London Calling

Cultural learnings

So Man U has a Korean player named Ji-Sung Park, one of the more amusing chants by home supporters in a match against Newcastle, "Park, Park, Where-ever you may be, You eat dogs in your home country, But it could be worse -You could be a scouse, Eating rats in your council house" US sports could really do with some inventive chants to spice things up.

Kirsten's father and his friend Alexandra were in town for a visit a few weeks back. We've had enough visitors at this point that we are solid tour guides, and we always try and make each visit a unique one. So in addition to eating at the Polish-Mexican restaurant (1/2 the menu is Polish food, the other 1/2 is Mexican) and spending a few hours wandering through Borough Market amongst our other activities Kirsten booked tickets to Mama Mia. Unfortunately I couldn't make it due to a friend's birthday party so I missed out on a musical based on the soothing sounds of Abba. Well, maybe next time...

Other than that I spent 3 days in Dublin for a work conference, which turned out to be more of a team bonding trip than a work conference. There may have been a few pints of Guinness had by all. I learned another of life's lessons, staying up until 4 in the morning two days running is no longer as easy as it once was; the old body doesn't quite bounce back like it used to. Despite not having a lot of free time to tour around Dublin, the city is still a beautiful place to visit with a wonderful vibe.

Also had my first visit to Scotland, Edinburgh to be exact. It was only an overnight but I saw enough to want to go back. The castle dominates the city and I'd like to see it up close, rather than from a mile away in a taxi to and from the airport. One piece of advice if you're travelling to Edinburgh from London, don't do it on a day where fog is expected. Spending 4+ hours in the airport isn't very enjoyable, and it certainly isn't enjoyable when it happens on both ends of the trip.

And that's all I have to say about that. We're in the midst of planning our spring travels so this blog can get back to being a record of our travel and not necessarily the random events of day to day life in London Town.

Congrats to Jon and Dina, nicer people there aren't.

posted by Brian and Kirsten Hennigan @ Sunday, February 17, 2008