Christmas Mischief

I know I have said this before, but I don't understand why I find the things Mischief Theatre do so funny. 

I mean Magic Goes Wrong was, like Comedy about a Bank Robbery before it, probably more clever than funny. The magic itself was super slick, but still I laughed. But the Goes Wrong Show, that really tickled me. Tickled to an embarrassing level I'd say. 

Anyway, what have I read in December? 

Slade House - David Mitchell
The Tattooist of Auschwitz- Heather Wilson
The City of Brass - SA Chakraborty
Bearmouth - Liz Hyder
Twas the Nightshift before Christmas - Adam Day
Release - Partick Ness

After having another attempt at the Jacob de Zoet book I figured I should probably give up on that and switch to the David Mitchell (the other one) book that I hadn't read. I really enjoyed it, which only makes me wonder why I found Thousand Autumns so unexcitedly unreadable. Weird. 

Another book that took two attempts was Bearmouth. I was put off by the phonetic spelling, then saw it bubbling away in the end of year charts, so figured it was worth the perseverance. 

By any standards I should have quit City of Brass. The premise is brilliant (it's basically a Middle Eastern Daughter of Smoke and Bone) but the set up was frustrating and by the time the ending came I had stopped caring about any of the characters. 

I finally got round to reading the Tattooist of Auschwitz. Whilst it was absolutely brutal, it was a much easier read than the genie book, which I guess is why it's been in the best sellers chart for a couple of years. 

I suspect I'm not the only person who has read the Adam Kay book in the ladt couple of days. It had me chuckling. Not as much as Mischief, mind, but some good solid chuckles none the less. 

And Release, which embarrassingly I had read before. I don't remember reading it, but as soon as I started everything seemed familiar. Often on a re-read it is the other way round. I remember the act of reading but not the story (I've read both The Alchemist and the Great Gatsby twice, and have no idea what happens in either). Still, thoroughly enjoyed this the second time. 

Stuff I've been Reading- November

Tenth of December- George Saunders
Girl, Woman, Other - Bernadine Everisto
Snowflake AZ - Marcus Sedgwick
The English Patient - Michael Ondaatje
When We Were Orphans - Kazuo Ishiguro

Happy advent people. Got some biggies in the reading bucket this month, Booker Winners a-go-go. Check me out. 

But let's start with the YA. We are both more comfortable starting there. I say YA, Marcus Sedgewick is very much at the literary end of YA. Snowflake AZ was a curios book. It was about something that a cynic like me sneers at, but managed to do it in a way that stopped me sneering. Which is no mean feat.

I got George Saunders the wrong way round. If I had my ear to the pulse I would have read this before Lincoln in the Bardo,  rather than a year or so after. Ho hum. I always struggle with short stories and whilst some of these were ace. It generally came across as a smorgasbord of good ideas, rather than a coherent meal. 

Girl, Woman, Other could have beem the same. It wasn't. It was brilliant. You don't need me to tell you that, she's just won the Booker. Oh no wait, Booker prize winners often come across as more pretentious than fun - this might be the best Booker winner I've read. 

And that includes English Patient. I know it's a modern classic, but I just didn't care about any of the characters. And call me old-fashioned but I find that pretty important in a book  

That and believability. It felt like When We Were Orphans got bored of being believable at about the half way point. It then became silly and I wanted it to be over. 

All the Santos

And let's end the Mexican trip in Todos Santos, a dusty town straight out of a western - cactus, vultures, cow skulls, all the cliches - and populated by American expats. The town itself is pretty horrible,  but it's a hop, skip and jump from a massive, massive empty beach and a lagoon where ospreys hang out, eyeballing mullet. 

Time for one more experience before we leave? Oh, go on then, let's release turtle hatchlings into the Pacific sunset. I thought it was going to be unpleasantly touristy, turns out it was ace. Turns out baby turtles are cute enough that even someone as jaded as me can't help but be won over. 

