England – Jason likes to travel

Summer of culture in the city of culture – Peterborough

Hello dear readers! How are things!? Hopefully 2026 is going well so far. I’m back with another blog post and this week it’s a post focusing a little closer to home!

As I continue with the 2022 adventures, I thought it’d be fun to look back at a fun birthday weekend basking in some local culture. By pure coincidence, last week Peterborough then announced its intentions to bid for the UK’s “city of culture” in 2029. It’s funny how the timing married up but such news changed my plans for this post and now you’re treated to a much longer post – aren’t you pleased!?

Before we get to that though, I need to give you more context and a little “ProudOfPeterborough” story!

“It’s always an essay with you, isn’t it Jason?”
“Shh..”

Okay. So some of you will know that although I have spent much of my life living in Peterborough, I’m actually a Londoner at heart. It has shaped me in many ways and for the longest time caused a little caveat to make it clear that I am a Londoner!

“Where are you from mate?”
“Well.. I live in Peterborough but I’m FROM London. London, alright? I’m not Peterborough born and bred!”

Despite being so in-your-face London (myself and Danny Dyer are practically one!), I now acknowledge that the subsequent 28 years have possibly also had some bearing on my life (“take away his Londoner badge!!”).

Peterborough has repeatedly been voted the worst town in the UK to live and even with my London-tinted glasses, I’ve long felt sympathetic to such a lack of love for Peterborough. It’s not a town for starters so lets make that award null and void straight off the bat. Peterborough is a city!

The reputation has always felt somewhat harsh to me though. Don’t get me wrong, for the longest time I’ve dismissed Peterborough’s appeal myself but in true British fashion – it’s not that bad, is it?

Look, it’s not London of course! London is and always will be the greatest city in the world but every place in this world falls second to London. I blogged about and compared New York City to London a few years ago and rather fairly, I thought, judged that NYC fell just short on the grounds that “it wasn’t London”. A damning verdict but “them’s the rules” a perfectly reasonable judgment.

Anyway, point being that even as someone with no real skin in the game (“28 years Jason..”) I’ve felt that Peterborough’s reputation has been a little unjustified over the years.

One of my own gripes with Peterborough is that I’m a city boy. I’ve been to London three times already this year and it’s a city that has it all. Comparing the millions of inhabitants of London and the endless life that comes with that, I’ve always considered Peterborough a little quiet for my liking. A city of roughly 200,000, I’m practically living in the sticks, you know?

Travel plays a big part in changing your views, both globally and closer to home. I had a jam-packed 2017 of travel. I kicked off the year in Paris, I blagged a work trip to Scotland on the last day of February which spanned in to March. In April I had a multi-city break in the USA, in May I went to Germany and then I had to wait until August for the next trip!

Two travel-free months! What the fuck!? I’d be lying if I said that on June 30th I hadn’t been tempted to skip work and maintain my “trip a month” quota but being a true professional I ~~bitterly~~ went to work.

It did pose a question though.What was I supposed to do for the next two months? My other big passion was football of course and which two months of the year does football take a break? June and July – nightmare!

I could have moped around for two months, resenting how difficult life can be when you have to go two whole months without an overseas trip and having to work for a living but I did the next best thing and looked towards my own doorstep.

As dreaded as the work day is, I made the best of my lunch hours and working in the city centre and repeatedly took a little lunch-time outing over the summer.

Isn’t the cathedral gorgeous? Aren’t we lucky to have a free museum to visit? The bishop gardens are just lovely aren’t they? Who doesn’t want to spend their afternoons eating their lunch sat besides the river Nene? Peterborough is much nicer than it gets credit for.

I was inspired! I was also particularly fond of Instagram at the time and an idea came to me – a dedicated Instagram page sharing all things positive about Peterborough. There’s so much negativity about the city, particularly from its inhabitants, and yet there’s plenty to love about it. All I needed was a name – something alliterative maybe?

P.P..

I deliberated a few different P words but none of them fit just right. I was inching closer.. Pride? No, that’s not appropriate. Proud? PeterboroughProud? ProudPeterborough? ProudOfPeterborough.. Yes!

It wasn’t as alliterative as I’d originally hoped for but it rolled off the tongue nicely. Proud Of Peterborough! Instagram was very hashtag-focused at the time and I envisaged a hypothetical little community all contributing towards #ProudOfPeterborough (HA! Be careful what you wish for!).

On the 1st July 2017 I launched the account with this photo and thus ‘Proud Of Peterborough’ was born! A page dedicated solely to all things good about Peterborough.

I started with the best intentions. Alas, the travel and football lull didn’t last long. In August I went to Greece, September I visited Washington for the first time (hard to believe there was a time before Washington). In October I went to Madrid for football, followed by Germany for football in November and then a return to Edinburgh for Hogmanay / New Years. Alongside the domestic football, time with family and friends, work and other things I’d very quickly neglected ‘Proud Of Peterborough’

I think I only posted a handful of times within the first 9 months of the account and ProudOfPeterborough drifted off in to a little coma. Any time I’d try and resuscitate the bugger, I’d inevitably forget what the password was – “Never mind, just post this to my main Instagram account”

My love for Peterborough was growing but travel and football still dominated as much of my free time as humanly possible. Fast forward a few years and as some of you will remember, I decided to pack in my job and go “live” out in Washington for 3 months. Three whole months with Haleigh!

2020 was to be a year of great things. I left my job at the end of January and flew out to Washington in early February. Of course we all know what happened in 2020, it was an interesting time to be overseas and sadly I didn’t get a full three months as intended but nevertheless it was a big change.

I’m mindful I’ve not even got to the crux of this post yet so I’ll try keep this part short but long-story-short I was a Londoner going to live out in little Moses Lake for three months. Moses Lake with a population of 20,000-25,000! Fucking hell.

For those reading that don’t know me in real life, I am a quiet person. I’m not the most talkative, I am very much an introvert but there’s just something about big cities that I adore. I am fascinated by people. I love being in cities where life is happening around me and I feel a heavy dose of comfort in such cities.

London epitomises that perfectly, Peterborough has always felt a degree of too quiet for my liking. There are only 200,000 people here! Nothing happens, it’s too quiet. Blah, blah, blah.

and now I was off to temporarily live in Moses Lake? Haleigh would go off to work and what the hell was I supposed to do? I was surely going to die of boredom! My very first experience of Moses Lake three years earlier had seen me dropped off at a bus stop three miles outside of town – a good sign that out-of-towners do not visit Moses Lake for fun.

and yet I embraced it. I’m naturally an optimist. I think I’ll find the best in any situation and who knows what would happen with Haleigh, maybe Moses Lake would be a permanent home one day (it wasn’t).

I went to Moses Lake with the best intentions to make the best of it. Find some favourite hangout spots, try and acclimatise as best as I can. Just enjoy this rare experience of life somewhere else.

Truthfully, I know that this was aided by not having to work. Finance-permitting, I would retire tomorrow so three months without a job was bliss and definitely added to what was only a nine-week experience in Moses Lake but I loved it.

One of the things that struck me most about my time in Moses Lake was the community feel. I got a little swept up in it. I posted a nostalgia-heavy blog post a while back about it because there’s a little part of me that still misses Moses Lake. I know it’s not somewhere I’ll ever go back to but I have so many good memories of that place and one of the more vivid ones from that particular trip was drinking a beer in a carpet store whilst watching a rock band – one of the last “normal” pre-Covid experiences I had.

I should add that I don’t frequently spend my days drinking in carpet stores. This was part of Moses Lake’s inaugural “Brews and Tunes” festival but besides enjoyment, the overwhelming feeling was how has this happened here?

Logically, such a festival could not possibly happen in somewhere like Moses Lake and yet it had. It had because the community banded together and found a way to make it work and as a result I found myself beer-tasting my way through carpet stores, jewellery stores, estate agents and other such nonsensical locations to be hosting breweries from all over the Pacific Northwest.

I was truly inspired. Peterborough is ten times the size of Moses Lake. If Moses Lake can make me feel like this, what am I missing out on back home? There must be so many things going on back home that I have no knowledge of because I get swept up with the mundaneness of life and working.

Being in Moses Lake made me more appreciative of Peterborough and I vowed once I returned that I’d start doing more of this on my doorstep. Alas, Covid struck and soon enough we were in-and-out of repeated lockdowns which sadly disrupted my plans but the Covid experience just exacerbated everything Moses Lake had already made me feel. I was already chasing the best life has to offer and Covid keeping us cooped up made me even more determined.

2020 was a bit of a write-off really but come 2021 I was eagerly anticipating the country opening back up and trying to get back to some semblance of normality. The UK kicked off the year with yet another lockdown before things gradually started re-opening in the Spring. It was time to start rediscovering a city I’d already called home for 23 years!

In a rather strange coincidence, this new focus on Peterborough overlapped with upcoming local elections in the UK. Peterborough’s own Conservative MP was campaigining with a particularly interesting political slogan – #ProudOfPeterborough

“Wait, what!?”

Now, I’d neglected my dedicated Instagram page for almost three years at this point but Proud Of Peterborough? Is that not the name of that Peterborough page I had? Can I even remember the password for that?

I successfully logged in and BAM!

XYZ has liked your post, ABC is now following you, JCR has tagged you in this post. The #ProudOfPeterborough hashtag had been flooded with posts, mostly political posts admittedly but it was traffic nonetheless and felt like an opportunity.

I’d be lying if I said I didn’t reconsider changing the name. I didn’t particularly want the Conservative association but ProudOfPeterborough rolled off the tongue nicely and well, its second coming had arrived.

In the months that followed I found that Peterborough has so much going on. It turns out that a little research and investigation goes a long way and that if you seek out all that Peterborough has to offer, it comes back at you tenfold. In addition to my own amusement, ‘ProudOfPeterborough’ went from strength to strength with more than just Conservative MP’s jumping on the bandwagon.

and that long-winded story brings us to the beginning of this particular post.

“Wait, this is the start of your story!?”

I know, I know. Sue me, I like to ramble.

The Moses Lake 2020 experience had inspired me, I’d spent 2021 rekindling love for a city I’ve loved more than probably even I realised and that continued to grow in 2022. People were far more receptive to ‘ProudOfPeterborough’ than I’d ever really anticipated and yet in my mind, I wasn’t really doing all that much.

I think we can all play roles within our communities and there’s certainly a need for different roles but my part was largely promoter or maybe “unofficial ambassador” to glam it up a little bit. Truthfully, there are so many creative and incredible people doing far more good for Peterborough than I was and whilst I helped spread the good word of some of these things going on, it felt a little strange to be reaping any praise for a fairly small effort on my part.

I wanted to step up my efforts a bit in 2022 and signed up to volunteer at the inaugural “Peterborough Celebrates” festival in the Spring. Sadly, days beforehand I caught Covid and as quickly as I’d signed up to volunteer I was then withdrawing. Typical!

One summer event I was particularly looking forward to was a touring exhibit of London’s Natural History Museum – hosting a T-Rex exhibit in Peterborough’s stunning cathedral. I sought out the dates to spread the word, jotted them down but the thing that really caught my eye was a call-out for volunteers. Sign me up!

I blogged about it at the time because I genuinely think it’s one of the coolest things I’ll ever be part of. Roaring animatronic dinosaurs in a 900 year old cathedral – incredible!

NHM T-Rex Exhibit at Peterborough Cathedral

It kickstarted a summer of local culture and fun. Volunteering every weekend was a joy and this was a summer that perfectly encapsulates why Peterborough is far more cultural and interesting than it perhaps gets credit for so here’s a little glimpse of what I got up to.

I was only going to look at August 2022 but on reflection it looks like I had a busy 31st of July so we’ll start there. Last time out I blogged about the significance of the Women’s European Championship hosted in England that summer and it just so happens that England won the final on this particular night.

The poetry scene in Peterborough is one to be particularly proud of and poet-guru and former Peterborough Laureate, Charley, was hosting another of her infamous “Freak Speak” nights at a park cafe which was bigger than I’d actually realised.

Having since been to a few poetry and spoken words events around Peterborough, it blows my mind at how talented people are in this city. This was an event that really gave people a platform to show off that talent.

It was a fun start to what proved to be a month full of fun cultural outings and topped off with news that England’s women had won the Euros – Chloe Kelly immortalising herself in to English folklore!

I was running incredibly short on annual leave by this point of the year so work was a pesky inconvenience for the summer but that didn’t stop me making the best of my lunch hours.

Peterborough’s museum is free to visit, with the occasional exhibit that has a fee, but for the most part free and with ever-changing exhibits I was curious to go and check out the ‘Proud To Be Posh’ exhibit taking place which was dedicated to the history of Peterborough’s biggest* football club, Peterborough United.

To rehash a phrase used earlier, I’ve no “skin in the game” when it comes to Peterborough United. I was fully immersed in to Tottenham long before ever moving to Peterborough but its undeniable the city reaps the reward when the football club are doing well and suffer the consequences when the football club aren’t doing well. That’s true of many cities, towns and villages across the UK.

Proud To Be Posh exhibit at Peterborough Museum, 2022

Peterborough United shirts from over the years

Photos of Peterborough United Women’s games

I thought it was particlarly interesting that a section of the exhibit had been dedicated to Posh’s women’s team – very much playing at an amateur level of football but this was very much the summer of women’s football so it was nice to see that the exhibit focused on both the men and women’s football team.

The next weekend was my birthday weekend. I kicked off Saturday morning with another morning volunteering at the coolest exhibition ever, where else would you want to be on a Saturday other than hanging out with dinosaurs in a cathedral?

