Category Archives for England
Next Time I'm Getting A Flu Shot
Until, ooh, about six weeks ago, I was one of those irritating people who’d bang on and on about their marvelous immune system and how they NEVER get sick when travelling. You know the sort… Oysters in Thailand. Ceviche in Kenya. Mysterious stews in Guatemalan eateries with pigs foraging in the mud around the tables, [...]
A Big Day Out
How much of London can you see in a single day? Armed with a London Pass and the very best intentions to get out of bed early, the boy and I endeavoured to find out. You might not have heard of the London Pass — I certainly hadn’t. But it’s a smart card that lets [...]
The Friday Photo: Tower Bridge
We’ve spent most of this week being tourists in London, which used to be our home town. And Tower Bridge, the late Victorian edifice that spans the Thames besides the Tower of London, is a London icon: the middle part splits and raises so that tall ships can pass through. It doesn’t have the scale [...]
On the Politics of Museums
The more time we spend in museums around the world, the more I come to realise how very, very political they are. Take the National Museum of China. When it closed for refurbishment a couple of years ago, exhibits were arranged according to the Marxist theory of history: Primitive Communism, Slave Society, Feudalism, Capitalism, etc. [...]
I had high hopes for our sojourn in Blighty. By approximately, umm, now, Z and I would have completed a whirlwind tour of the UK, caught up with scores of friends and relatives, and done all the tourist stuff you’re supposed to do in London that you never actually do when you’re actually living there. [...]
A Beach. England. January. Are We Mad?
There is something extremely English about a trip to the beach in winter. Our beaches, like our weather, our teeth and vast swathes of our national cuisine, are an international laughing stock. Which is not, entirely, fair. This January morning, we walked from Holkham Beach on the Norfolk coast to Wells, a couple of miles [...]
5 Things To Do With Kids In London
I wasn’t born in London. But I lived in London from when I was five until I was seventeen, and then again from 21 to 35, and London feels like my (and is my son’s) home town. So here’s my recommendations for five things to do with the kids if you’re visiting London. 1: Go [...]
A Day At The Races
The late, lamented Soho lush and gambler, Jeffrey Bernard, tells the story of a man named Antonio, a barman in one of his locals: “His addiction to matters concerning the Turf began one day when he put fifty pence on a horse of Scobie Breasley’s called Hittite Glory. The animal trotted up at 100-1 and [...]
"Home" for Christmas
After almost two years travelling Asia, we’re back in the UK for Christmas. On a lot of levels, I’ve been anxious about this for a while. It’s partly the adjustment to the dark, drizzly English winter — in England in December you can expect under 8 hours of daylight per day. And that is normally [...]