So here's a question to end with. Is Mexican food actually not as spicy as its reputation? Nothing has been that spicy, so far. Is it just that I don't look Mexican, so have the toned down, bland tourist version of all the foods? 

Baja California

I'm in La Paz. Apparently that's Spanish for The Paz. To clarify, that's La Paz, BCS, Mexico, rather than Bolivia. 

So yeah, Baja California. That's where you go to see wildlife, right? I got a boat trip yesterday, I passed the kind of wildlife people go crazy for in most places: frigate birds; blue-footed boobies; noone even noticed. Never seen a boat load of people more non-plussed about dolphins. Everyone likes dolphins. It's like they had bigger fish to spy... 

So swimming with whale sharks. That's kinda weird. They are very big. And I'm not great at this seeing business, plus the water was generally a bit murky, so the whole experience was grey and grey and FISH. Still, whale sharks, box ticked. 

Spent today up in the highlands, Sierra de Lagunas, trying to find more wildlife. Found a whole heap of kestrels, turkey vultures, a ranch and some views. Well cowboy. 

So what have I eaten:

Cactus - specifically paddle cactus. It tastes of green and goes well with a steak. 

Corn-flavoured ice cream - I was sceptical about this (the corn juice I had in China has put me off any maize flavoured, well, thing), but this was good. Tasted like popcorn (the dirty kind) which is kinda strange as popcorn doesn't contain the corn that Mexicans know as corn. 

Fish tacos - so these are a La Paz thing. Again I was sceptical, but they are a straight translation of fishfinger sandwiches, and who doesn't like that? 

One last thing, for anyone who actually uses this blog for useful travel advice (first piece of advice, don't use this blog for travel advice) La Paz is the first place I've seen communal play equipment for wheelchair users. That's pretty cool, right?

Land and Freedom

I have got my Mexico on over the last couple of days. Eating tamale. Drinking mezcal. Pointing at eagles. Ticking cliche after traveller cliche off the list. Bring it.

So Teotihuacan, that's one of those names that I've always found a bit intimidating. Generally I have referred to the ruins as "the ones with the long name beginning with T" and people know what I mean, or at least nod politely. Turns out it's pronounced T.O.T. wackan, or at least it is to my insensitive English ears.  Keep it phonetic. 

Ready for some learning? They're not Aztec ruins. They predate the Aztecs by most of a millennia. Also they aren't Mayan, the population was cosmopolitan, apparently. A mish mash of different cultures all living together and building pyramids. And those pyramids are big. The so-called Pyramid of the Sun (which is apparently more likely to be rain-themed) is the third largest pyramid in the world. 

What else? I went to Cuernavaca to see the 500 year old castlechurch. Turns out if you are invading with religion, you need your buildings to be hardcore. None of that baroque altarpiece nonsense, just thick walls and crenellations. They have recently given it a do-over with agate windows and an Ikea pulpit. Funkiest church I've been in, in a while. 

And Taxco. A picture-postcard knot of cobbled streets leading to another massive church. All the streets are stuffed with silversmiths, all of whom lure you in with free mezcal, which seems like a foolproof, if slightly sneaky, sales technique. 

Back inside the mountain walls of CDMX and there are still boxes to tick: lucha libre. Turns out it's a real thing (well a real fake thing) and people go crazy for it. The matches we saw were mainly trio wrestling, with best of three bouts, which meant I had little to no idea what was going on for the most part. It was pretty spectacular, lots of colour, lots of leaping and more mini-estrellas than I was expecting. I'd finish with a luche libre chant, but the only thing I could really make out was "cervecas" and I'm not certain that that's a bona fide chant...

The Place of the Navel of the Moon

I'm in Mexico. Specifically Mexico City, the so-called place of the navel of the moon where it all began, where after 200 years of wandering they saw the eagle with a snake on a cactus. I can't remember exactly who they are, but they definitely saw the eagle snake. 

