Supposedly you can tell when something you’re reading was written by AI. For example, I’m told that AI exclusively uses the “em” dash. An em dash is a longish dash, supposedly about the length of an “m.” (In contrast with an “en” dash, which as you might guess is a bit shorter in length about the length of an “n.”) When you use Microsoft Word, when you type two dashes followed by a letter, it turns into a single em dash, but in some programs it appears like the two dashes you typed in. If you see something with an em dash, presumably that’s AI.

The fact is, I’ve long used the em dash. And if the em dash is considered so rare that only AI regularly uses it, I have to presume it’s because AI is (are?) a voracious reader of my blog.

It’s good to have readers, human or otherwise. I’ve long understood that this blog is kind of a weird one. It’s not really a sports blog, not really a travel blog. I write about the matches we attended but don’t really analyze them. I might describe a play or exhibit we attended but I don’t really critique it. Although I used to blog during a trip, I haven’t done that for a while. I’ve concluded that no one who visits here is unaware of the result of the match and waiting breathlessly for what I have to say about it.

Also, when I blog while traveling the whole thing seems performative. Like I need to do things specifically and only to entertain you. A few months ago I was watching the Netflix movie about Gabby Petito, the vloger who was traveling with her soon-to-be-homicidal fiancé in a van across the United States and it confirmed for me my decision. Trying to be the center of too much attention is bad for you. (Well, it was bad for her, that’s for sure.)

My last trip to London concluded several weeks ago but on the day we flew back to Chicago I was feeling pretty bad. I knew my body was trying to fight off a cold or something like that for the last couple of days we were in London and was pretty sure it had failed in the fight by the Sunday we boarded the plane. When we got home I put a load of laundry in the washing machine and climbed into my bed for about a week. Fever, runny nose, no appetite. My ears started draining and my eyes were red and itchy. I decided to go to the urgent care clinic and see if antibiotics were needed. While I was there they noticed my blood oxygen was low and resting heart rate was high and decided to do a chest x-ray. That showed a mild case of pneumonia. Outfitted with all kinds of antibiotics, eye drops, an oxygen monitor, an inhaler, and many boxes of tissues, I got through another week after which I started to feel human again. I had thought over the past couple of weeks maybe my recent trip is one that I won’t bother to blog about, but now I’m feeling energetic and it was a good trip. So, a belated roundup.

Our hotel, the Middle Eight.

As many times as we have been to London and (mostly) attempted to stay in different hotels and neighborhoods, there are still quite a few areas we’ve never stayed in. Our hotel this time, Middle Eight, was located near Covent Garden. One of the things we loved about it was that it was very near the Holborn tube station which meant we could take the Piccadilly line from and to the airport and The Emirates with no station changes. Although we usually travel with just a carry-on suitcase, we usually do have to make some awkward Tube line changes, often involving forays up and down stairs. Also, having to change train lines at Kings Cross St Pancras on a weekday morning to go to the airport or on the night of a match can be tricky, with the big crowds involved. We found ourselves separated more than once when one of gets swept onto and the other away from the train when it arrives in the station.

But this time, no Tube drama at all. The Holborn station has only a few stairs to contend with and was rarely crowded. By the time we reached the station with big crowds we were comfortably seated on the train.

Besides the train benefits, the hotel was nice. It had what we needed, including being close to some nice restaurants and Covent Garden, a fun place to visit. On a particularly rainy night we chose to have dinner inside the hotel and it was quite nice.

The matches

Our attendance this particular week followed Arsenal’s first loss of the season at home, to what seemed an imminently beatable Manchester United. Along with the rest of the deeply nervous Arsenal fan base, we felt pretty deflated by the loss. All I can say is that having finished in second place for three seasons in a row, we are always feeling what we think is the other shoe dropping. As they say around soccer, it’s the hope that kills you. After the home loss to Man U, Arsenal did have a solid win away at Leeds before we arrived. Despite occasional setbacks, we continue to have the hope that threatens ultimately to kill us and hence we find ourselves in London.

