Warsaw…

Stuart and I hopped around Warsaw quite a lot today. We spent a little over 3 hours pounding the tourist trail. Crawling all over the Old Town, walking around the commercial area, and climbing up and down bell tours and ex-Communist cultural centres. 

Snapshot:-

Old Town - 13th century cobbled streets. Beautifully restored medieval buildings. Small though. 

Old Market Square - Picturesque. But touristy. 

City Walls - er, brick reconstructed. Not very sympathetically at that. 

Royal Castle - Reconstructed Polish monarchy pad. Now art museum. Meh. 

King Sigismund’s Column - ohh er, missus

St Anne’s Bell Tower - the guy wanted cash. Nice views though. 

Royal Route - pizza and coffee shop route more like 

Presidential Palace - cute soldiers on guard

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier - more cute soldiers

University of Warsaw Gate - nice gate. Er…

A fake palm tree in a roundabout - no, really

The Palace of Culture and Science - Soviet era architectural masterpiece with great viewing terrace

Upshot: Warsaw is a nice place. A little stern. A little stark. But friendly enough. 

Polski Bound…

Wylatujemy na tydzień do Polski, żeby zrobić sobie mały wypad, a potem do krajów bałtyckich. 

“Are we going today because it’s the International break and there are no Arsenal games on?” asks Stuart. 

I grin. He knows. I know he knows. 🙂

Arsenal 1 - 0 Chelsea…

Fabulous meet-up with the gaygooners before kick-off yesterday.  Spirits were high and the chat was all about a win.

 

The game itself was more nervy however.  Despite a rather one-sided opening 20 minutes in Arsenal's favour, no goals came. 

 

Then superman Mikel Merino stepped up. His header took us into the lead.

 

Chelsea struggled to respond - Pedro Neto and Christopher Nkunku both had shots blocked before Cucurella thumped a volley that squirmed through David Raya's grasp and dropped just wide.

 

The result ended our three-game winless run in the Premier League and tighten our grip on the runners-up spot.

 

While the game will not live long in the memory, three points were vital for Mikel Arteta's side. We still trail champions-elect Liverpool by 12 points and we could have been forgiven for looking over their shoulders at third-placed Nottingham Forest.

 

Onwards and upwards, my friends.

 

@Arsenal

#COYG

#ARSCHE

@gaygooners

 

Otherland @ Almeida Theatre…

On Friday night, Stuart and I went to see Otherland at the Almeida Theatre in London’s glitzy Islington. 

Chris Bush’s new play with music is a thought-provoking exploration of womanhood and the physical changes women undergo.   

We follow married, then separated, couple Jo (Jake Anouka) and Harry (Fizz Sinclair) as they navigate these transformations. Jo becomes pregnant, while Harry starts hormone therapy.   

Bush juxtaposes a trans and cis experience, showing both in all their complexity.  With much pathos, and much humour too. 

It’s a powerful and moving watch that challenges us to think about womanhood in a new way.  

Harri’s conversations with her mum (Jackie Clune) who wants her to act like a man for a wedding are particularly poignant. 

The only odd thing is perhaps when the play takes a wild turn in the second act, shifting to heavy-handed dreamlike metaphors. Harry is transported back in time, while Jo zooms forward.

But that aside, it was a very interesting and entertaining night at the theatre that stays with you. 

⭐️⭐️⭐️

"They will in a minute."

A little girl was in a drawing lesson. She was 6 years old and sat at the back drawing.

She hardly ever paid attention in class but in this class she did.

The teacher was fascinated and went over and asked her, "What are you drawing?"

The girl said, "I'm drawing a picture of God."

Taken aback, the teacher said, "But nobody knows what God looks like."

And the girl replied, "They will in a minute." 😂

Attack! Attack! Attack!…

<nerdy_post>

My home mail servers have been under a combined distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack and protocol hack attack yesterday and today.

 

The simultaneous attack has come from (but probably not orchestrated by) computer addresses in China, Taiwan, Brazil, USA, Australia, Israel, Holland, Sweden, Indonesia, Turkey, Canada, Uzbekistan, Mongolia, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Guatemala, Vietnam, Ethiopia, Peru, Bangladesh, Uganda, Benin, Moldova, Malaysia, Bosnia, Moldova, Turkey, Ukraine, South Korea, Romania, Cambodia, Tunisia, Kazakhstan and Cornwall!

 

So I've blocked internet connections from most of those countries and blocked the bad subnets of the rest.

 

I have quite good defence and firewall protection anyway but this attack has been quite sophisticated so it’s meant keep one step ahead of the bad guys. 

 

It’s worked (so far!). Yay! 🥳 

</nerdy_post>

 

Alison Moyet @ The London Palladium…

Last night Darren, Stuart, Tim, Andy, and I (along with the world and his wife) went to see the glorious Alison Moyet perform at The London Palladium in London’s glitzy West End. 

Touring to promote the album Key  – 16 reworked works from her 40 year career - Moyet treated us to some old favourites, a couple of new songs, some deep cuts, her glorious singing voice, a great stage presence, and lots of funny on-stage chat. 

Her French cousins were in the audience too. 

A great performer. A great night out.

Dover Street: Alight Here for Green Park...

Last weekend Stuart, Darce and I ventured down into the bowels of the (current) Green Park tube station to explore the Hidden London station that was (previously called) Dover Street. 

 

And it was fantastic.

 

Opened in 1906, Dover Street station was built to serve the Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway – the Piccadilly line as we know it today. 

 

Located on the edge of Mayfair and in the vicinity of three of London’s Royal Parks, it became one of the busiest stations on the line. So busy that in 1933 they needed to move the main entrance from Dover St across the road to Green Park and so quickly renamed the station itself to be ‘Green Park’ too.

 

The guided tour was fab. It took us into 'a station hidden within a station' with its fascinating stories of wartime intrigue, the art that was hidden in the former passageways and lift landings - many of them closed to passengers for decades - and finally to the strikingly vast ventilation shafts and ribbed corridors.

 

As with other tours in the Hidden London stable, we got to see original 1930s vintage signs and tiles that still adorned the walls.

 

We heard how Dover Street played a pivotal role during the Second World War, offering a place for the London Transport Executive Board to safely meet during air raids and helping ensure that the Underground’s operations continued to run. 

 

We saw the 'posh' space where Lord Ashfield, then chairman of the London Passenger Transport Board, had his bedroom secretly fitted at the heart of the station.

 

We also learnt how in the 1960s and 1970s, Green Park expanded to accommodate two post-war lines, the Victoria and Jubilee lines and their role in modernising London’s ageing transport infrastructure in the post-war economic boom.

 

The real 'wow' though was the impressive large ventilation tunnels that hide behind the platforms of Jubilee line to provide essential air cooling to both the Victoria and Jubilee lines. 

 

Darce was wowing with delight was we three peered down on the tube trains through the secret ventilation shafts affording us a unique view of the passengers below. A vantage point normally closed to the public.

 

One of the best tours the London Transport Museum runs.