Following another fun shift I grabbed some food in town and then made my way over to another edition of the “Millfield festival”. I’d attended last year’s effort but it wasn’t the best day of weather which disrupted some of the festivities. This year it was a glorious sunny day and a perfect day for such celebrations.

Millfield is a very multicultural neighbourhood / area within Peterborough that largely has a reputation for being unsafe and a “no-go” area in certain circles and was certainly something I was aware of growing up.

What Unites Us? Mural from 2021 Millfield Festival

In recent years local community group, Peterborough Presents, have worked very closely with those in the Millfield area to show off the best of the community and promote the different cultures and value that brings to the city. It was a fascinating day with a variety of different forms of entertainment to appease locals and “outsiders” alike and a credit to all involved.

Sandwiched in the middle of the festival was a typical Saturday afternoon festivity across the country – a 3pm Saturday football match. One of the beautiful things about football in this country is its pyramid system which means it doesn’t matter how small your club is or how far down the pyramid you are, you can theoretically climb to the top of the game. From the local leagues to the regional divisions, onwards to the national football league and eventually the glory of the Premier League and European competitions.

Realistically there’s a limit to what you can achieve but local “Peterborough Sports” were daring to test those limits and were quickly rising up the divisions. Peterborough is very much a “one club” city in my eyes so it has been surprising in recent years to see another Peterborough based team reach the 6th tier of English football – not all that far away from Peterborough’s “only” football team.

My curiosity was piqued and it just so happens Peterborough Sports play at an unknown stadium within walking distance of Millfield. Perhaps testament to its “no-go” reputation, I had no idea this venue even existed within the city – “the bee Arena”.

Mural of peace with the colours of Ukraine and Palestine

Quick sidenote but the photo is one of many murals in Peterborough by the infamous Nathan Murdoch who currently has an exhibit on at Peterborough’s Museum.

Anyway the “Bee Arena” is more of a local community centre, with a little playing field tucked away that they’ve made the best of. Calling it an arena is particularly kind but I couldn’t resist the temptation to tick off another stadium visit and watch some non league football.

It was a closely contested game with the home side, Peterborough Sports, coming out on top so a great way to kick off a new season. It was particularly nice to watch football with a beer on a warm sunny day, a luxury still not afforded to the bigger football games in England.

After the game I swung back past the Millfield festival to catch the last of the day’s festivities before calling it a night and heading home. It was a thoroughly enjoyable day and a good start to the birthday weekend.

Scary Millfield promoting love, hope, peace

Sunday happened to be my birthday and I was keen to go and do something to celebrate. I’d sooner do something, make memories or whatever rather than receive gifts. A birthday outing with the family was on the cards.

A big supporter of ‘ProudOfPeterborough’ over the last year or so had been nearby “Elton Hall” in a village on the outskirts of Peterborough, unsurprisingly, called Elton. They’re only open seasonally during the summer months but I vowed I’d make a visit and this was as good an excuse as any for such a visit.

Elton Hall has a long history, originally built in the 15th century, and has been owned by the same family since the early 17th century – impressive.
Myself, my parents, sister and brother-in-law took a short drive out to Elton to pay a visit and look around its gardens and the hall itself.

It’s a pretty place. It was clear that a lack of rain had had an impact but the gardens are beautifully maintained nonetheless. We spent a good while looking around the gardens and getting some photos before stepping inside Elton Hall and learning more about its history. The highlight was undoubtedly its library which was gorgeous. I don’t appear to have got any photos of the interior so I’m guessing photography is prohibited but if you want a little look, you can check out their website: Elton Hall

We wandered over to the nearby ‘Mulberry Cafe’ and Bosworth Garden Centre for a cuppa and some cake before driving over to Oundle’s “Tap and Kitchen” for a late lunch / early dinner.

Again, this wasn’t somewhere I’d been to previously but I’d heard good things, helped by the fact its next door to “Nene Valley Brewery” which means the restaurant has a few NVB beers on tap.
It’s a nice restaurant with an outdoor beer garden with a little stream running through it – very pretty on a warm day. The food was good, the beer was good and the company even better. It was nice to have paid visit to a couple of new places in the area today.

You can never be assured of good weather at any time of year in the UK but the summer months typically welcome “festival season” across the country and there were two exciting festivals still to come this month.

Firstly, Peterborough Pride was hosted in mid-August this year. It’s the latest I can recall it being hosted, it’s usually hosted in June or July, but I guess the organisers had the foresight to know I’d be blogging about it four years later and it fortunately makes the cut for this particular post.

Joking aside, it is of course a significant annual event in the city’s calendar and this particular year was no different. “The Green Backyard” hosted the event which is a local community garden encouraging all things community (obviously) and sustainability and is a real gem in the city centre.

The Green Backyard, home of Peterborough Pride

It was a lovely day. It always is. Pride is essentially all about inclusion and any event that makes everyone feel welcome is an event worth supporting. I popped along for a little while and caught some of the entertainers on show. It’s an event that, even with insufficient funding, seems to have grown year-on-year and hopefully 2026’s event in July will be back even bigger and better.

The other big annual festival in the city is Peterborough’s Beer Festival which is hosted in the penultimate week of August every year. It boasts claim to be one of the biggest beer festivals in the entirety of the UK.

I don’t know if that’s down to the number of people visiting, the number of brewers showcasing their beers or the “UK’s longest bar” that spans 100+ meters but whatever the reason for such a claim, I’ll accept that it’s true and consequently means that Peterborough hosts the best beer festival in the UK.

It’s undoubtedly a highlight of the summer and people across Peterborough and even those from further afield will visit Peterborough every August to taste a beer or two, enjoy the various bands playing throughout the week of the festival and participate in what is probably the peak of Peterborough’s social calendar every year.

Peterborough’s Annual Beer Festival – the best in England!

It’s always an enjoyable time and the only personal disappointment is that they bizarrely wrap it up before the three day bank-holiday weekend fully kicks in. I don’t think 2026’s dates have been confirmed as yet but if you fancy popping along, I’d bank on 18th-22nd August being the dates this summer.

It had been a busy summer with volunteering, museum trips, festivals galore and more but I had one final outing before the summer ended. Peterborough United hopped on the growing bandwagon for women’s football and for the first time, hosted Peterborough United’s women’s team at their stadium for a game against nearby Lincoln.

Of course there were no star players on display, with both playing at a fairly amateur level of football, but it was a great opportunity to support women’s football on your doorstep and with tickets priced at just £4 a decent crowd turned out to watch Peterborough win on a glorious sunny evening. For some reason I didn’t get any photos from the evening but 2,000+ locals went home happy.

That was it for my “summer of culture” in England’s “city of culture”. I think of all of the other things I’ve done in this city over the years that don’t get a mention here but are absolutely worthy of mention.

Music gigs, big and small. The plays, musicals and pantos at the three theatres in the city. The natural beauty of places such as “Ferry Meadows”, tower tours at Peterborough cathedral, other fantastic local landmarks. The wealth of talented artists and creatives. Art exhibits, art battles even. Poetry nights and lantern festivals and ice hockey and film festivals and book clubs and the list goes on. I could go on forever (“you already have mate..”).

The idea that Peterborough is lacking in culture is mind-boggling and I think even the locals don’t truly appreciate how many great things happen here, I was probably even one of them for a long time. This isn’t the first time I’ve blogged about Peterborough on the blog but I definitely haven’t done it justice previously.

Is it a city worthy of being awarded the UK’s “city of culture”? I don’t know. History suggests I’m probably not the most impartial person to ask but nevertheless, I do believe Peterborough is a city to be proud of and one I proudly call home.

I find the variety of things happening in Peterborough and the people responsible for making those things happening really inspiring and I think the last few years have really shown me that if you make a little effort to find it, there’s something for everybody in Peterborough.

It’s no secret that I’ll soon be leaving Peterborough, and indeed England, and heading on to pastures new across the pond. With that development I’ve since relinquished control of “ProudOfPeterborough” and the reigns have been passed over for someone else to spread the good word of Peterborough but fear not, I’ll still be keeping tabs on what happens in Peterborough from afar.

and so I end this post with my fingers crossed that Peterborough is crowned the UK’s “city of culture” in 2029, if for no other reason than some reward to those contributing so much to the current culture of the city.

Finally, I leave you with some more photos of Peterborough’s scenery and various local events over the years that best showcase that.

Peterborough’s Town Bridge over the River Nene

Peterborough’s Ice Rink, home of the Peterborough Phantoms

Charters, a Dutch barge / pub / restaurant on the River Nene

Live music every weekend at The Ostrich, Peterborough

Morris Dancing at the annual Morris Day of Dance

Six the musical at New Theatre, Peterborough

Peterborough Central Library, home of the weekly Peterborough Arts Cinema Club

Schedule for Peterborough Arts Cinema Club (2023)

Comedy nights at The Cresset, Peterborough

Brochure for Switch Festival at The Key Theatre

Brochure for the Summer Film Nights at Nene Park

Brochure for “The Table” at The Key Theatre

The monthly Good Shout spoken word night

Brochure for the annual Peterborough Artist Open Studios

I Matter Exhibition at Peterborough Museum

Piece from the Bridging Landscapes Exhibit

Tony Nero’s “Half a Pencil” Exhbit at Peterborough Museum

Piece from Tony Nero’s “Half a pencil” exhibit at Peterborough Museum

Piece from Chris Porsz’s “Reunions” exhibit at Peterborough Museum

Photo from the Ladybird books exhibit at Peterborough Museum

One of many book benches during a Peterborough Reads campaign

Doctor Who exhibit at Peterborough Museum

Doctor Who exhibition at Peterborough Museum

Artists go head-to-head in an art battle at “Battle Lines”

Artists going head to head at Battle Lines

Street Artists painting at Peterborough Cathedral

Katharine of Aragon burial place at Peterborough Cathedral

Poppy display on Bridge St, Peterborough

Poppy display at Queensgate, Peterborough

Tim Peake’s Spacecraft at Peterborough Cathedral

Shaun the Sheep Exhibit at Peterborough Cathedral

Ready to watch The Lord Chamberlain’s Men Shakespeare at Peterborough Cathedral

Sea Creatures Exhibit at Peterborough Cathedral

Tower Tour views at Peterborough Cathedral

and there you have it. A long-winded photo-heavy glimpse of just some of the things that Peterborough has to offer.

The likes of Flag Fen, Sacrewell Farm, Railworld Wildlife Haven, Longthorpe Tower, Norman Cross, nearby Burghley Estate and Stamford are just a few other places of interest that didn’t even get a mention in the post.

If you’re ever in Peterborough or find yourself curious enough to visit, feel free to give me a headsup and I’ll throw some recommendations your way. Or check out Peterborough’s newly launched tourism website: Discover Peterborough

Until next time!

Jason
aka “ProudOfPeterborough”

Sheffield – July 2022

Hello dear readers! How are things!? Last time out on the blog I wrapped up yet another Washington trip which has featured quite heavily on the blog over the years so it’s quite nice to have a few non-Washington posts coming up. First up: Sheffield!

2022 was a very busy year but this was one of those trips which I’d half-committed to quite far in advance and as a result, ended up being a bit more costly than it probably should have been. Looking back at exactly how much I spent (£425 hotel & £63 trains) I’m amazed I didn’t just sack this trip off but I guess it speaks volumes for my excitement for the weekend away.

Back in 2022, England were hosting the Women’s football European Championship and as a big football fan it was incredibly appealing to go to an international tournament on home soil. More to the point, it felt like a really seismic moment within women’s football.

Tbis isn’t exclusive to football, there has been a growing momentum behind women’s sports on the whole in recent years with a bigger and bigger appeal to many different sports with a number of rising sports stars paving the way for future generations. Maybe moreso with the power of social media but female athletes are becoming bigger household names:

Emma Raducanu, Coco Gauff, Naomi Osaka, Simone Biles, Caitlin Clark, Ilona Maher & Ellie Kildunne are just a few names that instantly spring to mind outside of the football world but in England, football is the big sport and you could already feel that momentum growing in the domestic league.

Football has always been a hugely popular sport in England and football history buffs will know that there was a time that was true of women’s football too. With the men away at war (WW1), popularity in the women’s game flourished and continued to even post-war until the football authorities imposed a ban in 1921 on women’s football. Our bruised male egos couldn’t allow a world where the two could possibly co-exist.

The ban on women’s football stood for roughly 50 years.

I don’t want to bore you to death but it’s good for you to have some context behind the history of women’s football. It’s fascinating and shameful in equal measure.

Some further context is necessary. A watershed moment, I believe, came in 2018. England were the only European country that officially put in a bid to host Euro 2022. The ONLY country interested in hosting the biggest sport in the world?

Another turning point in 2018 saw Manchester United (one of the world’s biggest sports teams) reintroduce a women’s football team having previously disbanded, whilst Tottenham (another of England’s biggest clubs) also stepped up their efforts to promote their women’s team in an effort to join established women’s football clubs such as Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester City.

2019 saw Manchester United and Tottenham both promoted to England’s top football league as the league expanded from 11 to 12 teams. A cynic might suggest that that expansion probably doesn’t happen if benefiting smaller football clubs than those two but that couldn’t possibly be me! A football cynic? Never!

I promise I’m getting to the actual trip soon but 2019 saw efforts stepped up further. It was probably the first season that started to resemble something of a professional set up and with an international tournament arriving imminently, the game was being heavily promoted.