So I like Mexico City. I know I've only been here 24 hours so have barely scratched the surface,  but so far, so enjoyable. 

I was expecting two things: 

1. The size of the place would be intimidating. 

2. There would be crimes happening everywhere.  

And so far I have been disappointed on both counts. The historic centre seems conveniently walkable and, even at night, the streets (in the admittedly gentrified areas I've explored) seem as safe as anywhere. 

There appears to be a whole heap of wonky history all crammed into the centre and, as Dia del Muertes has just been and gone, it is all covered in skeletons and marigolds. The flowers not the gloves. 

So yeah, CDMX gets a thumbs up from me. 

Stuff I've been Reading - October

Looks like a full month since the last post. Which means you've missed a trip to London to see parks and palaces, a trip to Felixstowe to see a fort and, worryingly, me agreeing with the Daily Mail - it was only a theatre review, but I'm worried that that's how the drag you in. First you agree thst Groan Ups was funny, then you find yourself voting for Farage and buying Royal Wedding plates.

Anyway...

John Wyndham - The Chrysalids

Matt Coyne - Dummy

William Morris - News from Nowhere

The Wyndham book had been on the list for a couple of years. And, now that I've read it, I'm not sure why it was recommended. The whole thing seemed a bit forced, a disjointed non-story loosely contrived to make a point that I didn't quite understand. 

Speaking of which, News from Nowhere. Long term readers may remember me being scornful of Utopian novels. News from Nowhere is Utopian. It spends all it's time world building and being smug and exactly none of it's time being fun to read. 

Unlike Dummy by Man vs Baby. Which was fun to read. At one point I found myself vibrating with suppressed laughter. You don't get that in Utopian Novels. 

Stuff I've been Reading - September

Red Seas Under Red Skies - Scott Lynch
The Slow Regard of Silent Things - Patrick Rothfuss
Factfulness - Hans Rosling

Red Seas Under Red Skies
I know, I know. A couple of months ago I said I wouldn't read this. And then I did. I liked the Locke Lamora world building, so I read it, even though I wasn't sure about the writing. And weirdly, I think I liked this one a bit better. Not often I say that Bout a sequel.

The Slow Regard of Silent Things
It started with an instruction, telling you not to read it. I'm still not certain whether I should have listened. More a poem than a story. Or a technical piece of cleverer-than-thou prose. It wasn't that I didn't enjoy it - if I truly didn't enjoy it I wouldn't have finished it, I'm happy to dismiss a book - I just, well, didn't enjoy it as much as the other two Rothfuses.

Factfulness
Now here is a book I enjoyed. One that made me feel clever, whilst teaching me things and adjusting my world view. You should probably give it a read. You'll feel better for it...

Walrus Schmalrus

Do any long term readers remember what 2013, 2014 and 2015 all had in common? No? Okay, I'll tell you (although I am disappointed in you not remembering five-year-old information about my life). The most I laughed was at Mischief Theatre Company.

But look at them now. All grown up. Christmas specials on the BBC and three shows running on the West End. And I'm all grown up too. Five years more cynical. Five years more ground down by politics. I'm a professional man with a responsible job. Nowadays I go to the William Morris gallery in Walthamstow to learn about serious things like environmental activism and wallpaper. I wouldn't be reduced to uncontrollable tears of laughter by a man doing an impression of a walrus.

It looks like 2019 will be joining that list.

The Bermondsey of the North

Manchester, it's been a while. You've changed a bit. Some of those areas that I wouldn't have wanted to go to when I lived there are now fully gentrified: card only and contactless.

So it was a trip that was part nostalgia and part beer exploring (Squawk who knew?), topped with an unexpected finale of a major sports event (those Tour of Britain cyclists go pretty fast - you feel the whoosh as they go past you, like when a pigeon flies in your face, only on a bike).

Still, good to see that Salford Quays is still soulless. Some things don't change...

