Happy Potter Bookshop…

Porto is fun. Fun bookshop too. Looks a bit Harry Potter.

Porto Bound…

Porto! We’re coming for you!

@arsenal

@regenersaurus

#FCPARS

Burnley 0 - 5 Arsenal...

Well, that was fun. Arsenal have now booted in 21 goals in five straight wins letting in just 2. Some feat. Some feet.

 

After the match yesterday afternoon, in a wet and windy Burnley, Kai Havertz said Arsenal are "all in this together".  And he's not wrong.

 

As the Gunners continued their blistering goalscoring form with four different scorers thrashing Burnley, they closed the gap at the top of the Premier League to just two points again.

 

The game started well. Following our 6-0 win at West Ham last week we were soon among the goals again, captain Martin Ødegaard opening the scoring on four minutes with a crisp strike into the bottom corner after Gabriel Martinelli's pass. Bukayo Saka then converted from the spot to double the lead after Lorenz Assignon fouled Leandro Trossard in the box.

 

"We are in a good moment, we have won all of the games so far since New Year so it feels good," Havertz said after the match. "Behind that was hard work and there are many hard games to come. We have to continue the hard work."

 

Saka got his second just after the restart as Arsenal kept up the pace, latching on to a clever Ødegaard pass then cutting inside and rifling a shot into the roof of the net.

 

Havertz's scuffed effort was blocked in the box but Trossard was alert to curl in for his third goal in as many league games.

 

Jakub Kiwior's long throw down the line then found an unmarked Havertz, who ghosted in behind the defence and drilled past home goalkeeper James Trafford to complete a comprehensive win for the Gunners.

 

The place went wild. Songs were sung. Neighbours were hugged. 

 

Then, there was just the small matter of the five-hour trek home negotiating Avanti West Coast's delightful train service. Oh joy.

 

But we were happy campers. 

 

Onwards and upwards, my friends.

 

Those goals: -

 

Ødegaard (4' minutes)

Saka (41' minutes pen, 47' minutes)

Trossard (66' minutes)

Havertz (78' minutes)

 

@arsenal

@regenersaurus

#BURARS

@gaygooners

 

Dear Octopus...

Last night, Stuart and I went to the Lyttleton Theatre on the glitzy South Bank to see Dodie Smith’s interwar family drama Dear Octopus. 

Pushing three hours, the play sees Lindsey Duncan as matriarch Dora marshalling an incredibly large family around a posh house as she prepares for her golden wedding anniversary. 

There is a huge cast of characters; husbands, wives, brothers, sisters, children, aunts, uncles, grandchild, great-grandchildren - you get the picture. And we get to meet all of them. Sadly. 

When a family has so many branches - they are like octopuses. Hence their traditional after dinner speeches start with, “Dear Octopus…”

It’s a well produced piece, it’s well acted, but sadly rather boring and over-long. Nothing really happens. 

We don’t really care if they know that he knows what they know that she knows what they know about her. 

I heard snoring in Row E 💤 

⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Mildmay Line…

I especially love the naming of the Mildmay Line. The Mildmay hospital in Shoreditch was a byword for compassion and hope for me and for my friends during the HIV/Aids crisis in the 1980s. It honours so many lost souls. ❤️❤️❤️

Note: “named after” not “goes to” 🙂

In a hundred years time a young child will ask about the Line name. 

After being closed in 1982 as being 'not economical viable', in 1985 the Mildmay hospital was reopened outside the NHS as a charitable nursing home, with a GP surgery attached and caring for young chronically sick patients.

 

In 1988, it became Europe's first hospice caring for people with HIV/AIDS and their families, acquiring a worldwide reputation.

 

It was famously visited by Diana, Princess of Wales several times in the 1980s and 90s.

Overground is no more…

The six lines on the Overground - which is currently only marked with one colour, and is fondly nicknamed by some as the Ginger line - are to be given the following names and colours:

The Lioness line: Euston to Watford Junction - Running through Wembley, the name is to honour the achievements of the England women's football team. On the map it will be marked with yellow parallel lines

The Mildmay line: Stratford to Richmond/Clapham Junction - It has been named after the small charitable hospital in Shoreditch, which played an important role during the HIV/Aids crisis in the 1980s. On the map it will be marked with blue parallel lines

The Windrush line: Highbury & Islington to Clapham Junction/New Cross/Crystal Palace/West Croydon - Running through several areas with strong ties to Caribbean communities, including Dalston Junction, Peckham Rye and West Croydon, it has been named to honour the Windrush community. On the map it will be marked with red parallel lines

The Weaver line: Liverpool Street to Cheshunt/Enfield Town/Chingford - With stops including Liverpool Street, Spitalfields, Bethnal Green and Hackney, the route travels through several areas of London known for their importance in the textile trade. On the map it will be marked with maroon parallel lines

The Suffragette line: Gospel Oak to Barking Riverside - Named to celebrate how London's East End working-class community fought for women's rights, the line also runs to Barking, home of the longest-surviving suffragette, Annie Huggett, who died aged 103. On the map it will be marked with green parallel lines

The Liberty line: Romford to Upminster - According to TfL, it is named "to reference the historical independence of the people of the borough of Havering", through which it runs, as well as the celebrating "a defining feature of London". On the map it will be marked with grey parallel lines.

