I worked during normal U.S. working hours, my husband and I returned to London for the weekend.

Both of the aforementioned Christmas activities in Chicago involved challenges. We had a lot of burned out lightbulbs on our Christmas tree last year so I threw quite a few strings out. Naturally, I forgot about that so when I went to put lights on our tree this year, the usual selection was not available. I pulled some options from a different box and put them up, only to discover they were flashing lights. We lived with that for a few days until we concluded we felt stressed after turning on our Christmas tree. I ended up removing my first attempt and completing the effort again with newly-purchased options.

The lights for the house also had burned-out sections and my husband spent time–both before and after our trip–trying to find replacement bulbs, seeking suitable replacement light strings, rejecting such replacements, seeking others, and compromising until the exterior of the house was finally decorated to his–probably compromised–satisfaction.

Although our trip to London was brief, it was fully devoted to relaxation and enjoyment. We walked around town, enjoyed the beautiful lights and decorations, visited a pop-up skating rink at Somerset House, and visited a winter festival featuring (for us) choirs performing under a Christmas Tree in Trafalgar Square.

We enjoyed our new hotel neighborhood near the Temple tube stop. Walking from the Tube stop to the hotel, the area felt like no place we had ever stayed in London even though it was relatively close to other areas we’ve stayed in. Every time we were walking around I was hit with the sensation of novelty which would morph into familiarity and back into novelty. Our hotel was the Apex Temple Court, which had a lovely lobby and pretty, spacious, and practical rooms. The hotel was serving mulled wine and tiny mince pies near the reception desk. Mulled wine = fabulous. Mince pie = not my thing. Mince pie was ubiquitous in London. But so was mulled wine.

Our main entertainment, other than the Arsenal match, was a Tour via the London Transport Museum of Jubilee line platforms at Charing Cross Underground station that have been closed to the public for 25+ years. It still has working tracks that can be used for storing trains during slow transit periods, that then can be whisked into service during rush hours. The other use for this part of the station is filming movies and TV shows that have scenes in Tube stations. It was used in Skyfall, The Bourne Ultimatum, and even Paddington. They showed us clips from the movies during our tour. We got to go into construction tunnels and even in a ventilation shaft above train platforms currently in use. Interesting way to experience history and a part of the train system you rarely see.

With regard to relaxation, we visited the historic Gordon’s Wine Bar, one of our favorite places to hang out and have a glass of wine in an outdoor garden under a very functional heating unit. We also visited a ridiculous number of pubs considering we were in town only for a long weekend. I love the pubs in London under normal conditions but during the holiday season they are beacons of warmth and cheer. They are decked to the hilt with lights and candles and garland, have special, fun menus and drinks, and are full of cheerful Londoners in Santa hats and Christmas sweaters and holiday tights. We visited Old Bank of England, Williamson’s Tavern, The Admiralty, and Ye Olde Watling. Old Bank of England is one of the grandest pubs I’ve visited, which I would have said about The Admiralty if the prior day I had not been in Old Bank of England. Williamson’s and Ye Olde Watling were cozy and friendly. My husband declared the Blade of Beef & Ale pie served in Old Bank of England to be the best beef pie in all of London. I think my favorite meal was just a delicious hamburger from The Admiralty. And the Hedgerow Berry Mess was also yummy.

It was all so very lovely, I was surprised upon returning back to Chicago to see an opinion piece in the Washington Post entitled Britain’s merry, miserable Christmas trees. I know this is behind a paywall so let me give you a synopsis. The author, Mark Lasswell, describes a national pastime in Britain of “lashing out at the comically forlorn approximations of holiday trees on public display.” The leading photo is of a tree in Trafalgar Square. A member of Parliament is quoted in the article as saying this tree resembles “a wonky corn on the cob.” It did look a little sad in the photo.

Photo credit: Kristin Wigglesworth/AP as shown in The Washington Post 12/17/2024

Then I realized I had been standing near that very tree only three days ago. How did I not notice it looked like that? What I remembered: everything was so pretty. So festive.

I dug through the photos on my phone to see if that really was the tree in Trafalgar Square. I did not have a photo, but I had a video of a choir performing right next to the tree shown in the Washington Post. It never struck me in the moment as a “comically forlorn approximation” of a holiday tree. But, yes, it’s not the most glorious. The fact checkers for The Washington Post had done their jobs admirably.

I can only guess that the persons decorating the tree at Trafalgar Square said, “Everything else looks so amazing, no one will even notice this tree. Let’s get this over with and make better use our time with mulled wine at The Admiralty.”

No one likes us

Amy O1 Comment

Although we weren’t able to do much London stuff in this visit, we did have Saturday gloriously open for fun around town.

Sadly, storm Darragh, which caused rain and winds all over the UK that day, wanted her say. So we made two plans that were respectful of her and one plan that ignored her completely.