In 2019 I attended Tottenham v Arsenal in what was, at the time, a record attendance of 38,262. It was a landmark moment and you could really see and feel the momentum growing behind women’s football – particularly in this country. Attendances have since gone on to even bigger heights, with the record attendance now standing at over 91,000 for games in Barcelona.

Women’s football was evidentally on the up. You could see the demand growing, you could see the standards improving and that brings us back to the summer of 2022.

I knew I wanted to go to at least one game, maybe more but at the very least one. Unfortunately I knew 2022 would be a busy year and would strip me of the opportunity to go to any midweek games so my only requirements were to go to a weekend game somewhere in the country and preferably to a stadium I hadn’t previously been to before.

Sheffield’s “Bramall Lane” ticked the right box and on the 9th of August 2021, I blindly booked myself a ticket unaware of which teams I’d even be watching the following summer. That was a concern for a later date, as was my accommodation and travel. My main concern was saving for a wedding – this Sheffield weekender was not a concern whatsoever.

That was probably a mistake. By the time this trip rolled around, I’m not really sure I could actually justify it financially. Sometimes you’ve just got to say no to things but who wants to say no to the fun things, right!? Say yes to all the trips!

Leaving my planning to the last minute meant I paid the price – literally. It was so fucking extortionate going to Sheffield for a weekend at the last minute, particularly in a city hosting a big international event.

Financial irresponsibility aside, you don’t regret it do you? I know that’s probably not the moral of the story I should be sharing here but I had a bloody good weekend.

I caught the train from Peterborough up to Sheffield on Friday night. By the time I’d arrived in Sheffield there wasn’t time to do much of anything – other than get lost.

Honestly, I don’t know what it is about Sheffield but I just can’t seem to get my bearings with that city. I’d been there a couple of times previously so thought I had a vague idea where I was going but absolutely not, I never know where I am in Sheffield. We have a little “in joke” within the family where all roads lead to Sheffield but I swear, on a personal note I’d still struggle to find my way around if that were true.

Fortunately the next morning I had myself the guide of a local. Well, a local of sorts. A friend of mine, Jenny, moved up from Peterborough to Sheffield and meant that I had a friend that could actually stop me from getting lost.

We spent the morning wandering through the city whilst Jenny showed off the “sights” and relayed her new-found knowledge of Sheffield. The highlight for me was undoubtedly the Peace gardens next to Sheffield’s town hall and also the indoor Winter garden which was beautiful. It was nice to wander and catch up with a friend that I hadn’t seen this side of Covid.

Such was the magnitude of the tournament, Jenny would also be attending her first ever football match this evening as Sheffield welcomed the Netherlands and Sweden women’s teams to Bramall Lane. One other notable sight on our morning excursion was seeing the wave of Dutch orange and Swedish yellow spreading across the city as more and more fans flocked in to the city.

It’s quite bizarre but one of the things I always associate with international football tournaments is the colour of the fans in the stadiums and it was just really cool to see more and more orange and yellow throughout Sheffield as the day progressed.

Jenny had some things to do before the football so we went our separate ways and said our goodbyes. I went in the search of lunch and found a nice pub to grab some grub at. It was a lovely summer day so I made time for a little solo-exploring afterwards before turning my attention to some pre-match fun and meeting up with a friend.

A friend of mine from London, Natalie, was pretty much attending as many tournament games as humanly possible. With the exception of games kicking off at the same time, she’d arranged to go to a game every day throughout the tournament and I think this would already be her fourth game of the first weekend of the tournament – bonkers!

We went and had a couple of pre-match pints at a quiet little pub near my hotel. After a couple of beers and a catch-up we wandered over to the stadium together. Jenny had kindly pointed me in the vague direction of where I needed to go and the closer we got, the easier it was to just follow the orange and yellow.

Bramall Lane is one of the old-school English stadiums, retaining the character and history you lose with newer stadiums. It was nice to tick off another stadium on my list and better yet, I’d be catching up with another friend.

I’d mentioned earlier that I’d blindly bought my ticket for the game. I didn’t know which teams would be involved at the time of buying a ticket so I was pleased after the draw to learn the two teams participating would be the Netherlands and Sweden – two of the better teams.

Sweden was particularly significant because I then extended the invitation to my friend Sarah, of Northallerton fame, who I mentioned in a recent blog-post was a lover of all things Sweden (hence the Abba themed birthday party!).

“Hey, I’m going to be in Sheffield for the Sweden game.. you should come!”

I was due to be sat on my own but Sarah popped down from Northallerton for the game and unluckily for her, but luckily for me, Sarah’s sister couldn’t make the game so I ended up nabbing her ticket and sitting with Sarah and her dad to enjoy the game.

We were unsurprisingly sat among the lively Swedish supporters who made a good racket, aided by a strong first half performance from the Swedes. The game finished 1-1, a fair result with Sweden having the better of the first half and the Dutch responding with a good second half performance.

More interestingly was the attendance – 21,342. This has likely since changed but I think at the time was another record – the biggest crowd at an international tournament for a game not featuring the hosts. The England games were unsurprisingly all sell-outs but 20,000+, predominantly women and young girls, here to support this game-changing tournament in Sheffield for two foreign nations – wow!

I can’t say that, at the time, I was familiar with too many of the players. Arsenal’s (now Man City’s) Vivianne Miedema was undoubtedly the highest-profile player on display and one I was looking forward to watching again but it’s really interesting to look back at the two teams that day and realise how many players have since gone on to have a good career in English football.

It was a significant tournament in women’s football and one I found to be quite emotional. I’ve always had a love-hate relationship with football, more often than not I loathe it, but it’s quite sad how many are turned away by the culture of it in this country.

They’re fundamentally the same sport but men’s football and women’s football are so different culturally. By all means hate the sport itself but it does sadden me that for a lot of people it’s that uncomfortable and often intimidating culture that is the bigger issue and the real reason that people “don’t like football”.

I’ve heard too many stories of women feeling invalidated when it comes to men’s football because of lazy stereotypes or worse, suffering the sexism within the sport. So it was quite heartwarming to see first-hand how transformational this tournament was for women’s football.

England went on to win the tournament. It wasn’t really a great surprise, the hard work of the last few years had paid off and I think they were overwhelming favourites to win the tournament on home soil but it was a seismic moment nonetheless.

Football has been such a big part of my life and I think knowing that this tournament had introduced and welcomed a new audience of supporters to the game made me feel warm and fuzzy. I can’t even imagine what it meant for girls and women, generations and old, who now had a trailblazing generation of heroes to fall in love with. It was hard not to be swept up in the emotions of it all.

Post-game, myself and Natalie reunited and walked back in to town to chat and enjoy a couple more beers. It was the perfect way to round off the day.

The next morning I again met up with Natalie for a quick drink before she headed onwards for yet another game in nearby Rotherham, whilst I waited for my train home to Peterborough. Before my train I had time to go and get myself lost one final time in Sheffield as I seeked out a pub to grab a Sunday roast dinner.

I eventually found somewhere suitable, enjoyed the food and then wandered back in the vague direction of the train station to catch my train. I definitely did not have the money to justify this trip but I’d spent the weekend catching up with a few friends, watching football and enjoying a few beers along the way so what does it matter, right?

P.S – please don’t sell your house and book a round-the-world cruise on the back of reading and making light of this financial irresponsibility!

Anyway, all in all it had been a lovely weekend and the bank balance eventually recovered. 2022 was a year filled with many memorable moments and this weekend was definitely another one to remember.

Until next time!

Jason

Newcastle – May 2022

Hello dear readers! How are things? Last time out on the blog I wrapped up that wedding trip of 2022 and now I’m cracking on with the rest of the adventures for the year. How anybody blogs in the moment is beyond me, I’m “only“ the three and a bit years behind!

Anyway, after six weeks in the USA it was time for some more adventure. A friend of mine, Sarah, was celebrating her 30th birthday by having herself a little party in the town where she lives, Northallerton, and what better excuse to get away for a couple of nights!?

Northallerton’s a small town up in North Yorkshire. I’d been there once previously and it doesn’t have a huge amount going on so I figured rather than stay in Northallerton, I’d base myself in nearby Newcastle for the weekend.

The one and only other time I’d been to Newcastle was back in April 2015. Tottenham had kindly offered to fly their supporters up to Newcastle for our visit to the North East and better yet, they’d fly us up there free of charge! All we had to pay was the £1.25 booking fee each way, just £2.50 to go up to Newcastle and back. I loathe taking a domestic flight for such a short journey when I’d much rather have taken the train but with bank-breaking train fares in England, it was a bit of a no brainer.

St James’ Park is an iconic football stadium in this country and Newcastle also has its reputation as a fun city shall we say? As far as football away trips go, Newcastle is considered one of the better ones despite sticking the away fans up “in the Gods”.

I was excited to be going up to Newcastle for the first time but a friend had planned his Stag Do for the night before and it wasn’t an occasion I was going to miss. A group of us ended up going out for a buffet, followed by a Saturday night on the town – frequenting a few Peterborough favourites along the way.

I’ve never felt as rough as I did that following Sunday. I’m sure the abundance of alcohol didn’t help matters but I’m also certain I suffered food poisoning from eating at that buffet restaurant (another friend had similar suspicions). Needless to say, I’ve never been back.

Unfortunately it resulted in a largely miserable daytrip up to Newcastle. I spent far too much of the trip visiting the toilet and as my friends enjoyed their away trip with a few beers before the game, I couldn’t bring myself to touch anything other than water. The one positive was that Tottenham did at least win – it’s usually the football that is the letdown on such trips!

Anyway.. seven years on it was time to finally head up to Newcastle and experience it properly. Even had I not been suffering on my previous trip, football away days aren’t usually the most cultural of adventures.

“Let me squeeze in some local culture alongside the football, I’ll have a Newcastle Brown Ale please”

Having ticked off St James’ Park already, this was an opportunity to see what else Newcastle had to offer.

This time I did take the train – cost aside, it’s my favourite way to travel and truthfully it was so much more convenient for me too. It’s only three hours on the train from Peterborough to Newcastle, which is probably the same length of time as flying from Stansted had taken when you factor in traveling to the airport and time spent at the airport. The airport also isn’t in the city, whereas the train drops you off in the heart of Newcastle.

Having to work on Friday, my Friday night was already a write off. I figured rather than rush up there I’d have dinner in Peterborough so had myself an Indian and a couple of beers before catching the train. By the time I’d arrived in Newcastle it was pretty lively and pretty much as you’d expect of a Friday night in Newcastle – a cauldron of noise in a city renowned for liking a drink or two.

My first impressions were that if you’re looking for a good night, Newcastle is not going to disappoint you. I however wasn’t in the mood for hitting the town myself so made my way to my hotel. Out of convenience, I booked a hotel really close to the train station and was a little surprisd to find a bouncer on the door – separating the hotel guests from the drunken riff-raff pouring out of Newcastle’s train station.

After a good night’s sleep I kicked off my trip by seeking out a local. Fellow travel enthusiast and blogger, Sam, is a native Geordie and after many chats online it was a nice opportunity to actually meet up in person. Sam suggested we meet up over in what appeared to be a rather hip area of Newcastle called Jesmond with its scattering of restaurants, cafes, shops and such. I ended up walking there which gave me the chance to see a bit of Newcastle outside of its city centre and it was a lovely walk – very green in parts.

Sam has seemingly since disappeared off the face of the Earth so I can’t link you to their now disappeared blog or socials but it was lovely putting a face to the name and we had a good chat about all things Newcastle and travel accompanied by tea.

After our tea we went our separate ways. Although Sam and her partner were kind enough to give me a lift back in to the heart of Newcastle so I didn’t have to walk back as they dropped me off close to Quayside for my first proper glimpse of the River Tyne and Newcastle’s infamous bridges.

I’d heard good things about Newcastle and I have to say, it did win me over quite quickly. I warmed to it almost immediately and it just felt like my kind of city – I added it to my list of “I could live here..” cities (of which there are many!).

The morning had suddenly passed by and I quickly turned my attention to lunch. The Quayside area along the river has plenty of good options but long-time readers probably won’t be surprised to learn that I opted for a visit to Newcastle’s Hard Rock Cafe – sadly it has since closed (as has Manchester’s!) and I dare say that HRC is probably a dying brand but nevertheless I like visiting them. Newcastle’s was by no means a favourite but it was nice to add another to the collection.

After lunch I mooched around for a little bit before getting myself ready and making my way over to Northallerton. It’s about 40 minutes away on the train and I figured I’d be better killing time in Northallerton before the party rather than killing time in Newcastle and risk running late.

My only previous visit to Northallerton I hadn’t even really gone in to Northallerton proper so I had a little time this time around to walk through the town. There wasn’t anything particularly fancy or noteworthy that I saw but it seemed nice enough, your bog-standard English town I suppose with a high street running through the heart of it.

I was still relatively early so I stopped off at some pub on route along the high street for a quick drink before making my way over to the party venue – a local theatre venue called the Forum (I think).

It was a nice venue, a good place to host a little gathering. Providing entertainment on the night were an Abba tribute band, an unsurprising choice for a lover of all things Sweden! As a sidenote, my lack of musical knowledge has led to a bit of a running joke in my family where “Abba” is my go-to answer for any music related quiz questions so this was a good occasion where the answer to “who sings this?” was without fail “Abba!”.

It was a fun evening, lovely to catch up with Sarah and celebrate her big birthday! It was nice to catch up with a couple of Sarah’s family I’d met previously and also meet a few new people. Sadly, all good things come to an end and I hopped back on the train at the end of the night and made my way back to Newcastle.