VD…

😭😭😭

All roads lead to Rome…

Just booking our summer holibubs to Italy.  

This web site lets you calculate journey times and costs of travel in the Roman Empire https://orbis.stanford.edu 

The Fastest journey from Londinium to Roma in January takes 35.1 days, covering 2246 kilometres. 

Prices in denarii, based on the use of a faster sail ship and a civilian river boat (where applicable), and on these road options:           

Per kilogram of wheat (by donkey): 20.01 

Per kilogram of wheat (by wagon): 24.46 

Per passenger in a carriage: 1414

West Ham 0 - 6 Arsenal…

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha (gasp for air) hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha (gasp) Hahahahahahahaha!  

For the first 30 minutes of so at the London Stadium yesterday afternoon there wasn’t really much clue of what as about to happen.   

Both sides had been pinging the ball around, with West Ham doing a reasonably good job of keeping a lid on Arsenal.  

But after William Saliba headed in the opening goal in the 33rd minute the Hammers simply fell apart. Big time.  

The Gunners scored three goals in six minutes to lead 4-0 at the break and then two further quick goals followed in the second half courtesy of Bukayo Saka and ex-West Ham captain Declan Rice.  It was an utter thrashing.  

That winter break in Dubai has done wonders for this Arsenal team. 

We can't get carried away but we are certainly up there in the mix for the title now. 

Onwards and upwards.   

@arsenal 

#COYG 

#ARSWHU

Just For One Day : The Live Aid Musical @ The Old Vic...

Last night Stuart and I went to see John O'Farrell's jukebox musical Just For One Day at The Old Vic in London's glitzy Waterloo.

 

Based on the story of the 1985 benefit concert Live Aid, the musical is named after a line in David Bowie's song "Heroes", which he performed at the event.

 

The back drop at the show is political unrest, social revolution, boom and bust. In a decade of neon and noise and excess, one moment seemed to make the world stand still and brought 1.5 billion people together. And here they all have a story to tell about ‘the day rock ‘n’ roll changed the world’. Or did it?

 

The Live Aid gig, or more accurately gigs, (in fact two concerts were performed that day in London’s Wembley Stadium and the John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia in the USA) take place in the second act of the show.

 

The first act sees Michael Buerk's iconic BBC broadcast from October 1984 in which he described the famine crisis in Ethiopia as 'a biblical famine in the 20th century' and 'the closest thing to hell on Earth' inspire Bob Geldof to act. He and Midge Ure wrote the iconic Band Aid single "Do They Know It's Christmas?" as a result.

 

We get the inside scoop, as indeed the musical has been produced by Bob Geldof. And with Band Aid's permission we hear 37 Live Aid songs — some just snatches of choruses, some mashups, some full-blown numbers — all crammed into the 130-minute show.

 

And it's some setlist. The songs are by Bob Dylan, David Bowie, The Who, U2, Queen, The Police, Elton John, Paul McCartney, The Pretenders, The Cars, Status Quo, Sade, The Boomtown Rats, Diana Ross, Ultravox and more.

 

Directed by Luke Sheppard, the cast of 26 star eschew what perhaps might have been the predictable idea of aping the rock and roll stars themselves (no unitard and stick-on moustache impersonating Freddie Mercury here) but rather let the talented performers breathe their own fire and life into the Live Aid classics.

 

The singing and dancing are great. The energy and musicality are fantastic. There are genuinely tingling moments too, especially when the whole ensemble is thundering along as one. Standouts are David Bowie's afore mentioned "Heroes" and The Police's hit song "Message In A Bottle". Sending out an SOS to the while indeed.

 

My only quibble might be that the story, because there is indeed a story behind the show, seem a little tacked on. We don't really care about the love story. The build up to the concert is drama enough. And there’s plenty of comedy by the appearance of VAT grabbing Margaret Thatcher as the pantomime villain. 

 

The Old Vic stage set is pretty basic and largely relies on lighting - which is probably a good thing. It keeps the costs down. 10% from the sale of all tickets will be donated directly to The Band Aid Charitable Trust.