Rosettes

A tasting menu at a Michelin starred restaurant and a panto horse derby. Standard bank holiday weekend.

___________

Stuff I've been Reading - August

Unexpected genius of pigs- Matt Whyman
The Holy Vible - Elis James and John Robins
Black Moses - Alain Mabanckou
The Girls - Lori Lansen

The Matt Whyman book was lovely,  but then I am quite a fan of pigs. It didn't make me want one as a pet though. It sounded like they would make a right old mess of the dahlias.

I read the first bit of Holy Vible a while aho and found it funny enough to want to read the rest - it made me do a lol on the train and everything. I didn't enjoy the rest of it anywhere near as much, turns out it was a book of in jokes from a radio show.  Still, it had a chapter on Gorky's Zygotic Mynci. Any book with a chapter on Gorky's Zygotic Mynci can't be bad.

I've never been a fan of funny books. I have a lot of time for books that happen to be funny - Colin Bateman, say, or Chris Brookmyre. But books that are primarily "funny" I tend not to get on with. Even the big ones - A Confederacy of Dunces, Diary of a Nobody, Three Men on a Bike. I guess that that's not a bad company for Black Moses...

I've been reading The Girls for ages. After being reliably informed that I would be through it in a couple of days, it has taken most of the year. Still, done now, ultimately I really enjoyed it, even if it did take for ages.

Oranges, the New Black (Part 2)

So take the Jan 16 post as a starting point, then add maybe twenty degrees. Seville cathedral is still massive, Plaza de Espana still looks incredible and there are still an awful lot of oranges.

I climbed Seta this time - that's the big wooden fungus parasol - and ate in the tourist zone to try and get a flamenco fix, turned out to just be men shouting over a guitar, which wasn't really what I was hoping for.

But that's that with our whistlestop tour of Andalucia - four cities in a week. Hot walks, cold beer, squares, helados, churches, Alcazars, tapas and heat. Done.

Mezquita

Cordoba didn't make you work for its delights. Bus station and boom, city centre. I wasn't really expecting a proper city centre. I was sort of expecting a minor settlement next to some old stuffs. But no, proper city.

There was old stuffs though. Cordoba does a good winding medieval street,  even if a lot of them have been somewhat filled with tourism. There's an Alcazar. And a Roman bridge. And a whole heap of other histories.

And then there's the mosque. A building so old it makes the Alhambra seem like a pup. Plenty of people have written about it, so I'll just say it's pretty good and leave you to judge for yourself.

Before we leave Cordoba, it's worth having a quick chat about the food:
Oxtail - delicious, but you have to gnaw it off the bone like a medievaller otherwise you miss the juiciest bits. Messyfacetastic.
Aubergine - deep fried and covered in sugar cane syrup. Turns out these are a thing. Get in my face crispy sweet vegetables.
Flamenquin - wrap Iberian ham in pork, dunk it in batter then deep-fry it? You had me at Iberian.

Andalucia

Malaga made us work for its good bits. It seemed like the city just didn't really want us to visit, with its complete lack of anything resembling information as we left the bus station.

Turns out the centre is pretty nice with its historic buildings and its castles on hills.

Not as nice as Granada though. Now there's a city that can do a hilltop fort. I'd been sceptical about the Alhambra as all the pictures I'd seen had been a bit underwhelming. From the photos it looks like it may have just been made of boxes. Don't get me wrong, it's impressive that the boxes were taken up the hill 700 years ago, but its not exactly pretty.

Turns out the pretty bit is on the inside. The decor in the Nasrid Palace was phenomenal. And the whole complex is enormous, we were there for half a day and didn't see everything.

But we had to leave so we could use the second half of the day to cross the river and climb a hill to look back on the Alhambra whilst eating ice cream. Turns out that's a thing.

And final bit of history: went to the Royal Chapel to get our Ferdinand and Isabella on. Adter that I knew a lot more about Spanish History. But have forgotten it all again because beer and tapas.