Despite its famed nightlife, I’d had a few beers already and didn’t have any real desire to extend my evening so somehow avoided a night out in Newcastle on either Friday or Saturday night. Instead I headed straight for my hotel and got myself to bed.

I was heading home on Sunday but had flexible train tickets so didn’t have to leave at any particular time. I could hang around for as long as I pleased as long as I didn’t miss the last train home!

I kicked off the day by having a walk through what I suppose is essentially Newcastle’s “old town” with its cathedral and castle. I didn’t go in either though so settled for just walking by and admiring them from the outside. From there I ventured on back to the Quayside area and was pleased to find a Sunday market with a bunch of stalls lined up alongide the river.

Across the river is ‘Gateshead’ which I was familiar with as a place and knew was in the North East but I don’t think I appreciated that it was literally neighbouring Newcastle with just the River Tyne separating the two. I crossed over but didn’t really venture in to Gateshead, I did little more than admire the view of Newcastle from this side of the river before stopping in for a drink at the “By The River Brew Co”.

A quick Google search suggests it closed in 2024 which is a terrible shame because its location was fantastic and I’d happily have gone back there on any future trip.

After a quick stop I grabbed a few photos of both the Tyne and Millenium bridges and then returned to Newcastle for a final look around and in search of somewhere for a Sunday Roast before catching the train home. I made one last stop to pick up some postcards before bidding a “see you soon” to Newcastle.

I haven’t yet returned to Newcastle but it’s certainly somewhere I saw myself returning to. I don’t know why I warmed to it so quickly, I didn’t even really embrace its nightlife which is often considered one of the best things about the city but I just really liked it. I think I could spend a lifetime walking along the River Tyne and just soaking up the atmosphere and feel of the city but sadly this was all I had time for on this trip.

Until next time!

Jason

2024 travel roundup

Hello my dear followers! How are things? I think this is the part where I make my excuses for how little I’ve posted in 2024 and vow that 2025 will be much better but is that actually likely? I suppose we shall see.
It’s strange to think that once upon a time I used to post here on a weekly basis, how did that ever happen!?

but maybe 2025 will be better?

In all honesty, 2024 was quite a strange year. Those of you on other social media platforms (“there are others beyond WordPress Jason!?”) will have seen me talk about this at the beginning of the year but life has kind of stood still for most of the year.

We decided back around March time that things weren’t working in England and that Haleigh would move back to the States permanently, which happened in the summer, and now we get to go through all the fun of the immigration process again to get me over to the US permanently.

I don’t envy the process on anyone and we’ve found ourselves doing it in both directions. It’s frustrating, it’s time-consuming and it’s expensive. To the American’s credit, it seems much cheaper going in that direction but the process seems like it’ll probably take longer to get me over there.

I’ll touch on the epiphany moment of making the decision later in the post but we made the decision much earlier in the year and I think because I’m naturally an optimistic and positive person, mentally I’d kind of placed myself in my new life across the pond. My genuine feelings were those of excitement.

The problem with placing yourself somewhere mentally is that in actuality, nothing has changed almost nine months later. I’m conscious people have it much worse and we have no real cause for complaint but life does feel like it’s a bit on pause at the moment. We’re sitting waiting for a stranger to make a decision on our case – “is this person going to be a good ex-Pat or a bad immigrant?” – fine line, isn’t it?

In the meantime I’m living a day-to-day that feels a bit arbitrary and the knock-on effect is that 2024 has been fine at best. It’s a struggle making longer-term plans when they lay elsewhere but you don’t know when that’ll be.

Anyway, getting back on track with the topic of this post. I figured I’d make my overdue blog return to stick with a yearly tradition of an annual roundup of all things travel. Despite a “doom and gloom” feel to this post so far, looking back at my 2023 travel roundup I’d like to think that we did much of what I’d expected and hoped that we would do this year.

We can always hope for more travel and more adventure but during 2024 we managed to see a little more of the UK, visit somewhere that neither myself or Haleigh had been to and naturally we also returned to Washington – one of us with a one way ticket but I’ll get to that shortly!

Here’s a little glimpse at 2024!

February – York
With both of us working the Monday-Friday life, it felt nice to take a Friday to have a long weekend somewhere. We considered a few different options, some more budget-friendly than others and we eventually agreed upon going up to York for a long weekend.

In theory this was a great idea, York is an incredible city and one that everyone should visit at some point. I was keen to show it off to Haleigh but truthfully our timing wasn’t the greatest!

Firstly it fell around that time of the year that kids had a week’s holiday here in the UK. I’m sure I appreciated it plenty during my educational years but do we really need to let the little rascals have so much time off throughout the year? To further exacerbate our woes, I’d neglected to realise at the time that our little weekend away in York actually overlapped with the annual Vikings festival in good ol’ Jorvik.

You could make a case for that being excellent timing or terrible timing I suppose. On the one hand you could make a case that a Vikings festival is the best time to visit York – the city was inundated with Vikings and entertainment throughout the weekend but simultaneously it was horrendously busy everywhere we went so also a pretty crazy time to be in York.

Despite the crowds and the typical English weather, we made the best of our time in York. It’s still a phenomenal city and the likes of the York Minster and York’s Castle Museum are worth a visit at any time of year. However it’d be lovely to go back and explore more peacefully when the likes of the Shambles aren’t.. well, a shambles!

We also had the misfortune of the weather. One of the things I’d hoped we could do was take a river cruise along the River Ouse but with the torrential downpour, ~~all fucking year~~, the city was flooded and consequently we had to settle for a city bus tour instead.

However it was still nice to get away and show off one of England’s finest cities to Haleigh on her furthest trip North in the World!

The Algarve – Portugal
“It’s not that bad” is how I’d often find myself describing the weather here in England. I think it’s vastly exaggerated how bad the weather is in England, much in the same way people speak about Seattle and yet every time I go to Washington I arrive to find blue skies and beautiful sunsets. Where’s this mythical Seattle weather people speak of?

I leap to England’s defence, I promise people it’s not that bad and how is my patriotism rewarded? With endless rain. I think we had about 500 days of rain last year!

“erm Jason, I don’t think a year has that many days?”

Well, I stand by it. The weather this past year has been bloody miserable. You hear extreme headlines of there being “too many people in boats” and yet it’s not the pesky immigrants they’re writing about, it’s your every-day commuter that have abandoned their cars and started rowing to work because of how much rain we’ve had in the last couple of years.

“Who’s exaggerating now?”

Look, it’s not just me saying it. Here’s an article suggesting it was the wettest 18 month period since records began or this article suggesting England was preparing for its wettest summer in 100 years or how we suffered the wettest September for a century. The facts back it up! It has rained and rained and rained and rained and.. you get the point.

Rained!

For a multitude of reasons, we went in to 2024 wanting a holiday. A proper holiday at that. A long distance relationship has meant a lot of our annual leave has been taken up by Transatlantic adventures to visit the other or family or whatever. We squeezed some small, local trips in to 2023 but one of my hopes for 2024 was to visit somewhere that wasn’t Washington State. I love it but I was desperate to just go anywhere else.

Haleigh herself was in much need of a break and we decided we’d chase the Winter sunshine and get away for a full week of sunshine (“what’s that!?”) and relaxation.

We pondered a few options. Well, actually, I mostly narrowed down the options as my knowledge of European getaways was naturally a little more extensive than Haleigh’s. There was a temptation to look further flung than Europe but with just a week’s holiday I think Europe made sense.

It’s surprising how many coastal destinations aren’t necessarily good beach destinations. We eventually whittled down our options to a few select destinations but the Algarve looked increasingly more appealing plus friendly to the budget.

Haleigh had never been to Portugal before. I’d been to Lisbon ten years prior and loved my first impressions of Portugal but I was excited to visit a part of the country that I’d never visited either.

I’ll blog about it in more detail at a later date but we picked really well. The Algarve is beautiful, the beaches are out of this world and we had the perfect week of relaxation! I’d thoroughly recommend it and this was sadly, probably one of the happiest weeks Haleigh had living in England.

Yeah, not an encouraging sign given we were in Portugal!

Norwich – Easter weekend
With other plans for later in the year, we decided we’d celebrate an early anniversary by taking a trip over the Easter weekend rather than using up annual leave for a midweek anniversary.

Norwich is another nice English city to spend some time in and weather-permitting we might have even squeezed in a trip to the coast for a day. It might not quite be the Algarve but the Norfolk coast is alright, isn’t it?

Alas, Haleigh got sick in the run up to our weekend away and we sadly ended up staying at home. In some ways this epitomised Haleigh’s time in England and felt much like the beginning of the end as far as English life was concerned.

London – May
However firstly, Haleigh had family from Utah coming to visit. Well, truthfully they were taking a cruise that mostly toured other places nearby but they set aside a few days to see us in England too.

Trip-planning for this probably wasn’t as smooth as we’d have liked and there were a few different things to consider which kind of left things more last minute than we’d have liked. Haleigh’s family based themselves in London and one such consideration was whether rather than fork out on expensive London accommodation, we actually travel back-and-forth between London and Peterborough each day.

However we didn’t really want all that faff so committed to spending a full week down in good ol’ London!

Again, this might be a trip I blog about in more detail but if you set aside the cost it’s a phenomenal place to spend a week isn’t it? I was born in London, it’ll always be home to me to some degree and I’m completely biased when it comes to judging London objectively but there’s nowhere like it.

I compared New York City to London in an older blog post and whilst NYC rivals it, I joked in that post that the one thing that gives London the edge is that NYC isn’t London – a completely fair ruling!

It was great to be able to show off “my city” but it was also great to just have some significant time there. The one downside to living so close to London still is that it rarely ever needs more than a daytrip to visit. I can go to the football or the theatre or go to see family or whatever and still be tucked up in my own bed the same night so why pay for accommodation usually? I can catch a late train home and be cosy in my own home.

This was a trip that really allowed us the luxury of enjoying London in all its glory – something we hadn’t really done since Haleigh’s first trip to England.

I didn’t see much point in basing ourselves on the outskirts of London, if we were going to spend a week in the capital I didn’t then want to be spending an age commuting in and out of the city. So we plumped for accommodation in central London – the Paddington area to be precise which proved to be a good base for our time in London.

From there the possibilities were endless. You’ll never run out of things to do in London but a week is also a long time to actually really enjoy it. We experienced a few different things over the course of a week that I’ll write about at a later date but the most important thing was my extended family had enjoyed their time in England.

Whitby – June
We had one final adventure left before Haleigh said farewell to England. Myself, Haleigh, my parents, sister and brother-in-law had made plans for a weekend up in Whitby in Yorkshire! It’s not somewhere Haleigh had been before and additionally wasn’t somewhere I’d been before either so we were looking forward to a nice summer weekend up in Whitby.

Naturally, summertime in England doesn’t really count for anything. You’re just aswell booking in December or January and hoping for blue skies. We’d got quite lucky in London for the week but it was mostly grey and overcast skies up in Yorkshire!

Nevertheless we still made the best of it and it wasn’t too bad (“you keep saying that!”) weather wise. Truthfully dreary days by the coast are the best times to visit, for some reason they appear to be much more popular on sunnier and warmer days?

Anyway, Whitby’s lovely. We made time to visit the Abbey whilst we were up there, brushed up on our knowledge of Dracula and Bram Stoker and also took a rather anti-climatic boat ride out to nowhere but it was a nice weekend away with the family and a good opportunity to spend some time together whilst all six of us remain in the country and perhaps it’ll be the last time we’ll do such a trip.

Washington State – August
There was a touch of irony and coincidence in the timing of this trip but we moved “the immigrant” back home on the 1st of August. In the very same week the UK were hosting country-wide anti-immigration demonstrations and just generally losing their damn minds. Riots and lootings and just general destruction spreading across the country from the *checks notes* patriots.. ?
Nothing says “I love my country” more than wreaking havoc on your own doorstep!

It’s such a weird mind-fuck having Haleigh’s family asking her what it was about England she didn’t like and simultaneously sitting there myself thinking I’ve never been more ashamed of my country. England is a lovely country but it’s harder making that argument when the growing number of Reform racists are running riot.

I wrote a satirical blog post over a year ago joking that myself and Haleigh would be crossing the Atlantic on a dinghy and somehow both countries hatred of immigrants and foreigners seems worse now than it was when I wrote that post.

Anyway, I’d done my civic duty and helped remove one immigrant from the country for good. My reward for such patriotism was getting to spend some time in Washington State. You might potentially call it a holiday of sorts.

It was nice to be back in Washington temporarily. We didn’t do anything particularly exciting but 2024 saw the return of the annual family BBQ and it was nice to see so many of Haleigh’s family again. We did some of the more mundane “moving home” kind of things that needed doing now Haleigh was back but overall it was a nice time away and I even got a glimpse of what a summer looks like in places other than rainy, little England.

Unfortunately only one of us were making the trip back to England as Haleigh began to re-settle back in Washington and we began the arduous immigration process all over again.

One day we’ll eventually be in the same place at the same time but alas that chapter isn’t written yet!

Washington – November
Now this was obvious, wasn’t it? Thanksgiving number five! With the exception of 2020 for obvious reasons, I’ve managed to make it to Washington for Thanksgiving every year since my first in 2019!

An extra holiday is an absolute perk to marrying an American. Obviously it shouldn’t be the sole reason you marry someone but it doesn’t hurt to have extra perks. I always love returning to my second home for Thanksgiving each year.