 

It'll run and run and then tour and tour.  And the audiences will sing along to every song.

 

⭐️⭐️⭐️

Sports Car…

When I turned 40 I bought myself a sports car. Mazda MX5, British Racing Green, leather seats, the works. As I drove it around town with the top down and music blaring out everyone looked so pleased for me. 

So pleased for me in fact that most were hand-signalling that they were planning on having a wank later. 

Till The Stars Come Down @ Dorfman Theatre...

Sometimes a play comes along that just blows you away. And Till The Stars Come Down at the National was just such a play. Everything came together; the writing, the acting, the casting, the tone, the simple set, the lighting, the glitterball, everything. We just loved it.

 

True to life, a little bit sad, thoroughly relatable, and very, very funny; the play takes place over a single day - a wedding day.

 

Stuart and I weren't quite sure what to expect when we took our seats at the Dorfman Theatre on London's glitzy South Bank last Friday night. All we did know was that playwright Beth Steel knows how to write a good play (Wonderland, The House of Shades). And boy, did she deliver here.

 

When the action first started we were like, "ok, so this seems like rather familiar territory. A wedding. Can it really show us anything new? We've seen dozens of wedding day dramas and comedies"  How wrong we were to even question it. The play came hurtling out the traps like a prize greyhound. We were laughing at the first line.

 

The family consisted of three sisters (think Chekov meets The Royle Family) where the youngest Sylvia (beautifully played by Sinéad Matthews) was the one getting married - to Polish boy Marek (played by Marc Wootton). Sylvia's two sisters Maggie (the fantastic Lisa McGrillis) and Hazel (the sublime Lucy Black) were both on hand and seemed determined that the day went without a hitch. In every sense of the expression. Not everyone approved of the match.

 

Enter stage right their fantastically gobby aunt Carol (played riotously by Lorraine Ashbourne). She entered with the line, “I don’t know my arsehole from my fanny this morning.” You get the picture.

 

And then the men arrived; the aforementioned Marek, the sisters' Dad Tony (ex-miner Alan Williams), estranged Uncle Pete (also ex-miner Philip Whitchurch), and Hazel's husband John (nicely played by Derek Riddel). And all hell broke loose. Old rivalries, miners' strike grievances, family feuds, sexual tensions, sexual politics, European politics, and lots and lots of knob gags! It had it all. 

 

As the wedding day progressed and the secrets were revealed there were genuine gasps from the audience. We'd all bought into the family dynamics already - perhaps it was at the audience sing-a-long.  We were invested.  The power of good writing. 

 

So, when the ending came it was a genuine shock. 

 

At the blackout the audience were stunned into silence for a few thumping heartbeats - before rapturous applause and everyone jumping to their feet.

 

A winner. Go see.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

 

Bryn and Larissa…

Sunday brunch with Bryn, Larissa, Paul, Simon, and Stuart. Fabulous to catch after 23 years!!! The years just fell away. 

Bryn & Larissa surprised me at my office for my 40th dressed as showgirls!!!

Little Nan’s Bar…

After our walk and our pottery class last Saturday we went to Little Nan’s in Deptford. 

70s disco, chintz, cocktails in teapots, drinks in teacups, and free nanna food. Great fun. 

@littlenansbar 

Lads Who Lunch…

Great day out with the LWL and guests Stuart and birthday boy Michael.

Arsenal 3 - 1 Liverpool…

If Arsenal had lost yesterday, we would have been eight points adrift from leaders Liverpool. And probably have seen our title chances all but over. 

Only we didn’t lose. We won. In a frankly sensational afternoon of football.

We played better in the first half than the Scousers and deservedly were one nil up after about 14 minutes. Take a bow Saka. 

Our joy was muted though when a ridiculous own goal just before half time levelled the scores. It was as sickening as it was stupid. Take a bow Gabriel.  

To make things worse, the Scousers came out in the second half with a renewed vigour and Arsenal had to battle hard to control the game. 

Luckily, Liverpool know how to make stupid mistakes too though and their adept keeper’s flick meant Martinelli could tap home to make it 2–1 in the 67th minute. 

It only remained for Trossard to secure a third two minutes into extra time and the Emirates went crazy. 

A truly sensational win. 

The only sour point was perhaps that so many yellow cards rained down like confetti in the second half. For a referee that seemed to let so many fouls go unpunished earlier in the game he certainly wanted to make up for lost time. 

Still, that win puts us right up in the mix for the title. 

The celebrations went on well into the evening at the Blackstock.

Onwards and upwards, my friends. 

@Arsenal

#ARSLIV

#COYG