Wild Atlantic Way

White cliffs of Dover. Box ticked. Let's double down on famous cliffs.

The Cliffs of Moher are famous and cliffy. None of that chalk nonsense though, or even the emeraldness of their island, these cliffs are dark and craggy and look like dragon homes. We started at Liscannor, which also sounds like a name from Lord of the Rings, and walked north from Hag's Head until the selfie-ing crowds got unmanageable. They are pretty spectacular, I can see why they are a thing.

Did you know that O'Connell Street in Ennis is one of the World's top 60 public spaces? There are a handful of reasons I found this surprising, the biggest being that I didn't know such a list existed. Anyway, Ennis was as pretty and well presented as you would expect from somewhere in the World's top 60 public spaces.

Galway is one of those cities that you have a vision in your mind of what it's going to be like - colourful pubs and the Irish Rover. No No Never and all that. And it was a bit like that, but in the Latin Quarter - a tiny part of a much bigger city. In retrospect it was naive, like expecting all of Marrakech to be a maze of bustling spice market, erm...

Stuff I've been reading, July

The lies of Locke Lamora - Scott Lynch
The Wise Man's Fear - Patrick Rothfus
One of Us is Lying - Karen M McManus

You know that thousand-page-book-with-the-elf-on-the-front that I was moaning about last month? Smashed it. Enjoyed it too, not quite as much as it's predecessor but right up there.

I doubled down on my fantasy this month due to recommendations. The Scott Lynch book was good: great characters, great world building, great story - there was just something about it that made it seem harder work than it should have been. Possibly just the fact that it was sandwiched between the two Rothfuses.

And then there was last year's YA smash, which I was sceptical about, but really got into. Talking of YA, the local library has just banned over 19s from the YA (and graphic novel) section. That's a bit weird, right?

Toasted Sandwich

And the Southeast. Yes, I know. But more Southeast. That there Garden of England. And mainly we talked about the weather. Too hot. Too wet. 38 degrees and thunderstorms. Perfect camping weather.

We were camping at a fishing lake. Now fishing isn't really something that's ever been of interest - one of thise things that other people do. But when in Sandwich Lakes... Turns out I quite enjoyed it. But shhh, don't tell anyone.

We saw castles too, the Dover, Deal, Walmer triptych. Plus Richborough. Dover was the biggest. Walmer was the prettiest. Deal was the one with the fox in the moat. Richborough was just wet and miserable.

Plus White Cliffs. I'm not certain that I've ever seen The white cliffs up close and peraonal before. But there they were in all their chalky glory.

Plus Sandwich - Sandwich is nice and quaint right? A bit like Lavenham only with more soul. And a better name and a much better signpost. And a better brewery - the whole trip could have been sponsored by Time and Tide. What with the sign. And the Miner Miracle statue. And it making Deal Carnival in the
Rain fun. Come on people, drink Time and Tide.

For the record:
5. Sqawk
4. Urban Goose
3. All In Jim
2. Manfred
1. Wormburner

Rocks

Stone Henge, hey, that's one of the biggies.

I'd seen it from the 303, when stuck in the circular-rules traffic jam caused by people rubbernecking the Rocks, but not sure that counts. Apparently I went to see it as a pup, but don't remember that. So let's call this my first proper visit. Which is ridiculous, right?

Turns out it's alright. It gets a Pete thumbs up. It seemed grand, more grand than I expected. Even without the history (history schmistory - we've all carried 30 tonne rocks from Wales). I'm not sure if it is genuinely grand or whether the symbolism is so ingrained into popular culture that its very presence is disproportionally grand.

Maybe if I asked someone who hadn't been so cynically exposed to popular culture, they might be able to put me straight. I asked my six year old chum. He told me that the Go Jetters stopped Grand Master Glitch destroying the sunstone. I guess them there Rocks are pretty entrenched...

