cities
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Cheery marauding street dogs
I’m in Istanbul for a wedding. My friend has lived here for years and I’ve visited when I can, but this is my first time in summer for a while. The airport was pristine: a less honest gateway to a chaotic city than London’s claustrophobic Gatwick. We were picked up by a pimp-my-ride people carrier… Read more
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The Dip, with Lilla Multipass, Freddie Hayes and Maria Telnikoff
A fun evening in the backstreets of Kentish Town, where myself and some other Next Level Sketch luminaries went to a rival comedy night, The Dip, run by our nemesis Chris East. Chris is a lovely host, and always books an interesting, alternative lineup. The venue is a little gem, an eccentric little cafe with… Read more
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Brighton Marina
If you’re in the mood for some discombobulation, I can recommend Brighton Marina on a drizzly February morning. Built on land reclaimed from the sea, the marina was a 1970s project, turned into a Thatcher’s island kind of retail park in the mid 1980s. It is dominated by a giant Asda and car park, and… Read more
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Brighton Toy and Model Museum
Underneath Brighton station is a treasure trove of forgotten dreams. Brighton Toy and Model Museum, once the Sussex Toy and Model Museum, specialises in “the golden age of British and European toymaking”, and there isn’t much in here beyond the 1970s. Each of these four Victorian cellars is intensely packed with dolls, boats, trains, and… Read more
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Tokyo Diary day #2
“It’s your holiday, do what you want to. The holiday police aren’t looking over your shoulder”. I was tired today, and felt bad that I wasn’t making more of my limited time in Tokyo. Flying feels a guilty miracle. All that carbon, all that waste, just to play board games online on the other side… Read more
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Tokyo diary: day one
Tokyo, 2am Saturday 2nd December Hello! I write from a hotel between the Japanese Sword Museum and the National Sumo Arena. I landed at half nine local time, took a while to get through security, took a monorail, and arrives at the hotel just before midnight. On my way, I saw the traditional Friday night… Read more
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Jim Bob review: Chalk, Brighton 19th November 2023
Jim Bob, former Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine frontman and professional rabble rouser, is on stage in sunglasses and a particularly sparkly jacket. This is a rearranged gig from the summer, postponed when the hotel next to the venue burned down just before showtime. The singer addresses the walrus in the room. “We were gonna… Read more
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National March for Palestine, 11th November 2023
This was the biggest one yet – estimates of 800,000, and certainly the largest UK protest since the anti-Iraq war one twenty years ago. I received a lot of messages from friends telling me to “stay safe” and “be careful”, which makes me worry that people are increasingly afraid to assert their rights. Certainly the… Read more
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National March for Palestine, October 28th 2023
“You realise I’m just using you for your whiteness – you’re my safe white friend to shield me in case the police want to arrest me!” My friend was joking, but she kind of wasn’t. Marching for peace while brown isn’t *entirely* outlawed yet, but given recent comments by the Home Secretary, it’s only a… Read more
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Around the Isle of Wight on the Paddle Steamer Waverley
For my Dad’s 70th birthday we went on a jaunt on the last sea-going paddle steamer in the world. The PS Waverley was launched by Glasgow shipbuilders in 1946, replacing her identically named predecessor which was destroyed during the evacuation of Dunkirk. She sailed the Firth of Clyde and Loch Long until 1973, when she… Read more
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