Places
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Where the past belongs
The weather was sunny but my mind was cloudy, and I decided to cycle into the past. I have quite mixed feelings about revisiting Nottingham, and specifically the area I grew up in. But I was up in town anyway to see some old friends and celebrate a child’s first birthday, and had some hours… Read more
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Some things I saw in Bristol
The promise of hills from drizzly Victoria Park, while walking the dog. A hot air balloon factory, guarded by a Batman / Stimpy amalgamation. An Intercity 125 on its way to Cardiff. And a Brutalist car park, though not the one threatened with demolition. Read more
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To Bristol by coach
“While you’re capturing the zeitgeist they’re widening the motorway.” – Half Man Half Biscuit [1] To Victoria, then, for the “Megabus” to Bristol. I don’t like coaches. The motion of them makes me sick, so I can’t read. And motorways are the worst way to see a country: endless, multi-laned scars paying no dues to… Read more
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Tudor Wassail at Michelham Priory
On a freezing, sunny afternoon, I arrived at Berwick railway station. No tweed to be seen: this was Berwick in Sussex, and I was on my way to a moat-ed, medieval priory, to take part in a Tudor Wassail with the Brighton Folk Choir. Usually a one-Wassail-a-year kind of lad, this was me branching out,… Read more
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This Machine Kills Wasps
In just under a month’s time, on 2nd February, This Machine Kills Wasps, a new, alternative music, comedy, and musical comedy night, will take place in Brighton, at the lovely Folklore Rooms. It‘s me. It’s my night. My first one in Brighton, a city where I own a bed, a bicycle, and between two and… Read more
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Walthamstow Wassail 2023
“Are you looking for the the wassail? Head up the lane until you find a shed with a light on”. We all need traditions and celebrations, to bind us to pasts real or imagined, and to remind of us the cyclical nature of time. The wassail is a folk tradition based on the important twin… Read more
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Portsmouth – Ryde ferry: gateway to the 1950s
I woke up early today, and so decided to get the hovercraft to the Isle of Wight. People have been holding me back from travelling by hovercraft for too long. It’s time I ignored the haters and lived my best life. I arrived at the hoverport to find it closed. Google had told me the… Read more
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Berlin (Slight Return)
In a vintage clothing store, near the wall. Heroes by David Bowie comes on, because of course it does. This is Friedrichshain, and there are ghosts everywhere: the obvious, Cold War ones, and the personal, psychogeographical spooks of my previous visits to this part of town. Within half a mile of trying on a leather… Read more
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