Arsenal 22 Years of Tickets and Travel…

 It certainly feels like it. 

@arsenal #overlandandsea #COYG 

Celebrations Non-Stop…

 🎉🥳👏🍾🙌🎊🍻🎈⚽️🔴⚪️

So when Arsenal fans knew we had won the men’s Premiership last Tuesday night, there was unofficial partying into the wee small hours outside the Emirates Stadium. Everyone was taken aback by the number of people who turned out. 🧍🏻‍♂️🧍🏻‍♀️

Today will be the official Premiership trophy lift at Selhurst Park after the Crystal Palace game and no doubt back in North London there will be more stadium celebrations.  The numbers are expected to be “big”. 🧍🏻‍♂️🧍🏻‍♀️ 🧍🏻‍♂️🧍🏻‍♀️

Next Saturday night, the UEFA Champions League final will be screened live at the Emirates. Win or lose, there will be more champions celebrations at the stadium. The numbers will be “very big”. 🧍🏻‍♂️🧍🏻‍♀️ 🧍🏻‍♂️🧍🏻‍♀️ 🧍🏻‍♂️🧍🏻‍♀️

And then finally, next Sunday, there will be a huge Arsenal parade around Islington with the men’s team on a bus. The official estimation of the crowd at the parade is “huge”.  Some have suggested close to 1 million people🧍🏻‍♂️🧍🏻‍♀️ 🧍🏻‍♂️🧍🏻‍♀️ 🧍🏻‍♂️🧍🏻‍♀️ 🧍🏻‍♂️🧍🏻‍♀️ 🧍🏻‍♂️🧍🏻‍♀️

Royal Horticultural Society Chelsea Flower Show…

I’d never been to the RHS Chelsea Flower Show before. And yesterday Abby very generously offered to take me.  We had a blast in the sunshine. 🌞🌸🌻🌷🌴🪴

Silently judging some of the weaker Show Gardens. Marvelling at the better ones.  Crying at the story behind the Parkinson’s one. 😢

And just when we thought we’d had enough, discovering with rapture a whole pavilion of fresh beauty. 🌺🌼🪻🌹💐🪷

And we found a way to keep our champagne hidden - and cool too. 🍾😎 

Equus @ Menier Chocolate Factory…

Last night Stuart and I went to see Equus at the Menier Chocolate Factory in London’s glitzy London Bridge Quarter.

Peter Shaffer’s horsey fever dream arrives with all the emotional impact of a couple of hooves to the ribs. Lindsay Posner directs with punch. 

Toby Stephens prowls magnificently as the doubting psychiatrist (holding on to the unfashionable notion that mental illness is rational response to dysfunctional world), Noah Valentine burns with chaos as the horse-mutilating psychotic teenager, and Amanda Abbington keeps the whole madhouse pinned together. 

The nudity is never gratuitous. The pivotal scene of the blinding of the horses is wildly crazily emotional. It’s an intense, sweaty and oddly balletic watch. 

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

@menchocfactory @amanda_abbington74 @noahmarcusvalentine #Equus 

The Angel (PBS Remix) - Louis Dunford…

The Pet Shop Boys remix of Louis Dunford’s The Angel is fab.

It’s the Arsenal’s stadium anthem given the PSB treatment. Chris Lowe being a big Gooner of course. 

I hope it gets an official release. 

@petshopboys @louisdunford @arsenal  

#NorthLondonForever #PremierLeague #COYG

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DYiVrypNHXF

What it feels like for a fan… to finally win.

It can be hard to explain to non-football fans what winning a competition — especially the English Premier League — is like.

It’s an ecstasy. A joy. A release.

A release from watching your team fight and struggle for 22 years. It’s those wet Wednesdays in Wigan when you lose. It’s the long journeys home from Newcastle after a draw. It’s the ‘second-place mentality’. The also-rans. The self-doubt. 

Watching your team lose against a team that’s worse than yours. Again and again. Year after year. Watching your team snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Again and again.

It’s the infighting. It’s the recriminations. It’s the false starts. It’s the limp finishes.

It’s the way it takes over your life. Every waking moment. It’s the compromises. It’s the money. The stress. The drama. The travel chaos. The late nights. The early mornings. The “what could’ve beens.” Telling yourself: “It’s the hope that kills.”

Constantly asking yourself why do you put yourself through it? 

It’s the tense negotiations with families and loved ones. The missed parties, the missed holidays, the missed birthdays.

It’s your own inner turmoil and doubt about supporting a group of 11 men who seem hell-bent on letting you down. Week after week. 

And you think it’s never gonna happen. You’re never gonna win anything ever again. The sadness. The frustration. The stress. The despair.

And then…

And then… things start to improve.

You’re playing better. You dare to dream. Could this be it? Could this be our season?

And like a beautiful slow-motion miracle… it is.

And it’s the most joyous, ecstatic feeling in the world.

Those 22 years of pent-up frustration, hope, joy, pain, happiness, and jubilation all come rushing out at once.

Yes, it’s hard to explain. But my goodness, it’s a good feeling.

We are the champions, my friends.

🏆🍾🎉🥳🎊🔴⚪️⚽️🥅🏟️ COYG ❤️

@Arsenal

#COYG #Arsenal #PremierLeague #NorthLondonForever #Gunners #AFC #Champions #VictoriaConcordiaCrescit

Anniversary on Board…

Haha. The anniversary keeps on giving! ✈️😅 Thank you BA ❤️

Airport Swimming…

So the next best thing to being at the game tonight is to be in a swimming pool at Punta Cano airport watching the planes takeoff and land 🛫🛬 😅

InterContinental Santo Domingo…

Apologies for the gratuitous “this is us in an infinity pool high up on a posh hotel” photos. But this hotel is fab. For some reason* they upgraded us to a suite too. It’s huge. Stuart is worth it. Just. 😎😅

*see previous heavy mentions of anniversary 

Santo Domingo…

Santo Domingo in Dominican Republic is what happens when history gets dressed up for cocktails. And then chokes on an olive. 

Columbus was here. But probably overdid it. 

The new areas go from rough and ready to modern high rise. The old town has its cobbled streets, a nice cathedral, churches older than most countries, and enough museums to make an history teacher weep with joy. The glitzy Zona Colonial serves conquistador chic with a side order of rum and questionable colonial decision making. 

Nice change from the beach. 

@gosantodomingo @zonacolonialsd #SantoDomingo #DominicanRepublic #Travel #History #ZonaColonial