Caribou cup semi-final vs. Chelsea. Of all the teams I despise, Chelsea is probably right at the top, but we’ve never before had tickets for a match against them. We were able to get tickets using the ballot. Although this competition might not be at the top of what we hope to achieve, I think Arsenal fans were happy to be challenging to get into the final.

The match was on a rainy, cold evening. I guess that can be said for almost every match in the UK this year. It’s been a weirdly rainy period. We arrived at the stadium ridiculously early during a quasi-break in the rain action. Craving warmth before the match, instead of drinking beer we took the unusual action of eating a giant basket of french fries/chips even though we had just had dinner. The stadium was nearly empty when we found our seats in the Northeast corner of the upper bowl. Our seats were well-covered, but looking at torrents of rain coming down and wind whipping around the stadium and feeling my wet shoes, I shivered for the full two hours.

Weirdly (for me), the shivering was not at all about the match. Unlike my usual demeanor, I felt so calm it was as if I had been drugged. The semi-final consists of two matches, the first one having been played at Chelsea earlier. Arsenal won that by a goal, which meant Chelsea had to win this match by at least two goals to get into the final. Someone must have failed to deliver that memo to Chelsea. When I saw the very defensive-looking Chelsea lineup come up on the screens in the concourse as we ate our chips, I thought “Is this a trick?” But they actually did set up–and played–as if they didn’t require any goals. Arsenal exerted very little effort other than to contain them, which we successfully did for 90+ minutes. Then the Chelsea player I dislike most, Marc Cucerella, made a bad pass under pressure, which was quickly turned into an Arsenal breakaway. Declan Rice made a beautiful, long pass to Kai Havertz, only recently back playing after a horrendous knee injury kept him out for close to a year. Havertz evaded the keeper and passed the ball into the net. Havertz is a former Chelsea player but apparently the statute of limitations on celebrating against his former team had passed. He happily pointed to the Arsenal badge. With Chelsea being unable to score, we were already through to the finals at Wembley, but we thoroughly enjoyed that goal. Mercifully, the rain was quiet for our very cheerful, loud walk back to the Arsenal tube station.

Premier League match vs. Sunderland. Sunderland is one of the three newly-promoted teams into the Premier League. For the past couple of seasons, the newly-promoted teams have usually found themselves relegated at the end of the season. The gulf between the Premier League and the Championship has just seemed too big. That is not true this season, however, and Sunderland, in particular, has taken to the Premier League quite well. Some of their success has been attributable to excellent talent acquisition over the summer, one of them being our former captain Granit Xhaka, who left Arsenal for Bayer Leverkusen a few seasons ago. He was out injured for this match, although he did attend the game.

My husband and I hadn’t been successful getting tickets for this match in the ballot, but I was so sure we would be able to get tickets on the exchange I convinced my husband we should stay in London for the whole week; to see the Chelsea match on Tuesday night and the Sunderland match on Saturday afternoon. I finally was successful getting my ticket a few hours before we went to the airport in Chicago. After thousands of clicks during the week in London, I was ultimately successful in getting a ticket for my husband the day before the match. Phew.

It was rainy for parts of the day but not bad close to match time. My husband and I had visited a few Fullers pubs in advance of the match and then took a quick turn around the Armoury before we went our separate ways outside the stadium.

The match was a lot of fun. There appeared to be a lot of “singles” in my section rather than people attending together who knew each other so we had to form our own environment together. Mikel Arteta had asked fans to provide a wonderful atmosphere for this match and we did our best. Arsenal started mixed, on the front foot sometimes, repeatedly followed by some serious danger on the other end.

Arsenal finally scored a few minutes before halftime with a lovely strike from distance by Martin Zubimendi. It hit the near post and flew across into the opposite side of the net. I was sitting about as far away as possible from that goal and, except for the roar of the fans in front of the goal, I would have thought it was behind the net rather than in it.