Unfortunately my annual leave seemed to disappear quite quickly this year and looking back it’s hard to see where it went exactly but this was the hand I had been dealt, I could only return to Washington for a week. Nowhere near long enough but it is what it is.

Weirdly, having applied for a spousal visa at this point I’d anticipated a much more interrogative arrival in Seattle for this trip but no.. Naturally I’d given myself plenty of time in the layover I had and it was one of the quickest ever arrivals I’ve had Stateside.

“Why are you here?”
“I’m spending Thanksgiving with my wife and her family.”
“Where’s your wife?”
“She lives here?”
“Where do you live?”
“In England”
“Why…?”

I don’t know mate, for shits and giggles. What do you mean why?

Seriously, there was just something in the tone of his question that was almost comical. “You’re apart? I mean that makes no sense dude. You should just be together!”

If only it were that simple! Who do I speak to to make this guy the head of immigration?

Pleased with a suitable answer less sarcastic than those going on in my brain, he waved me on through and I was back in Washington!

As ever, the week went far, far too quickly but it was nice to be back in Washington and of course good to be reunited with Haleigh even if only temporarily. Hopefully Mr Border Patrol officer receives his fully-deserved promotion but until such a time we continue to wait.

Local stuff
That just about sums up the bigger trips of the year. I’d say Portugal was the highlight, it is a really special part of the world and certainly one of the best trips we’ve taken together.

I feel like my online presence was much less in 2024 across all platforms but beyond the above, I’ve still been trying to make the best of the year and living my life in England. There were bigger plans for the year that perhaps didn’t pan out as planned but this was a year where I squeezed in more volunteering. I rediscovered a love of some hobbies and discovered others that really aren’t for me.

All in all, my year wasn’t bad and I know others in the world have much more to worry about but fingers crossed for better things to come in 2025!

So.. 2025 plans?
Look, some of this is visa-dependent. We submitted our application in mid October so we’re almost three months into the process. We’ve been advised it could take anywhere up to two years so it’s impossible to say when it’ll happen for us, we’ll keep hopeful that it’ll happen in 2025 but it’s out of our hands.

One goal is obviously to save some money. Whenever it does happen, I don’t want to be heading to Washington penniless but there’s that fine balance between saving all of my money and dying of boredom in the process.

I don’t want to be financially irresponsible and reckless but whilst we are waiting, I still need to maintain a life here in England.

As far as travel is concerned, I’ll obviously visit Washington at some point this year. Haleigh is hopeful to visit England later in the summer too so we’ll still see eachother albeit not as much as we’d like.

More ambitious travel plans, I’m craving a bit of Winter sunshine again. I need to figure out if there’s wiggle room in the budget to take a holiday but I’m tempted nonetheless. Haleigh doesn’t have the annual leave / PTO to join me but I want a little bit of sunshine. I’d be tempted to return to the Algarve again but if I return without Haleigh, that’ll likely end in divorce so I’ll have to consider other alternatives!

I’m also really, really tempted to get back to Finland. I want to see more of the country and it’s calling my name.

Truthfully though, I have no plans other than visiting Washington at some point but I’ve been to Washington so many times that it isn’t quite scratching that itch and desire to travel and see the world.

I suppose watch this space!

Anyway, I’ll hopefully blog more this year so watch that space too. Until next time!

Jason

We need to talk about Harry..

Hey dear followers. Be warned: this is one of those football chats! I said a while back that the blog would be a bit “whatever I fancy talking about” rather than specifically travel and this is one of those football reads that might not interest you. If so, now is the time to look away!

This however is going to be a little more analytical, statistical and just generally applauding one of the very best – Harry Kane!

Why does dear Harry justify a blog post of his own? Honestly? I just need to explode about it somewhere because it drives me bonkers how little people appreciate what we’re witnessing right now.

I think about it constantly as Kane achieves another record or closes in on the next. I’ll start throwing numbers at you soon but the lack of recognition & the level of criticism he still receives is genuinely mind-boggling and also infuriating to me.

I don’t know if it’s just because we’re a social-media driven society that is overly critical and abusive of anything and everything but my hope is that future generations will look back and be more appreciative of Harry fucking Kane. Much in the same way that current generations look back at Jimmy Greaves and think – “wow! What a player”.

Jimmy Greaves is in my mind the greatest striker this country has ever seen and the stats undoubtedly back that up but there’s a little part of me that hopes that he got stick every week to make sense of the criticism I see for Kane today. It baffles me endlessly and I get so defensive about it because please just give the man the respect he deserves! Someone tell me Jimmy Greaves got slaughtered in the stands every week?

I may be jinxing the man but before the end of the season Harry Kane will be Tottenham’s greatest ever goalscorer, England’s greatest ever goalscorer and likely also surpass 200 top flight goals. So here are some numbers for you..

Bear in mind, these are correct as of today (13th October 2022) but will likely be higher dependent upon when you read this!

Tottenham’s greatest goalscorers (the 100 club)
1 – Jimmy Greaves – 1961-70 – 266 goals in 379 appearances
2 – Harry Kane – 2011-present – 257 in 399 appearances
3 – Bobby Smith – 1955-64 – 208/317
4 – Martin Chivers – 1968-76 – 174/367
5 – Cliff Jones – 1958-68 – 159/378
6 – Jermain Defoe – 2004-2014 – 143/363
7 – George Hunt – 1930-37 – 138/198
8 – Son Heung-Min – 2015-present – 136/338
9 – Len Duquemin – 1947-57 – 134/307
10 – Alan Gilzean – 1964-74 – 133/439
11 – Teddy Sheringham – 1992-2003 – 124/277
12 – Robbie Keane – 2002-2011 – 122/306
13 – Les Bennett – 1946-54 – 117/294
14 – Jimmy Dimmock – 1919-31 – 112/438
15 – Glenn Hoddle – 1975-87 – 110/490
16 – Bert Bliss – 1912-22 – 104/215
17= – Billy Minter – 1908-19 – 101/263
17= – Johnny Morrison – 1933-39 – 101/154

I never thought I’d see Jimmy Greaves record broken. Don’t get me wrong, I still think Greaves is the greatest striker this country has ever seen and had he played for Tottenham for longer he’d likely have scored many more but that record is going this season. Maybe before Christmas?

Year after year I’ve seen Kane inch closer but whilst so far away you’d still be sceptical about seeing the record smashed. However in recent seasons I’ve actually started believing that Greaves could be caught and this is finally the season it will happen. The bloke already has ten for the season and I’d be amazed if he doesn’t add another ten to his tally with thirty-odd games to go. Harry Kane will end his career as Tottenham’s highest ever goalscorer and I do believe that THAT record will never be beaten!

A Premier League comparison!
Going in to this historic season I was curious as to how our Premier League counterparts compared. Who are the highest goalscorers at each of the 20 Premier League clubs. How does Harry Kane stack up against the rest?

Everton – Dixie Dean – 383 goals
Liverpool – Ian Rush – 346
West Ham – Vic Watson – 326
Leicester – Arthur Chandler – 273
Spurs – Jimmy Greaves – 266
Manchester City – Sergio Aguero – 260
Harry Kane – 257
Manchester United – Wayne Rooney – 253
Wolves – Steve Bull – 250
Aston Villa – Billy Walker – 244
Leeds – Peter Lorimer – 238
Bournemouth – Ron Eyre – 229
Arsenal – Thierry Henry – 228
Southampton – Mick Channon – 228
Nottingham Forest – Grenville Morris – 217
Chelsea – Frank Lampard – 211
Newcastle – Alan Shearer – 206
Fulham – Gordon Davies – 178
Crystal Palace – Peter Simpson – 165
Brentford – Jim Towers – 163
Brighton – Tommy Cook – 123

Never say never with Harry but I think that top three may be beyond his reach. Ultimately it’ll depend on how many more years he plays for Tottenham but even as one of Harry Kane’s biggest admirers I’d be surprised if he touches Dixie Dean’s record for Everton. Nevertheless, his goal tally would place him as the highest goalscorer at most clubs in the division.

More to the point, is this the last club record to go? People are raving about Erling Haaland at the moment and might suggest he could smash Sergio Aguero’s record for Manchester City but the reality is doing it consistently for so many years is difficult to do. Likewise, changing football clubs is much more common in the modern era. As good as he is, I don’t expect Haaland to be at Manchester City long enough to beat the incredible Sergio Aguero – who would have scored many more himself but for injuries.

However even looking at clubs lower down the list.. Brighton’s record looks remarkably low for instance but as I said, it’s so rare for players to stick around for long enough to beat such a record. If Brighton found themselves a 20-goal-a-season striker, how long would he be at Brighton before being prized and tempted away by a bigger football club?

I haven’t drifted through all of the thousands of football clubs in England but certainly at the highest level, I think Harry Kane might be the last striker we see break such a record for one club – unbelievable!

England’s greatest goalscorers (the top 10)
Wayne Rooney: 53 in 120 caps
Harry Kane: 51 in 75 caps
Bobby Charlton: 49 in 106 caps
Gary Lineker: 48 in 80 caps
Jimmy Greaves: 44 in 57 caps
Michael Owen: 40 in 89 caps
Tom Finney: 30 in 76 caps
Nat Lofthouse: 30 in 33 caps
Alan Shearer: 30 in 63 caps
Vivian Woodward: 29 in 23 caps
Frank Lampard: 29 in 106 caps

Harry Kane could have a terrible World Cup in November but realistically, Harry Kane is also going to end 2022 as England’s greatest goalscorer. Personally I hope he surpasses the record in Thanksgiving week v the USA as it’ll make my trip the little bit sweeter.

However even if he doesn’t surpass Rooney at this World Cup, it’s an inevitability it happens at some point. I expect it to happen in Qatar but that might be tempting fate.

I actually think England’s record is fairly low in all honesty. According to Wikipedia (the most legitimate of sources obviously..) 75 players have scored more than 50 goals for their country. Cristiano Ronaldo has 117 and counting for Portugal which shows how far off England’s record is by comparison.

Nevertheless, Harry Kane is going to continue playing and scoring for England for a few years yet so it’ll be interesting to see how high he sets the standard.

A lot of criticism surrounds Kane’s England record in particular which is daft but should also be offset against the reality that he’s won a golden boot at a World Cup and has scored the most goals at international tournaments for England – again a pitiful tally of 10 goals at major international tournaments but it’s the record and another he’ll undoubtedly add to.

45 of his 51 England goals have also been in competitive fixtures and no England player has ever scored more goals at major tournaments. Remarkably at the most recent tournament there were calls for him to be dropped – from England pundits who arguably achieved less in their England careers.

To add a little controversy, if Kane were to win a World Cup that’d cement him as England’s greatest ever for me personally. He’s been England’s most successful player outside of that famous ’66 squad. If Kane caps off his England career with a World Cup it’s undoubted in my mind.

The 200 club (200+ goals in the top division!)
This was a personal discovery around the time of the deaths of Jimmy Greaves and Diego Maradona – two of the greatest footballers to have ever played the game. Moreso Sir Jimmy’s death as it sparked up discussions about his goalscoring record.

I’ve never been too unfamiliar with Greaves record but he not only currently holds the record for the most goals for Tottenham but he’s in a league of his own when it comes to goalscoring at the highest level in English football.

It was only looking at comparisons around the world however that I saw a remarkable lack of English goalscorers with significant goals to their name.

Understanding that football in this country began in the mid-late 1800’s, it’s remarkable that only 27 players have ever scored 200 goals in England’s top division.

1) Jimmy Greaves: 357 goals in 516 games (1957-1972)
2) Steve Bloomer: 314 in 536 (1892-1914)
3) Dixie Dean: 310 in 362 (1924-1938)
4) Gordon Hodgson: 287 in 456 (1925-1940)
5) Alan Shearer: 283 in 559 (1988-2006)
6) David Jack: 257 in 476 (1920-1934)
6) Charlie Buchan: 257 in 482 (1912-1928)
8) Nat Lofthouse: 255 in 452 (1946-1960)
9) Joe Bradford: 248 in 410 (1921-1935)
10) Hughie Gallacher: 246 in 355 (1925-1938)
11) Joe Smith: 243 in 410 (1908-1927)
12) George Brown: 240 in 366 (1921-1935)
13) George Camsell: 233 in 337 (1921-1939)
14) Ian Rush: 232 in 515 (1980-1998)
15) David Herd: 222 in 412 (1954-1970)
16) Harry Hampton: 219 in 357 (1904-1922)
17) Billy Walker: 214 in 478 (1919-1933)
17) Tony Cottee: 214 in 548 (1982-2000)
19) Dave Halliday: 211 in 257 (1925-1933)
20) Geoff Hurst: 210 in 519 (1959-1975)
21) Ronnie Allen: 208 in 415 (1950-1961)
21) Wayne Rooney: 208 in 476 (2002-2021)
23) Bobby Gurney: 205 in 348 (1926-1944)
24( Arthur Chandler: 204 in 309 (1925-1935)
25) Vic Watson: 203 in 295 (1923-1932)
26) Denis Law: 201 in 377 (1960-1974)
26) Harry Johnson: 201 in 313 (1919-1931)
Harry Kane: 191 in 288 (2012-present)

Only twenty seven players have scored more than 200 goals in England’s top division in 150 or so years of football? That’s BONKERS!

I raised this point on a football forum I frequent and someone also rightly acknowledged that the early days of football tended to feature more high-scoring contests, for whatever reason (before my time obviously!).

So of the 27 I singled out the post-war players and that made the list shrink to just ten remaining players!