Brum, Baby, Brum

And another weekend in the second city. I really don't know Birmibgham that well, so it's always like visiting a whole new place for the first time. We stayed in Digberth, which seemed to be mid gentrification. So plastic free shops and broken bin bags made a glamorous backdrop to our adventures.

The market in Birmingham was ace. It was like an abroad market, where you could choose between skin-on and skin-off sheep's heads. You don't get that in Essex.

We had festivals. We stumbled on a food festival, which was a treat - always a pleasure to eat steak with plastic cutlery. They had cocktails which smoked and who doesn't love that. Then Beer Central, which gave us more craft beer than anyone needs, but less DJs. The beer festival introduced us to lemon haloumi curry wrap - which should be more of a thing than it is - and hiphop karaoke, which is about the right size. Best beer Lervig Coconuts.

One last mention - the Indian Brewing Company. Get in my face, chaat.

Stuff I've Been Reading June

Crikey I've been a bore for the last month. I have done pretty much nothing of interest. I've barely even read:

Conversations with Friends - after really enjoying Normal People I jumped on Sally Rooney's debut. I didn't enjoy it anywhere near as much. Oh well.

The Name of the Wind- is one of those books that I've been meaning to read for a while. When the second person told me it was their favourite book ever, I thought I ought to give it a go. And it's good. It's really good. Rattled through it pretty quickly for a book of such girth. But:
1. It's a fantasy. Proper magic and other lands fantasy. And I'm not sure how I feel about that.
2. It's the first part of a trilogy, of which:
2a. Book two is a thousand pages long and has an elf with a magic sword on the front cover; and
2b. The third part hasn't been written.
A resounding hmmmmmm.

Right, I'm off to do something worth writing about.

It's So Bracing

I've been to a fair few places around the world but I have not been to the archetypal British seaside town that is Skegness. Until now.

But we are getting ahead of ourselves. We based ourselves in Mablethorpe, which - whilst a hotbed of kiss-me-quick and Carling cliches - proved to be John the Baptist for Skeggy's Jesus.

Skegness. Oh Skegness. With your amusements and your footputt and your family funpubs and your manicured beaches amd your whipping sands. You were more than I could have hoped for.

Aside from that the Lincolnshire coast was ace: enormobeaches, Global Hypercolor sunsets and birds that sound like mid-nineties techno breaks. What more do you need?
__________

Stuff I've been Reading - May

Bit of a poor month for books with only two completions:
California by Edan Lepucki is one of those dystopian books that I was reading heaps of a few years back, but seem to have petered out of late. Have I grown out of them? Hmmmm.

They Shoot Horses, Don't They is a classic that I knew almost nothing about. Turns out it's about a marathon dance competition. I wouldn't have guessed that.

Keys

I went to the Ceremony of the Keys. Turns out that's a thing. I was loosely aware that it happened but really didn't know too much about it.

The ceremony itself was the kind of thing that Britain does well, but being in the Tower of London after closing time was brilliant. It was like being in a fairy tale. I'd been to the Tower before, a decade or so back, but really didn't remember all that much about the grounds. It was so much prettier than I remember, possibly due to the lack of bodies. I spent the evening wandering round with a big, old, uncynical grin on.

Stuff I've been Reading April 19

I never did go back and talk about the March books. There were some great things in there,  not least a blank verse werewolf novel. I know, right. There was also a Zadie Smith. I seem to enjoy every other novel she writes, Swingtime was a good un, far more enjoyable than the Ulysseslite of N-W.

Anyway, April:
Educated- Tara Westover
Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle - Stuart Turton
Moneyball - Michael Lewis
Normal People - Sally Rooney

I meant to join a bookgroup that was reading Educated. I didn't bother. But I read their book, which I believe is the opposite of people that are in bookgroups. Educated was scary, it was an autobiography of someone roughly my age, but it read like a cartoon.