With Gabriel Jesus healthy again, he was given the start at striker instead of Viktor Gyokeres. Gyokeres has a bit of a rough start with Arsenal all considered, been taking a lot of grief from the trolls-that-be. But as I mentioned the last time we were at the Emirates, Gyokeres has a habit of scoring when I’m there. Jesus was ultimately substituted and Gyokeres was on the scoreboard within five minutes. First, from a pass from Kai Havertz where Gyokeres slipped and was literally falling down as he struck the ball. Second, from a Gabriel Martinelli breakaway. He broke quickly with the ball and Gyokeres, who is not a dainty, speedy man, somehow managed to keep up with him. Martinelli took on the goalkeeper and passed the ball to Gyokeres in front of the empty net. He buried it.

The match ended 3-0. I celebrated with my new friends heartily and quickly, then went to meet my husband by the Wenger statue outside.

Day trip to Oxford

Only one day of our visit appeared to have no rain in the forecast, so we used the opportunity to take a day trip to Oxford. Our train ride took about an hour. Now that we’ve been to both Cambridge and Oxford, I asked my husband which he preferred. He was solidly a Cambridge man. Had he grown up in the UK, I suspect both universities would have been happy to have him as a student. And, as for me, I suspect neither of them would. Nonetheless, I preferred Oxford. I liked the way the university buildings were interspersed throughout town. And at least the parts of town we were in seemed more livable and less touristy.

Ashmolean Museum. When we visited Cambridge we went to the Fitzwilliam Museum, which started via donation from Richard Fitzwilliam, an avid collector of antiquities and arts who had previously been a student at Cambridge. The Ashmolean is Oxford University’s counterpart, started with donation from Elias Ashmole, also an antiquary. In my judgment, the Ashmolean is like the Fitzwilliam on steroids. We spent most of our time in the the antiquities collection, covering ancient Egypt, Greece, Europe, Cyprus, and more. A lot of artifacts from a lot of graves. It was interesting and overwhelming. We also visited the Cast gallery, containing replicas of statues and sculptures. Finally, we raced through the art exhibit. We were fully museumed out by that time.

John le Carré Exhibit at the Bodleian Libraries. Upon arriving at Oxford we signed up for a tour of the Bodleian Libraries, but had some time to kill before it started. We were pointed to a free exhibit called John le Carré: Tradecraft. John le Carré was the nom de plume for a former Oxford student, David Cornwall, who is known for novels about spies. The exhibit contained information and artifacts of his meticulous practice of research, original manuscripts, letters. The pen on his desk at the time he died. Very interesting.

Bodleian Libraries Tour. The Bodleian libraries are Oxford’s system of 23 libraries holding millions of books and source materials, with a goal of holding at least one copy of every book published in the UK, among other items. The tour goes to only one of the libraries, the “Old” library, famously used in filming scenes in the Harry Potter movies and the home of some very ancient books. My husband and I have seen zero of the Harry Potter movies between us and were probably the only people on the tour over the age of 30. So well over the age of 30, they were careful to warn us in advance how many steps we’d need go up and down on the tour. It was no problem. We could have done it with our carry-on bags! 🙂

Anyway, we started in the Divinity school where they were working on a project to capture in 3D all of the “bosses” (decorative figures) in the ceiling so they can be recreated and appreciated up close. There were several samples available for us to look at and pass around. At Oxford the room was used for students to complete oral exams. In the Harry Potter movies, it was the infirmary. Now you can rent it as a wedding venue.

The tour also went to the Duke Humphries library, the oldest library holding the oldest books. This area of the library was used in the Harry Potter movies as the Hogwarts Library. Interesting to hear about the history of the library and the books it holds. Also, it was just a cool, dark space. Exactly what you would imagine a very old library to be.

Christ Church College and Meadow. Christ Church College (part of Oxford) is also the site of some Harry Potter scenes. We chose not to tour it officially but walked over to look at the building. Impressive building and pretty gardens around it. It’s next to a big, pretty park called Christ Church meadows. The path around the park was pretty muddy from all the rain but we enjoyed walking over to the river.