Jimmy Greaves: 357 goals in 516 games (1957-1972)
Alan Shearer: 283 in 559 (1988-2006)
Nat Lofthouse: 255 in 452 (1946-1960)
Ian Rush: 232 in 515 (1980-1998)
David Herd: 222 in 412 (1954-1970)
Tony Cottee: 214 in 548 (1982-2000)
Geoff Hurst: 210 in 519 (1959-1975)
Ronnie Allen: 208 in 415 (1950-1961)
Wayne Rooney: 208 in 476 (2002-2021)
Denis Law: 201 in 377 (1960-1974)
Harry Kane: 191 in 288 (2012-present)

Only ten players have scored 200 top flight goals in 80 years of post-war football in this country. Ten!

Shout-out to Tony Cottee too because that was a surprising name on the list for me (I’d also never heard of David Herd or Ronnie Allen).

Jimmy Greaves has always set the bar for me as a Spurs fan, that’s the standard but I’d never considered 200 goals to be that unattainable. Players generally have anywhere from a 10-15 season career, sometimees longer. Scoring 20 in a season is the sign of a good striker, do that for 10 years – job done – 200 top flight goals! Easy peasy!

The reality though is that it doesn’t happen. There’s a higher influx of foreign players now, players switch clubs more frequently, players are rotated much more frequently, injuries happen so I understand it in more modern times but over an 80 year period it really surprised me that so few have ever scored that number in the top division.

Harry Kane is going to become only the 11th player in post-war-times to score 200 top flight goals. He’s got a good few years left too!

The Premier League (top 5)
Alan Shearer: 260
Wayne Rooney: 208
Harry Kane: 191
Andy Cole: 187
Sergio Aguero: 184

This tends to be the record that the media focus on the most – particularly with Shearer holding a punditry role in the media. This season Harry’s surpassed Cole and Aguero to take 3rd spot on the all time Premier League list (1992-present).

I’ve no doubt that Kane passes Shearer and the goalposts will then shift. People will start to point out Alan Shearer actually scored 283 in the top flight but I expect him to smash that too. I don’t think catching Greaves is realistic but what the numbers show, in any metric, is that Kane is one of the best strikers this country has ever seen.

More than a goalscorer
What shouldn’t go unsaid is that Harry Kane’s all round game is phenomenal. Some of those great goalscorers listed above were just that, players who’d stick the ball in the net and offer nothing more from their performances.

Admittedly I might be more biased when it comes to our Harry but I often find myself in awe watching Kane make everything look so easy. Forget his goalscoring and he’s still one of the most talented footballers I’ve had the joy of watching.

His range of passing is incredible, his decision-making is an art. Every players makes mistakes and has their share of bad games but I so often find myself applauding everything he does. The passing, the hold-up play, the flick ons, the clever fouls he wins – it’s unbelievable how good he is and then he’s a thirty goal-a-season striker on top of that? Come on..

The critics
and yet Harry Kane is one of the most abused players on social media. I see it daily, constantly. Any time he shares something on social media – BAM! Sometimes minimal criticism, often genuinely abusive stuff. It’s constant.

and whilst I don’t understand the mentality of abusing anyone, I’d be less sympathetic to it if he was a bit of a dick. Referring to that particular article, the most abused footballer on the list has very serious allegations around his name to at least give the statistics some context.

Kane in contrast you hear nothing about the life he lives. It’s all very quiet. He may well be the biggest asshole behind closed doors but he’s never found in the limelight in the way other superstars over the years have been. By all accounts he comes across as an individual that is professional and focused on little more than his football.

On the occasions you do hear from him publicly it’s supporting mental health charities or issues such as racism and homophobia. He was a big supporter of the women’s England’s success this past summer and in doing so was subjected to another barrage of abuse (“women showing you how it’s done..”)

Is it jealousy? I don’t know. Personally I think he has little to prove and yet people find something about his game or his personality or speech impediment to want to tear the man down – it pains me to witness the abuse he receives when he should be respected as one of the greatest ever and seemingly a decent role-model too.

Point of the post?
Honestly, just to make myself feel a bit better I think. I think about Kane’s record-hunting constantly – I’m obsessed and I don’t think anyone really cares or appreciates the greatness enough. I figured no social media post could have done my thoughts justice and that a blog post may do the trick and allow me to wax lyrical about him a bit.

I think in 20-30-50 years time people will be looking back at Kane’s record in the same way I reflect on the great Jimmy Greaves.

“Dad / Grandad, just how good was Harry Kane..?” – “He was the best..”

My dad still refers to that ONE Clive Allen season in the 80’s and I get it – 49 goals in a season, a club record that remains to this day but Harry Kane will always be that guy for me. 80 years old and still watching Spurs – “he’s no Harry Kane though is he..?”

Tottenham’s all-time record goalscorer, England’s all-time record goalscorer, the Premier League’s all-time record goalscorer. The latter still seems a way off but let’s be clear, Harry Kane has 4-5 more years left playing football and retiring before he’s surpassed Shearer would be the biggest surprise to me.

Will this post do anything to change people’s perceptions of Kane today? Probably not but the records he’s toppling are mind-boggling to me. I can’t imagine what numbers he’ll finish his career on and I dread the day he moves on from Spurs – how the hell do you replace him?

I’ve watched some sublime footballers and fantastic strikers at Spurs over the years but this standard is irreplaceable. The sooner robotic clones are introduced to the game the better, Harry Kane 2.0 scoring against Arsenal for the 500th time in 2052 will do me nicely!

Anyway I suppose I’ll wrap this up. I wanted to talk about it before the records start tumbling but be sure that they will do. I’m sure people will still find ways to dismiss his record. Three goals were against San Marino and one of his goals for Spurs was on a Monday afternoon at 15:06 so won’t count for some made-up reason.

People seem to find all sorts of unspoken clauses that diminish his record that little bit more. Seemingly the first striker in history to not have scored against an all-star-11 in 200 consecutive games from 30 yards out with his weaker foot.

Give me whatever metric you like, his record will hold up. He’s consistently done it at every level and has goals against a ridiculous number of teams including the very best that football has to offer.

257 and counting for Spurs, 51 and counting for England, ambitions to play in the NFL so he’ll probably go and tear up that sport one day too!

Perhaps we don’t need to talk about Harry but I certainly did so thanks for indulging me.

Harry Kane – generational talent! Oh and “he’s one of our own” too!

Dino Duty!

Hello dear readers! I thought I’d once again mix things up a little and instead of travel, write about what I’ve been up to recently.

Specifically I wanted to write about my jump into volunteering. I’ve briefly mentioned in previous posts that I launched a “little” Instagram page promoting all things Peterborough and I guess over the last year or so that it’s become a bit of a “passion project” if you want to call it that.

I think I’ll leave that story for another day but ultimately Peterborough has been at the forefront of a lot of my social activity over the last two years – obviously helped by a pandemic making travel so much hassle.

Bit by bit I’ve been more active in Peterborough. Chasing new experiences and trying out different places – finding new favourites along the way. There’s some really cool stuff happening locally and it’s kept me pretty inspired and has definitely made me fall in love with “my” city that little bit more.

There’s a part of me that still always thinks of London as my home. Nine years in London, 25 in Peterborough – nevertheless it’s that unshakeable attachment to my birthplace that has meant Peterborough can and perhaps never will compare. I’m a Londoner and it’s so much a part of who I am but I think I’m finally embracing the Peterborough within me too.

Having spread a lot of Peterborough positivity over on Instagram over the last year or so has been a lot of fun, a highlight even and definitely brought a lot of new experiences my way but one of my goals this year was to go further than that.

Spreading the good word of Peterborough and the work people are doing to make this city better is one thing but how do I become one of those people? How do I play my own role in making Peterborough better and making exciting things happen here?

I caught wind of this amazing-looking local festival happening in May and I was like “I want to be part of that..” – so I signed up to volunteer to help out! My first foray in to volunteering and just days before the weekend-long event I caught Covid – gutted!

I was so disappointed to have to withdraw my volunteering role but just as disappointed that I was missing the festival on a weekend with a perfect weather forecast in Peterborough’s gem “Ferry Meadows”.

It looked incredible, a huge wave of local talent performing in a variety of arts and sectors and I was missing it all. It was a huge success and I’m sure the festival will return next year but opportunity missed!

One of the other local events happening this summer that I was particularly excited for was a touring exhibit from the Natural History Museum in London. A TRex exhibit featuring a bunch of dinosaurs coming to Peterborough Cathedral! It looked amazing!

I was interested nonetheless but upon looking at their website further I saw that Peterborough Cathedral were actually welcoming volunteers for the exhibit – “maybe I’ll do that!”.

I signed up to volunteer and here we are! Three weeks in to a six week dinosaur exhibit at Peterborough Cathedral – a NHM exhibit at that! Peterborough cathedral the last stop on a 15 year tour!

The volunteering interview
I imagine with any volunteering role there’s a degree of “we’re happy to have any help” but nevertheless I’m a pretty introverted person and so there was a little nervousness that for some reason that I wouldn’t make a good impression and that they’d turn me away. Am I really the volunteering type?

The first shift!
To be honest, there was a bit of a learning curve here for me too. There were a few different roles with pretty much a “sign up for what you like” attitude which was great. The first few sessions I signed up for I signed up for pretty much every different role and I figured by the end of that I’d have a better idea of which fit me best.

The first shift I’d signed up to be an “exhibit assistant” which pretty much means watching over the visitors and making sure the dinosaurs don’t eat anybody. I was watching over the T-Rex skeletion which is the first thing you see upon entry to the exhibit which was special.

I’m quite pleased this was my first volunteering shift actually because seeing the first kids run in and see the amazement on their faces is definitely a volunteering highlight. It left me feeling warm and fuzzy and excited that this exhibit was happening on my doorstep and that I was contributing my own small part in helping it happen.

I’ve been so excited for this exhibit for ages, particularly after discovering I’d be volunteering at it but to get those first reactions to the exhibit was really nice.

Subsequent shifts
As I said, I’ve done pretty much the full range of available roles to see which fits best and all have their own good points. I think the only shift I didn’t really enjoy was helping out with the shop but that’s partly because of stock issues and there not really being anything in the shop. For most people it’s the last point of the cathedral visit and to have little to offer was disappointing.

I think stock levels have improved but I haven’t been inclined to repeat that role. I think it’s the role that I’ve found least visitor interaction which has probably and perhaps surprisingly been the part I’ve enjoyed most.

I think my next shift was ticket checking which I’ve enjoyed doing. It’s easy enough and also means you get to greet each visitor and excited face upon entry to the exhibit. The “cathedral welcomer” role is much the same and you’re the first point of contact for arriving guests at the cathedral.

The cathedral is free to visit so people can come in but the exhibit is ticketed which means you’re limited as to what you can see without a ticket for the exhibit. Notably you can’t “visit” Katherine of Aragon or Mary Queen of Scots resting places without a ticket to the exhibit which has led to a few disgruntled visitors but for the mostpart the reaction has been positive from people I’ve spoken to.

Although one such disgruntled visitor did give me a cracking quote – “you’ve turned ‘Our Father’s’ house in to a funpark”.. – a damning review!

The burning question!
Working with the final TRex has also been a fun shift of the exhibit. It’s the largest dinosaur model within the exhibit and where the exhibit ends. The purpose of the exhibit is to determine whether the visitor thinks the TRex was a scavenger or a predator and you can vote on the way out.

That’s a fun shift to do too because it’s the dinosaur the kids are particularly excited for (or scared of) and you also get to hear people’s reasoning before they vote on the big question!

Generally every time I walk past the little box it appears to be 50-50 though so make of that what you will!

The buzz!
This is something I don’t think I really appreciated until I started doing this. I was excited for the exhibit as a potential visitor, I was SO excited for the exhibit once I knew I’d be volunteering but actually doing it? Wow!

I’m very much of the mindset that I’m ready to retire. I have never been career driven or cared for a job. The only reason I work is because I have to – I have expenses both personal and practical. Be it paying for bills or paying for travel and such things.

I can’t afford not to work but I definitely believe if I was financially comfortable that I’d pack it in at the earliest convenience. I’m at my happiest when traveling and that can be doing something really exciting or just sat in a coffee shop drinking tea and watching the world go by and not giving a second thought to work.

Every time I travel I romanticise the idea of living somewhere. Be it New York, Lisbon, Walla Walla or most recently Newcastle – what a city that is by the way! The idea is always without the practicalities of living costs and work and whatever else but Newcastle a fine example of somewhere I immediately fell in love with.

I’m getting sidetracked but point being I’ve never believed the rubbish of “if you do something you love you’ll never work a day in your life”. Weighing up working or spending my day in a new city – it’s a no brainer and I don’t really believe work will ever feel anything other than just that to me. I don’t think I’ll ever find a career that brings me love and passion,

At 8:59 I don’t care about work, at 17:31 I don’t care about work, on holiday I don’t care about work but I accept that not working is not an option available to me. I’m more than content doing the 9-5 lifestyle as long as I have to (retiring at 80+ probably..) but if I didn’t have to be doing that I wouldn’t be.

and yet volunteering for this has thrown a dilemma my way. The exhibit is phenomenal, hearing and witnessing the reaction to it has given me such a buzz and a warm, fuzzy feeling.

I didn’t think I’d ever return to a customer-facing role or weekend work so to voluntarily be doing so and actually enjoying being a part of it has been the biggest surprise. I’ve wanted each visitor to have the best experience and it’s really put doubt in my mind as to what the hell I’m doing. I’ve never enjoyed a job as much as this.