It was pouring rain in the morning but we stepped out with our most rain-resistant shoes and umbrellas and went to the highly-rated local diner, Peter’s Cafe, for breakfast. It was nothing fancy but I had a perfectly delicious, basic, and reasonably-priced breakfast of eggs on toast with a latte.

After that, we went over to the Gunpowder Plot Experience close to the Tower of London. This is a tourist attraction whereby you participate with a group in simulating the attempted coup of 1605 on King James by Guy Fawkes. It’s a combination of interactive theatre and virtual reality. Not our usual thing! It was a lot of fun, albeit a part of history I’ve spent zero time thinking about. We played the part of Catholic co-conspirators. My favorite part of the experience was the virtual reality. It’s not that it felt actually real, but it produced some interesting effects and sensations of being there. With virtual reality, we flew over the city, took a boat over to Parliament, saw the aftermath of the attempted coup.

After that nice, dry activity we took the bus over to Millwall’s stadium, The Den, to take in some Championship football. We’ve attended a Championship match in the past at Fulham after they had dropped from the Premier League and before they came back up. Championship matches offer a grittier, and some say purer, experience than the Premier League. Whatever. We just wanted to go.

Millwall currently sits in the bottom half of the Championship and was playing on Saturday against Coventry City. It was very easy to get good tickets because of the expected bad weather and probably that thing I said about “the bottom half.”

Coventry City was even bottom-er in the Championship, and only recently started being managed by the villainous Frank Lampard, formerly of Chelsea. The fans at The Den seemed particularly annoyed by the presence of Frank Lampard. One guy near me shouted at him and insulted him the entire match. There is no possible way Frank Lampard heard a word of it, so far away were we and as windy and rainy as it was. Maybe Frank will read this and know the truth.

The chanting is a bit different at Millwall than at the Emirates. The chant we understood best went something like this:

We are Millwall
No one likes us
We don’t care

It was a bad day for Millwall and good day for Frank Lampard. Coventry City ended up winning the match 0 – 1. It was his first win as the manager of Coventry City, we learned the next day.

We took the bus over toward our evening activity and stopped nearby at a nice pub, The Royal Standard. Beer for my husband, mulled wine for me. Fish & chips for him, Avocado & Mango salad for me. Brownie for him, Apple, plum & Damson (don’t ask me) crumble for me. Very delicious, and a nice atmosphere.

Our final activity of the day was Edwyrdian Tales’ Christmas Ghost Stories at Charlton House. Charlton house is a 400-year old former manor house, so a great setting in which to hear three old ghost stories. For me, it was only two ghost stories, for, as good as the program was, I was exhausted from a long week and being in the cold and rain for hours (and maybe the mulled wine had something to do with it). I slept like a baby during the first tale about Jerry Bundler. Well refreshed from my nap, I thoroughly enjoyed the next two ghost stories, “Smee” about a haunting that occurs while people are playing a game at a holiday party and “The Kit Bag,” where a lawyer is emotionally haunted both by his involvement in a trial for a horrific murder and actually haunted by something in the bag in his room. The stories were performed by a single actor, writer, and historian Matthew Wood, who did a wonderful job transporting us to a time in which these stories would have been very popular. Great atmosphere and great stories, well told.

It was good to get out into London at last before heading back to Chicago.

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About a month ago I got a survey from Arsenal. Arsenal do a LOT of surveys. Usually they are about your experience at a match. How was the process of buying tickets? How was the process of loading your digital pass? Were the stewards pleasant and helpful? How was the food? You get the picture.

But this one was different. To paraphrase, because I wasn’t planning to write about this and can’t recall the exact details of the questions, it wanted to know have I ever heard racist chanting or speech at the Emirates? Have I ever heard misogynistic or homophobic speech? Mistreatment of the disabled? Tragedy chanting? This last one I think is unique to football. It is chanting and taunting about tragedy that happened to football supporters or players. For example, the Hillsborough disaster, where dozens of Liverpool supporters were killed in 1989, has been the subject of taunting by supporters of other clubs.

In this survey, I was able to honestly respond that I’ve never heard any of those things while attending a match. However, the survey had one more question. Have I ever heard bad language at the Emirates?

Well, yes, I have indeed.

And, the survey wanted to know, did I know how to report this bad language to the club?

Er, no, I did not.

Never let it be said that Arsenal is not sincere in its efforts to make sure you understand you’ve been heard. In a useful touch before the Manchester United match last Wednesday, the Arsenal announcer explained at the outset of the match how this could be reported. You can text a number and tell them the seat number of the person producing the bad behavior.

Good to be educated.

The match had quite a late start, probably to work through issues of getting people to the match with public transportation on a night when there would be evening rush hour and when there were several matches in London. We had to get creative anyway because the normal route was just a no-go due to all the fans trying to get the stadium.