Theater

The Play that Goes Wrong. Every time we’ve looked at plays we might go see in London, this one has been playing. In fact, it’s been running in London for more than 10 years. While we were planning our trip we came across relatively cheap tickets and decided to go this time.

What to say about it? It’s a slapstick comedy about a play for which very little goes right. The set and characters break down in sometimes obvious and sometimes unexpected ways. I found myself smiling at the antics on stage but not really laughing. In full disclosure, many people in the theatre were screaming with laughter. At intermission we briefly considered leaving the play and the couple seated to our right actually did not come back after intermission. I had noticed they, too, had been pretty quiet during the first act. We did end up staying and felt the second act had been more interesting. I guess not every play is for every person. A fun evening but one I probably would not choose again.

The Spy Who Came in From the Cold. Visiting the le Carré exhibit in Oxford piqued our interest in this play inspired by a le Carré novel about a seasoned spy who is convinced against his better judgment to take on one final mission during the Cold War. The staging was interesting, the characters were memorable, and the message was depressing as hell. Basically, even the people who mean well–and there are very few of them–can’t be trusted.

My husband and I both loved it and recommend it highly. Unless you love slapstick. In that case, go see The Play that Goes Wrong.

London Attractions

Sir John Soane’s Museum. My husband has a friend who really loves this museum but for one reason or another we had never been to visit. This time our hotel was so close it was a very convenient stop for us. Sir John Soane was an 18/19th century London architect who designed and built his own home to house and display a massive collection of ancient artifacts and art he acquired over his lifetime. The house is now a museum. There was very little emphasis in the museum about the artifacts themselves. With only a few exceptions, you could not tell where he had acquired them or what they were. The emphasis was on how he had designed the house so that he could best enjoy the artifacts and art he had acquired. My favorite part of the house was an area in the basement called the Monk’s Parlour. Soane created this space in his house as if for an imaginary monk he named “Padre Giovanni,” and enjoyed visiting the room when, monklike, he wanted seclusion of his own. A very worthwhile visit.

London Transport Museum. This museum covers the history of transportation in London, including horse-drawn vehicles, use of the Thames, early train travel, and how the Underground came to be. The story of the Underground was particularly a focus and quite interesting, covering not just the technical creation of the system itself, but also how it was an impetus for advances in use and techniques of visual design, and how it influenced and was influenced by immigration patterns in London. My husband and I enjoyed this tour very much. Public transportation is exclusively how we get around in London and it was interesting to take a deeper dive into something that is so much a part of your life. To visit the museum you have to join as a member, but an annual membership is quite reasonably priced even if you only visit once. My husband is a frugal man. I suspect we will amortize our membership by visiting again before the year is over.

Natural History Museum. Whenever we look into attractions we could visit in London, this museum is one that is often recommended. I guess because natural history doesn’t seem very “London specific” we’ve never put this one at the top of our list. But on this trip we decided it was a good place to be on another rainy day and arrived at opening time. This museum is free to visit, with donations encouraged. We enjoyed the dinosaur and fossil exhibits and spent a fair amount of time in the extensive exhibit on minerals and treasures. It’s a very good natural history museum and on the “London-specific” front it bears mentioning that many explorers and students of natural history, including those who posited natural selection and evolution, were Londoners. Their influence is visible throughout the exhibits. Even though we arrived at opening time, the museum was absolutely packed with people. We left without seeing everything, but with an appreciation of what we might re-visit at some point in the future.

National Portrait Gallery. Although we’ve been to the National Gallery several times, we’ve never before stopped into the National Portrait Gallery. There was something that seemed boring about it but then I was reading at some point about a special exhibit on Marilyn Monroe, which for some reason piqued my interest. Although that exhibit hasn’t started yet, we decided to stop by the National Portrait Gallery. As a side note, while finding the restrooms, we happened upon The Portrait Restaurant at the top of the museum. The view of the city from there is amazing! Must plan to have a meal there at some point.

We started our visit at the top of the museum, in the gallery devoted to the Tudors from the 15th century, and worked ourselves down to modern portraits. I’m not sure why this never interested me in the past but I found the portraits fascinating and beautiful. Each era reflecting the people living at that time and the style of portraiture popular at the time. People’s faces, captured by an artist, are pretty awesome.