Would it be different if it wasn’t voluntary? Would it be different if it wasn’t this particular exhibit? I really don’t know but “ProudOfPeterborough” has become my little baby and actually being part of an incredible event in the city has been the best experience and made me really ponder my career.

Peterborough has grabbed my heart at the moment and I definitely want to be more involved in other community driven events and volunteering roles. The cathedral asked yesterday if I’d like to continue volunteering after this particular exhibit and I said sign me up!

Whether this is a one-off buzz or maybe I’ve found my calling, I guess time will tell but nonetheless this has been a phenomenal few weeks and I’m really excited for the final few weeks. The exhibit ends on the 3rd of September and I’ve already signed up for a three-shift / ten hour day to see it out to the very end.

If you’re in or around Peterborough before then I would encourage a visit. My photos don’t do it justice but it’s so good!

Anyway that wraps up a little of what I’ve been up to this summer. Dino duty in my first volunteering role!

As for the future? Wait and see I suppose. It pains me to know that I’ll be working for another 40-50 years but maybe, just maybe I’ve found my calling?

Stay tuned!

Jason

2021 travel roundup

Hello dear followers!

2021 wasn’t the best year on the blogging front. It’s almost like not being able to travel so frequently sucks out some of the motivation for travel-writing, who’d have thought?

Nevertheless, every year for the past few years I’ve done a round-up of the years travels and despite another year of travel uncertainty I still managed to squeeze in some adventures. So here’s your annual roundup of 2021!

Firstly though, if you wanted to see previous efforts you can do so here: A 2017 summary , 2018: A travel round-up , 2019 travel roundup & 2020 travel roundup

Anyway, on to 2021!

June 2021 – Eastbourne
The start of this year was a bit of a write off with lockdowns and more restrictions and so much travel uncertainty. It was quite a while before I felt like I could book a trip of any sort and decided I was going to just stick to somewhere in the UK.

With restrictions, testing and so many other things to think about I couldn’t be bothered with the hassle of going abroad. Six months in to the year and it somehow seemed even more restrictive and uncertain than traveling in 2020 had been.

My first proper trip of 2020 had been a coastal retreat to Norfolk and I was tempted to do similar over a weekend this year. I booked myself a long weekend away on the South coast and decided I’d visit Eastbourne, which I’d likely tie in with visiting somewhere else nearby.

Of course having waited just over five months for my trip, a week or so beforehand the hotel emailed me to say they wouldn’t be open at the time of my visit – disaster!

Fortunately I hadn’t booked any trains yet so wasn’t out of pocket but it spoilt my first travel plans of the year. Alternative accommodation prices didn’t look great (I’d found a great deal on my hotel) and the weather also looked miserable closer to the trip so I decided to pass on heading South and not spend the weekend anywhere.

June 2021 – Bury-St-Edmunds
Eastbourne didn’t happen and the late cancellation (on their part!) meant that it just wasn’t worthwhile trying to sort a break away at the last minute.

That said, I wasn’t about to waste a day of annual leave. It might well have been a quiet weekend but I had the Friday off work and I figured I should make the best of it and take a daytrip somewhere.

From Peterborough there were a few obvious options, fortunately the train links are quite good from the city and I pondered how far I could realistically go in a day (Edinburgh’s probably a tad too far!). London, York, Cambridge and Ely all jumped out at me but I decided to wing it and Bury-St-Edmunds seemed a fairly cheap day out, fairly local journey and also meant visiting somewhere that I’d never been to before.

The verdict? It’s surprisingly nice. I don’t quite know what I expected from Bury-St-Edmunds but it was better than I’d anticipated it being. The weather was miserable and therefore not the best day for exploring but I hopped on an early train and made the best of a few hours in a town I knew very little about.

It had lots of independent shops, a nice museum, some lovely pubs and was a really nice place to walk around. ‘Abbey Gardens’ was probably the jewel in the town and somewhere I could see myself spending many an afternoon if I was a local, a bit of a shame about the weather on the day I visited mind you.

All in all I’d recommend it as a nice day trip if you’re ever looking for a daytrip in the region.

July 2021 – Lancaster
There were several motivations for this particular trip. First and foremost a friend moved up to Lancaster and I’d not had a chance to visit since he moved up there. Then of course I’d budgeted for a weekend-long trip to Eastbourne which became a cheap daytrip in Bury-St-Edmunds so I was financially better off as a result.

The one area of doubt was big plans in September. I knew that the closer we got to the big wedding in Washington, the more frugal I would have to be with my earnings.

Sadly Covid wreaked havocs with those plans and we postponed until April of this year so I thought sod it, I’ve got longer to save and I really needed a break. So I committed to visiting my friend up in Lancaster for a weekend – only one night but a train up on the Saturday morning and returning Sunday evening.

Lancaster would probably go in to the same category as Bury-St-Edmunds – not somewhere I’d really ever given much consideration to visiting and wasn’t that fussed about but having a friend to visit was a good excuse to check it out.

Unlike my June daytrip, the weather in Lancaster was glorious. There were minimal restrictions left in England by this point but the weather made the few restrictions still in place much easier to manage with the luxury of being able to eat and drink outdoors.

Lancaster itself was full of charm and is definitely somewhere I’m glad that I visited. It’s a nice town and probably a good base for a trip to the Lake District too. We didn’t have time for that on this visit but it’s something I’ll definitely try and make time for on the next trip up North.

September 2021 – Washington State
This was the big trip of the year! This was what much of 2021 was budgeted around and then it didn’t happen. The US border seemed like it was just going to remain indefinitely closed and as September inched closer and closer we eventually came to the decision that we were unfortunately going to have to postpone our wedding.

Very frustrating because it seemed like if I could get to Washington the venue itself would be fine to host it but it’s not much of a wedding without a groom and my hopes of getting there were dashed so we made the hard choice to postpone.

Somewhat fortunately the border didn’t open up until November. I think I’d have been sick had they opened a couple of months earlier and we needn’t have postponed.

Anyway, wedding or not – I wasn’t able to visit in September so crossed my fingers for Thanksgiving as the next best time to visit!

September 2021 – Ireland
One consequence to postponing a wedding was now what do I do? I’d been stringent on my annual leave all year so that I could enjoy four weeks out in Washington State, only to then have to postpone. I now had four weeks off work with nowhere to go!

It didn’t make sense to stick with four weeks off. I debated spreading it over the last four months of the year but in the end cancelled just the one and enjoyed a three week break from work. However I didn’t want to spend all of that at home sulking about a wedding cancellation.

One consideration was to see if me and Haleigh could go somewhere else together instead? Sadly she started a brand new job in September so it would have been hard for her to sneak away for a few days.

Still determined to not sit and cry in my bedroom for the next three weeks, I decided that I was going somewhere regardless of the circumstances. If seeing Haleigh wasn’t a possibility then I’d just have to adventure solo for a little bit.

With ever-changing travel restrictions, testing and an endless number of hoops to jump through I struggled deciding on where I could go.

Unlike earlier in the year I really wanted to go abroad but where to? I debated a few ideas, I also debated taking more than one trip to separate destinations over the space of the three weeks but a degree of sensibility kicked in and I decided that I’d only travel for a few days and take a trip to Ireland. Not too far to go but surprisingly a first time visit to the country.

Dublin Boat — I didn’t go by boat though..

A tad ironic looking back with the benefit of hindsight but I was actually due to visit Ireland in 2019. At the last-minute I buckled and decided not to go. I was burnt out with a wave of social activity in the early months of 2019 – both internationally and domestically.

I felt like I hadn’t stopped for weeks with busy weeks and busy weekends one after another and another and another and it was too much. I’d got to the point where I just needed one weekend for myself, one weekend of doing very little and with upcoming trips on consecutive weekends – Dublin or a Champions League final in Madrid – one had to go. Needless to say the latter wasn’t an option!

MadridSpurs

The idea of voluntarily skipping a trip now is ludicrous of course but the night before flying to Ireland I just couldn’t face the idea of going. I woke up and decided I wasn’t going to the airport. I know I would have enjoyed it had I got to Dublin but I decided it’d probably only be to the detriment of the roadtrip to Madrid a few days later.

I still stand by the decision to not take that Dublin trip in 2019. It was the right decision at the time but did leave me feeling like I had “business” to settle with Ireland. So getting the opportunity to finally visit (for the first time!!) was pleasing.

The plan was to visit for longer than the original 3 day trip in 2019. I decided to make the best of it with 6 days in Ireland – split between two cities. Dublin of course and then Galway was singing my name – “come and visit Jason, please!”.

Sadly, Galway was stupidly expensive and I just couldn’t justify spending that much to visit. My accommodation to stay in Dublin was cheaper than Galway looked to be and I couldn’t find any rational reason as to why so instead I decided I’d pop down to Cork for a few days.

Live Music

Dublin
If I’m completely honest the one thing that really appealed to me about Dublin, particularly at this moment in time, was the idea of sitting in a pub, listening to Irish music and not having to think about work or anything.

I said I wasn’t going to sit and cry in my bedroom for weeks but I’d reached my point of Covid fatigue – sick of restrictions, sick of sticking my life on hold, sick of no apparent end to this way of living. So if I was going to be glum anywhere, why not with a beer in an Irish pub?

Ironically Ireland actually had more restrictions than England at the time but it felt like there was a degree of freedom for the vaccinated and that’s all I wanted – much like Gibraltar a year earlier – a taste of something normal (apparently Guinness on this occasion!).

I would love to say I planned a trip to Ireland for the castles, the culture, the history and the adventure but more than anything I just wanted a holiday – a break from the same four walls.

On that front, I can happily say Dublin didn’t disappoint. Even having to wear a mask and supply proof of vaccination upon every pub, restaurant and attraction it still felt nice that I could then just enjoy it on the other side.

If anything it was more preferable this way. I’d reached a point of Covid-fatigue but was also quite nervous about the no restriction free-for-all taking place in a pandemic-free England. This felt like more of a happy medium that let me enjoy living without feeling reckless doing so. It’s all I needed.

Temple Bar was unsurprisingly a highlight. I can only imagine that it’s much busier in non-Covid times but Ireland were slowly reopening their economy with live music for example only recently reintroduced in to pubs (table-service only). You could see how appreciative many of the artists were to be performing their first act on this side of the pandemic – live music back in Ireland – as it should be!

Admittedly a table service experience isn’t quite the same. My best Irish jigs were restricted to my seat but nevertheless just being able to enjoy a Guinness, some live music and a nice atmosphere was glorious.

Dublin wasn’t all (but mostly) drinking Guinness of course, I did check out a few of the big attractions and made a trip up to Malahide Castle which was a great recommendation from a friend (John, aka CarpeDiemEire). Infact we even met up which was lovely, it’s always nice connecting with fellow bloggers and travelers that you’ve crossed paths with online.

I’ll blog more about Dublin at a later date but it was a good first introduction to Ireland.

Cork
I can’t say what it was but I remember myself stood overlooking the River Liffey and thinking to myself “I don’t know how I feel about Dublin”.

Don’t get me wrong, there’s a lot to like about Dublin and I did enjoy my time there but I also posed the question to myself if it was somewhere I could see myself going back to or whether I’d be content having visited Dublin once and swaying towards the latter.

In all likelihood I will go back to Dublin because it’s so close, the nightlife ticks all of the boxes and Haleigh may well want to visit herself one day so I’d be incredibly surprised if I don’t go back at some point. However unlike other one-tiime-destinations that I’ve been to, I think I’d be OK if for whatever reason I didn’t return to Dublin.

So rather ironically I woke up on the Friday morning and pondered staying in Dublin. Was it worth getting on a train to go all the way down to Cork or should I just stay in Dublin over the weekend? I hadn’t booked my trains yet and despite my hotel being just around the corner from the nearest station, I couldn’t drag myself away from Dublin.

I was torn between the convenience of staying where I was and the lure of exploring somewhere new and then wouldn’t-you-know-it, I discovered my new favourite spot in Dublin. I’d decided I’d ponder my plans over a spot of lunch and this place just oozed atmosphere.

I don’t know if it was a case of it being a Friday lunchtime and people were starting to wind down for the weekend but there was a buzz about this place. The friendly chatter and noise that as I write this now I think fondly back to but the memory also becomes somewhat of an epiphany moment.

This lunchtime outing was one of my favourite in Dublin and I think perhaps the biggest thing Dublin had lacked was people. Essentially, we were still living through a pandemic and I hadn’t had too much of a taste of *this* Dublin.

I couldn’t drag myself away, Dublin finally had me swooning so I ordered another beer and another and.. I reluctantly left Dublin after taking a look at the hotel prices over the weekend (not cheap!).

English Market Cork — English Market in Cork

In the end, I’m glad I did. Cork was smaller, much smaller actually but certainly had its charms. Whilst I ticked off a few attractions in Dublin, I did nothing in Cork for two days. The English market is an absolute gem and a must-visit when you go to Cork but beyond that, it was a chilled couple of days with a further Guinness or two.

It was a nice way to end the Ireland trip before heading back to Dublin a couple of days later. My flight home was from Dublin so I got to enjoy one final night in the capital before bidding an end to my first trip to Ireland.

Walla Walla Sign — Welcome to Walla Walla, Washington

November 2021 – Washington State!
I wrote a while back, it might possibly have even been my last post, that I’d either be spending Thanksgiving in Washington or Slovenia dependent on the border situation and the USA finally opened their sodding borders – at fucking last!

After more than 18 bloody months I was returning to Washington. It had been long overdue and I was so excited to be spending Thanksgiving out in the US!