We were rewarded with what I perceive as an unusual light show show before the match. From our seats high in the Clock End the fire cannons were producing flame so big that we could feel the heat.

We were closer to the opposition fans than ever before, which means we were part of several critical sections responsible for being alert to drowning them out. It was challenging because they appeared to be feeling energetic.

If I’m being honest it wasn’t the most exciting match. Manchester United seemed pretty committed to slowing down the match and breaking up any action and usually when someone tries that, they are able to succeed. But Arsenal have a not-so-secret weapon that works even in this case. We are able to score from corner kicks more often than any other team. And when working against a team that is trying to break down flow, we tend to get lots of chances to take corner kicks.

Anything I might say about why Arsenal is so good at scoring from corner kicks is a waste of typing. In this morning’s The Athletic there was as comprehensive an analysis as you might ever want. Even I, who am deeply interested in this topic, started skimming the article after about two yards of scrolling.

The fact is, even if you know Arsenal are good at corner kicks and you know exactly why Arsenal are good, it’s still very hard to stop us.

Not long after half time, Arsenal had a chance at a corner kick. My husband and I were probably seated about as far away from that action as you could possibly be in the stadium, but we couldn’t fail to see Decan Rice’s inch perfect kick and Jurrien Timber’s expert glancing header into the net.

That helped open the match up as Manchester United sought an equalizer, much to Arsenal’s advantage. Even so, the next goal was also from an Arsenal corner kick in the 73rd minute. In this case, I could see Bukayo Saka’s lovely kick but how it ended up in the goal was more mysterious. There was a weird delay from the point of impact before the Arsenal fans in the North Bank put up a giant cheer. After the match I could understand why. The original kick ended up on Thomas Partey’s head, which he hit so hard it bounced off William Saliba’s butt and into the goal.

Happenstance? Saliba celebrated so thoroughly that you would have sworn that means of scoring actually was the plan.

In any case, that left about 20 minutes of breathing room with Manchester United looking like they would not be able to score a goal even if there were six days available.

Although it is often the case that fans chant and we can’t tell what they are saying, what happened next was perfectly clear. At least 50,000 people in the stadium started singing, “You’re f*cking shit, you’re f*cking shit, you’re f*cking shit, you’re f*cking shit!”

Now, recall that we now know how to report such behavior to the club. In this case, we were all saved the effort. It would be impossible for the club not to be able to report it to itself.

Never gets old

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We had the extreme fortune of being successful in Arsenal’s ballot for the Manchester United match so no additional persistence was required to get tickets. Unfortunately, the match was midweek and I’ve just taken a 4-week sabbatical from my job. I felt disinclined to ask for the almost full week off required to travel to London to be there for a Wednesday match.

Also, my husband was scheduled for his upcoming Italian language test on Thursday in Chicago after the match. Virtually no way we could get back to Chicago on Thursday and also see the match. Fortunately, the Italian test is delivered on that day all over the world. We found it was possible for him to reschedule in London. Meanwhile, the cost of airfare was a nightmare. We actually found it significantly cheaper to stay in London for the full week than traveling back the day after the match.

So we decided to leave for London on Monday night with plans to study (him) and work (me) all week. That might sound like a bummer but it turned out to be pretty nice. We stayed in a hotel that we’ve been in before, the Doubletree London – Tower of London, not because we love it so much but location is great, rooms are a bit more spacious for a week-long stay, and it promised to be a good place to work.

I work so much more efficiently with a second monitor that I was a little nervous about how productive I could be on the road. But I researched and found a very cost-effective and sweet portable option from ARZOPA that could fit into my backback with my laptop. It was pretty perfect for my needs and the price was right.

My husband works better in quiet so he used the desk in our room and I worked from the lobby. I’d go down in the morning with my stuff and all day long I was pampered by the staff with cappuccino and tea and at mealtime by my husband who would pick up sandwiches and quesadillas and bring them back.

So yes, it was London and I was working and not seeing much of London, but here is the equation I learned: Playing from London > Working from London > Working from Lombard, IL.

I was out in London mostly in the dark. Walking around the neighborhood in the morning, going to the match on Wednesday night, meeting a friend for dinner on Thursday at our favorite London restaurant, Dishoom. But London is so lovely at Christmastime in the dark. Trees and lights and markets and everyone is so damn cheerful. During the evenings while I was working the lobby became a loud nightclub with lights everywhere, loud music, everyone dressed in sparkly skirts and tuxedos. And the staff took care of me by bringing me glasses of wine.

One morning we were out walking next to the Thames. It was so magical with lights playing on the surface and mist in the air. My husband looked at me and said, “This never gets old.” In a trip that really did not involve much fun, where we stayed at a hotel we’d been to before and ate mostly at restaurants we’d eaten at before, where not much was novel and everything was just nice, I can only agree.