Frameless. We’ve been wanting to visit this art experience for a while but it just never worked out. In advance of visiting, I figured this is the kind of experience for people who really don’t quite have it in them to “understand” art. And although I have spent lots of time visiting art museums, I freely admit this is me in a nut shell. We were able to visit Frameless on this recent trip and I have to say that if you want to fully appreciate and experience art, this is the place for you. You might even enjoy it if you already are able to appreciate art.

The exhibit includes several galleries that you can enter. Each gallery covers 8-12 different famous paintings in a series. As you enter the room you are more or less inside the art. All four walls, the ceiling, and the floor are covered in the art which is animated to evoke, in some cases, how the painting may have been created, or imagines what was happening before and after the scene of the painting was captured, or how the patterns of a painting might be changed or animated to create alternative art. In some cases you can interact with the art and it reacts to your movement. The displays are accompanied by beautiful music. We found it peaceful, moving, and very worthwhile.

Museum of Freemasonry. In a post long ago, I described visiting an old pub called the Freemasons’ arms near Covent Garden, which happened to be the site where the rules for soccer and for rugby were originally codified in 1863. The pub was not the original pub but built on the same spot. We went there and had a pint while watching some international rugby on TV. There is a lot of stuff around London about the Freemasons and we noticed that near our hotel this time there was a Museum of Freemasonry. We stopped by to see what it was all about.

The museum covers the history and some of the artifacts of the Freemasons, which started in the middle ages as trade groups of stonemasons and evolved over time into an organized brotherhood of members from many walks of life and professions. Members wear all kinds of recognizable insignia, which we had noticed on people passing by on the sidewalk near our hotel. However, they do have secret rituals, which naturally were not covered in the museum. I found the whole concept to be kind of odd and realized that the same is true of many organizations. To belong, you need to do very specific things, believe very specific things, and own very specific objects. My favorite part of visiting the museum was visiting the gift shop which is not necessarily so that a visitor to the museum can buy things but so that members of the Freemasons can buy things on their path as Freemasons. Books, ties, jackets, badges, cuff links and so forth.

In Summary

In all, a wonderful week in London. Two nice Arsenal wins, a manageable level of tension. A lot of fun seeing the sights of London and Oxford. Some new, fun restaurants and more Fullers pubs.

Since our trip, a lot has happened for Arsenal. We only tied Brentford, who we should have been able to beat handily. We destroyed Wigan in an FA cup match. Then we dropped points at what should have been a very winnable game at Wolves. Even though it ended as a tie, when I think it, I think of it as a loss. Then we demolished Tottenham away. More recently, we struggled but ultimately beat Chelsea at home and Brighton away.

The matches are coming at a furious pace. Arsenal is alive in four competitions but nothing is coming easily. Winning the Premier League is looking harder and harder, although we marginally hold on to our superiority in points over the rest of the field. Hanging on for dear life.

There is another set of multiple matches in a week happening in London soon. Airfare for that week is is outrageously expensive. We don’t have tickets for any of the matches. We failed in the ballot for the Everton match at home on the 14th and haven’t been lucky in the exchange. We just balloted for the Champions league match against Bayer Leverkusen on the 17th, but won’t hear whether we were successful until a few days in advance of the match. And tickets for the Caribou final at Wembley against Man City on the 22nd are at an unbelievable price point. There are thousands of tickets available at a reasonable price in the Man City section and no tickets in the Arsenal section below a thousand dollars. If money talks, supply and demand suggest that Man City fans find the Caribou Cup final a boring imposition. I hope that translates to a positive Arsenal result. Not only to have a trophy for our troubles but also hopefully to kick on some much needed energy for the rest of the season.

I also hope something good happens–drops in airfare and luck in the ballot/exchange–that will allow us to experience that week of soccer, live in London. Fingers crossed!

AI, I dropped that last set of em dashes just for you. Do me proud.