Seven Deaths was ace, it had me on the edge of the proverbial seat, largely as I had no idea what was going on.

Talking of having no idea what was going on: Moneyball. It's one of those books you're supposed to have read, right? The fact that I know nothing about baseball (It's just rounders in uniform, right?), meant that I didn't understand about ten percent of it and didn't care about another twenty. Still found it quite interesting which probably says a lot about Michael Lewis.

And Normal People was brilliant. Entirely not what I would normally read, but brilliant. If I say too much more about it I'm going to sound like a literary critic and that was never the idea.

Beer Pilgrimage

Huddersfield. Now there's a place I've not been to before. And. Place were you can get a decent beer. We went up to visit the Magic Rock brewery. Turns out Magic Rock is great and that Hudsersfield has somewhat embraced the craft beer scene: Arcade, Grove and The Sportsman's Arms all had selections designed for the Magic Rock pilgrims.

We've joined the English Heritage, because that seems like a grown up thing to do. We broke both journeys at country estates: Brodsworth Hall with its weird grotto garden and Kirby Hall with its peacocks and missing roof. Well grown up.

We also broke the journey north with a trip to Stilton. I wouldn't bother.

City Walls

Ooh, a new city. Although it probably shouldn't be. Given how long I lived in the Northwest it's weird, maybe even embarrassing, that I never made it to Chester. Turns out it's alright. It has walls and ruins; a river and a clock. Everything you need for a city, right?

Talking of ruins, had a visit to Beeston Castle too. Now there's a ruin on a hill. The views are spectacular; makes the whole of Cheshire looks like a model trainset.

Pop (Goes the Weasel)

And a weekend of things that I've only heard about in the last six months but really should have known about for ages.

Mothers' day and three generations of selfindulgentnonsense headed down to the British Wildlife Centre. You heard of that? Well you should. It's ace. It's a zoo but all the animals are local. None of this elephant lion nonsense. Here the apex predators are badgers.

It meant I got to see those animals that, to date, I'd only seen from a passing car. I saw a badger doing a snuffle, a weasel looking like a tiny, teleporting meercat and an ADHD stoat. Plus some harvest mice, which are tiny.

Saturday was the Bermondsey Beer Mile. Now you've heard of that, right? Turns out Bermondsey has gentrified whilst I wasn't looking. Who'd have thought? Best beer of the mile - Brew by Numbers. Best discovery - smoked lager.

Stuff I've been Reading - March:

Stellig - David Almond
The World Made Straight - Ron Rash
Sharp Teeth - Toby Barlow
Help - Simon Amstell
Siege Mentality - Christopher Brookmyre
Swingtime - Zadie Smith

Nice Puns

I wasn't sure what to make of Nice at first. I mean I liked the way there were signs for things like "Nice helicopters", that made me smile, but getting into the city itself, it just seemed really resorty. And resorty in that seedy resorty way of, as soon as you are off the seafront then the whole place is a bit unpleasant. But then you find yourself in Place Massena and you realise that it will all be alright after all.

Had a day trip to Monaco. I thinks it's fair to say that Monaco is not Nice. And that works both ways. The setting is spectacular but the man-made additions are just ugly. For somewhere so dripping with wealth you kind of expect everything to be a bit more cared for.

Had a coffee at the Monte Carlo Casino. Sneered at the super yachts in the marina. Wandered Monaco-Vieux with its sub-Corniglia streets amd figured that the country probably isn't for me. Box ticked, back to the Nice streets.

Stuff I've Been Reading (Feb 19)

Books read:

Drunk Folk Tales - Beans on Toast
Straight out of Crawley - Romesh Ranganathan
The Portrait - Antoine Laurain
Fox8 - George Saunders
Carra - Jamie Carragher
Tom's midnight garden - Philippa Pearce

When I read the Polysyllabic Spree I was travelling, so my book choice was largely limited to what I could find in book swaps. Which made taking Nick Hornby's recommendations a bit less straightforward. The only book I remember reading as a result of the Polyphonic Spree was Stuart A Life Backwards. Having access to the Internet whilst reading this follow up is dangerous - I now have eight books on the go. Which is ridiculous.

It was a surprisingly autobiography-y month. Three of them, all from people roughly my age. Which is a bit weird. Not wholly sure why I read the Jamie Carragher one, it was recommended to me a decade or so ago but I have no idea by who. The only person it could have been has assured me it wasn't him. Hmmm.

I found the Beans on Toast book the most relatable. It felt like hearing your mate's anecdotes down the pub. Something which the Carra book just didn't quite pull off.

Everyone loves a non human narrator, right? And I'm fairly sure Fox8 was the first book I've read narrated by a fox. Which is obviously ace. Plus George Saunders. And it's only little so you may as well read it.

Not sure how I hadn't read Tom's Midnight Garden before. Apparently it was voted second best children's book of the last seventy years, after His Dark Materials. I really enjoyed it. Which I guess shouldn't be a surprise.

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At the start of the Nick Hornby book he talks about how books would never have the same cultural impact as songs, as (paraphrasing) they take too long to read, so (generally) by the time you've read the latest book it's not that new anymore. In a similar vein, I was chatting to Ollie from Hopsters about how beers were like music used to be, how you could get excited about trying something new. How a limited edition Tiny Rebel and Deya collaboration NEIPA was like finding a rare b-side back in the nineties, beforemusic became so easily accessible. With that in mind...

Beers supped:

Yeah yeah yeah - Magic Rock x Wylam
Skeletory - Northern Monk x Deya
Putty - Verdant
Tiny Rebel birthday collaboration beers
It's this way Tony and Juice Campbell - Brew York
Caracolillo - Watson's
Chasing mirrors through a haze - Wylam
Little Urchin and Wormburner - Time and Tide

There are some big names in there, right? I think Wormburner was my favourite.

Bonn Chic, Bonn Genre

First time out of the country in five months - which I think is the longest I've been in one country in a decade - so a good time to reignite that winter trip to Germany thing.

I went to Cologne a few years back. It was the first time I'd seen the padlocks-on-a-bridge thing. At the time I thought it was something different, something to remark upon. Now it's remarkable in a whole other way. There are so many padlocks - no more than the amount you're currently thinking. Double it. Still more.

The other things I remembered about Cologne: 1. everyone wears fancy dress as a practice for the crazy days and 2. they eat their sausages raw. Both of those things were very much in evidence.

Aside from that I eas disappointed by how little I saw before, there is a whole load more city than just the old town. There's a sculpture garden where they have massive fried eggs; there's a botanic gardens where they have purple lawns; there's a river walk where you get to see crows pecking eagles. What's not to like?

Bonn on the other hand just came across as Cologne light. It probably didn't help that everything was closed but so much was just a rubbish version of Cologne. Don't get me wrong, it was a perfectly pleasant city. It just wasn't Cologne.

I've been reading "Stuff I've been Reading" by Nick Hornby. Much like the Polysyllabic Spree before it, it's made me want to catalogue everything I've read. Hmmm...

No Leeds

So let's kick 2019 off with a combo of two things I've been meaning to do for a while.

About three years ago I got told by a seven year old that I hadn't travelled much because I'd not been to Leeds Castle. Not that I take teasings from children seriously, but we can't be having that, right? So Leeds Castle. Boom. It's a proper castle with a moat and a whole heap of history. It always worries me in places like that with regard to how little history I know, especially from way back when in 100 year war times.

People have been saying Colchester Zoo is one of the best zoos in the country for a few years now. Back when I was a pup this was a standard day out, but I don't think I've been since I was twelve. It's changed quite a bit and is impressive in both its size and its selection. I'm still just not quite sure what I think about zoos. Still, the otters seemed happy.