That excitement was mixed in with a “why even bother traveling?” range of emotions that I’d up to this point managed to avoid.

Whilst I’ve traveled overseas during the pandemic, this was the first trip where the stress and hassle of all the things you need to think and worry about become apparent.

I miss the days of booking a trip and then just taking a trip. I’m not a travel-worrier, things go wrong on trips and you learn to deal with them. I’ve made multiple mistakes or had unforeseen circumstances crop up and it is what it is but Covid.. bleurgh!

I think the thing I hated most about this trip was everything was out of my control. Will the UK react to the latest Covid numbers, will the US react to the latest Covid numbers, have I booked the right Covid test, will it come back positive or void, will the results come back quickly enough and on and on and on and on and on.

Eventually after jumping through many hoops I hopped on a plane and was on my way to Seattle where I could relax in the knowledge that I’d soon be seeing ~~Haleigh~~ US border control – shit! Here we go..

Funnily enough, it was pretty pain-free. I don’t know if the whole Covid process meant they weren’t as interrogative as they usually are but I was waved on through pretty quickly after barely more than a couple of questions – hurrah!

Now I can relax!

It was so good to be back in Washington, I’d missed it. I’d missed the people, I’d missed Haleigh but I’d also missed the USA. The last time I’d stepped foot in Seatac it was deserted so it was nice to be back and see some normality.

Beyond the company, the other thing I was particularly looking forward to on this trip was the change of scenery. Up to now, every time I’d come to Washington Haleigh had been living in my “second home” – Moses Lake.

However with the whole can we, can’t we limbo situation around the wedding.. Haleigh had to make a decision on whether she was going to renew her apartment lease and also extend her teaching contract another year and didn’t so is now back in her hometown Walla Walla!

I’d been to Walla Walla a few times before, popping ‘home’ to visit Haleigh’s family, but it had always been trips based around the same few points of interest and also spent close to 24/7 in Haleigh’s company.

I’m not complaining (“jeez Jason, you’re not even married yet!!”), I love spending time with Haleigh of course but I was also excited to discover “my” own Walla Walla. Unlike trips to Moses Lake, I hadn’t had opportunity to explore Walla Walla of my own accord. It was nice, really nice actually.

I’ve always enjoyed my trips to Walla Walla but I think exploring somewhere solo gives you a new appreciation for a place. Additionally the thing Walla Walla is most famous for is its wine and Haleigh doesn’t really drink so up to now we’d both avoided the wineries. In contrast I’m not opposed to a bit of day-drinking on holiday and when in Rome (Walla Walla) do as the Romans (Walla-somethings?) do, right?

Winery 1

Winery 2

Thanksgiving of course was another highlight of the trip, my second Thanksgiving and I’ve already booked the week off work to return in 2022. The only downside was the trip seemed to fly by..

Having previously said that time to myself was a nice perk to this trip, on the flipside I feel like myself and Haleigh barely had two minutes together and I was already heading home. Thanksgiving family-shenanigans over the space of a few days had occupied a lot of our time and that was it.. trip over!

To top things off, whilst I was in Washington Boris announced that anyone entering the UK from overseas would now have to isolate. I hadn’t planned for that!

The news unsurprisingly sent a lot of people in to panic as they rushed to get themselves new flights and get home before this new isolation deadline was imposed.

I went in the opposite direction, sod it.. let’s stay in the US a few more days! I ended up extending my trip by five days, still not long enough in the grand scheme of things but I figured I might aswell make the most of my time here before Boris puts us in to another Christmas lockdown (he didn’t in fairness to him).

The few extra days were perfect, I got to enjoy a little more of life in Walla Walla and more importantly got to spend a few extra evenings hanging out with Haleigh before having to say goodbye again.

Although it was goodbye to Haleigh, it wasn’t quite yet time to say goodbye to Washington. I had a lengthy layover in Seattle which meant I had roughly 12 hours to spare – plenty of time to make a day of it in the city.

The perk of a layover in a city you know relatively well is you don’t have to spend time finding your bearings. I was out of Seatac airport and in to Seattle before 7am, before sunrise even, and knew roughly where I wanted to be and how to get there.

Chihuly Glass and Garden

The undoubted highlight of my layover was a trip to the Chihuly Garden and Glass exhibition. People rave about this place and I’d been meaning to visit a few times. I’ve joked that it never rains in Seattle because I always seem to get glorious blue skies when I pop in to Seattle but this was a stereotypically miserable day and a perfect one for a mostly-indoors attraction.

I have to say, the hype is warranted. I was blown away and it certainly didn’t disappoint. It was a great final day in Washington in one of my favourite cities.

Sadly I had to leave eventually and that was my final trip of the year.

Peterborough
I don’t think I’ve ever done this before on any of my annual wrap-up’s but it would be negligent not to give a mention to Peterborough this year.

2021 was perhaps the year where more than any other, I really embraced living here. I’m London born-and-bred and London will always be the city that holds my heart more than any other but Peterborough is somewhere that I’ve grown to proudly call home.

Peterborough River Nene — Peterborough, England

Peterborough has probably been home to many of my highlights of 2021. I’ve been living on a bit of a Peterborough ‘high’ and some of you will know that I’ve even been quite active over on Instagram running a page dedicated to all things Peterborough.

I think one of the biggest causes for this was ironically Moses Lake. In early 2020 I went out to Washington to live with Haleigh for three months and the idea of living in such a small town for such a long amount of time terrified me – particularly being unemployed for the trip. What am I going to do in a town where I know no-one and the one person I do will be working a good chunk of the time I’m there?

As it was I knew very early on that I’d have to go out of my way to find things to do whilst I was in Moses Lake. Find new places to eat, drink, see what events are happening (if any) and it worked. Moses Lake is small and there is only so much a town that small can offer but one of my most vivid memories of 2020 was watching a rock band, with a beer in hand, whilst stood in a carpet store.

“A carpet store..?”

Carpet Store Beer

Yes! Plus an art gallery, real estate office, yoga studio, farmers market kind-of-store and so on. This little town didn’t really have the venues for a beer and music festival (12 breweries, 12 venues..”) and yet the community came together and made it work. So there I was with beer in hand watching a rock band in.. a carpet store. Crazy but such a vivid memory.

It’s one of those days where the message I took home was if such a wonderful event like this can happen in Moses Lake, surely there’s more going on at home? That was one of the biggest lessons from that trip – don’t go back to Peterborough and fall back in to the routine of go-to-work, eat, sleep, repeat.

Work is a necessary evil (I don’t think you’ll ever convince me there’s a dream job out there for me.. ) but I could still make the best of home-life outside of work. It was something that played on my mind constantly in Moses Lake and then unfortunately I came home to a pandemic where I couldn’t even go to work (“work from home please, unless it’s a party that looks like a work event”).

However as travel continued being a shitshow and domestic restrictions slowly lifted I really, really made 2021 a Peterborough-focused year. I could sit here and write about all of the things I did locally in 2021 and I’d no doubt still forget things.

Peterborough isn’t the best for advertising what’s going on but it seems that if you’re willing to look for it, you’ll quickly find there’s quite a lot going for it.

I’ve climbed Peterborough cathedral, been to countless exhibits at the musuem, embraced small food festivals, cultural festivals, visited new restaurants and pubs around the city, returned to old favourites, been to comedy shows, theatre, gigs, sports events and on and on and on.

2021 wasn’t the best year for travel. I still found good reason to travel and had some wonderful trips but really Peterborough was probably the big winner of the year.

2022?
Weddings, weddings, weddings! 2022 promises to be a year of the W word and the USA I suppose.

Our 2021 September postponed-wedding will in all likelihood be happening. I’ve even got as far as booking the flights this time. On the 9th of April I will be getting married in Washington State!

JasonHaleigh

Then on the 30th of April one of Haleigh’s cousins is getting married so having barely got home, I’ll be flying back to the US and this time heading for Salt Lake City! I’m really excited to visit Utah – particularly as we’d planned to visit around Easter in 2020 and it obviously didn’t happen – our first travel casualty of the Covid era.

and all good things come in three’s right? Another friend has asked me to ‘save the date’ for a wedding in Virginia in October so it looks like there’ll be 3 international / American weddings to look forward to this year. There are no concrete plans for that trip yet but I’m pretty excited to visit Virginia and Haleigh’s never actually been to the East coast so it’s inconceivable that we don’t try and make a good trip out of that!

Ending the celebrations, I’ve also booked off Thanksgiving week so finance-willing, we’ll be celebrating Thanksgiving in Washington again.

I won’t lie, I kind of wish my annual leave and travel plans weren’t all US-based but on the plus side I’m visiting a couple of new states this year. I’ve also got a couple of annual leave days to spare so perhaps we’ll get another short weekend away somewhere if possible.

Anyway, this was a rather long and ramble-y post. I haven’t posted much at all over the last 12 months so consider this a year’s worth of posting all wrapped up in to one! A tad incoherent in parts but at least I got a blog post out, right? Hopefully I’ll get back in to the blogging groove this year and actually tell some more travel stories of yesteryear.

Until next time!

Jason

2020 travel roundup

Happy New Year everyone! I hope that you’ve had an enjoyable festive period despite the difficulties that 2020 has offered.

It has become somewhat of a tradition for me to do a little round up of the travels throughout the year. Of course 2019’s effort looked much busier than this post will be with trips to seven different countries in 2019, however I still managed to travel enough this year that I can squeeze a post out of it. Here goes..

January – Durham!
Doesn’t the start of 2020 seem so long ago now? I went in to this year knowing that there would be life-changing circumstances and consequently that I probably wouldn’t be traveling much this year.

Before you start asking – no, I’m not psychic! Haha. Nobody could quite predict this kind of year was coming but I’d quit my job and made plans to live in the US for a few months so I figured with, at least, three months of unemployment and a lot of uncertainty in 2020 that I’d probably have to cut back on travel this year.

“but one more trip?”

That’s the ever-present urge isn’t it? I could feel my adventures slipping away and pondered if I could squeeze in just one more trip before flying to Washington in February? Another New Years Eve getaway? A short weekender somewhere? Anywhere? Please?

Well, the football was enough to tempt me (surprise!). One of the highlights of the footballing calendar is the first weekend of the year – the third round of the “magical” FA Cup. The big names of football enter the competition and if the minnows, amateurs and part-timers are lucky they get a chance to test themselves against the very best.

It’s one of those weekends that football fans look forward to and my beloved Tottenham were playing “up North” in Middlesbrough and having successfully acquired a ticket I figured why not?

The train times weren’t particularly co-operative so I decided to make the most of it and have one final “hurrah” before the big trip of the year. Although I had little desire to visit Middlesbrough itself so settled on booking a stay in the nearby city of Durham – somewhere I’d been wanting to visit for a while and never really got around to.

It was a wise decision, I’d been to Middlesbrough before anyway but Durham is a lovely and charming little city. I also managed to arrange a catch up with my friend Sarah, which in hindsight was wonderful because I’ve not been able to see much of anyone this year haha.

Other than the football it was a pretty relaxed trip. It’s not the biggest city and I think two nights was sufficient enough to have seen the bulk of it but it was nice to kick off the year with a bit of travel and explore a city well worth visiting.

February – Washington!
Of course this trip needs little introduction. Long time readers will know I’d planned this months in advance. I’d made the decision to leave my job and go and ‘live’ in Washington with my girlfriend for three months.

Three months in small-town Washington, a city called Moses Lake to be precise. January was a bit of a slog, particularly as far as work was concerned because I knew the end was imminent. I was counting down the days and after one final weekend in London of football, beers and pizza I was on my way to Seattle for a very different way of living.

I’m a London boy at heart but now live in the “small” city of Peterborough with its 200,000ish inhabitants. Yet here I was spending three months in Moses Lake with its population of 24,000 people! 24,000! If I find Peterborough small at times, how am I going to cope in Moses Lake for three months!?

Moses Lake History — Moses Lake, Washington

Oddly I adapted and settled pretty quickly. I’ve already written about my time in Washington on the blog but it was lovely. Admittedly I think being unemployed helped, I had absolutely nothing to worry about and was living the easy life!

I grew to appreciate the simplicities of life without a job – taking a book with me to the coffee shop downtown and sitting in with a cup of tea for a couple of hours, wandering by the lake on a nice afternoon, date nights and all the other nicer things in life that you don’t have to worry about when you have a job.

Ignoring the necessity to finance this way of life, I could do this forever – who needs to work!? This is the “new normal” and long may it continue!

and then the “new normal” struck – supermarkets deprived of toilet rolls and that dreaded C word!

“The new normal..” – I’d only just escaped the old normal! What is this nonsense? Stay at home orders and closed businesses and a lockdown in small town America!

I tried to wait it out, hoping Trump’s optimism of re-opening by Easter would prove accurate but it wasn’t to be. On the 30th of March he advised lockdown measures would be extended throughout April and as I was due to fly home on May 1st it was time to find plan B.

Ultimately I had to cut my time in Washington short, not ideal and still no inkling on when I’ll be able to return but I still got the best part of 8-9 weeks in Washington, 6 of those before going in to lockdown so a good chunk of time in a place I’ve grown particularly fond of.

Sadly I don’t know if I’ll actually get back to Moses Lake – I hope I do because I feel like I owe it and myself a proper goodbye but the reality is the next time I’m in Washington Haleigh may no longer be in Moses Lake. It’s a shame my love-affair with Moses Lake ended the way it did but perhaps our paths will cross again someday.

April – Utah! (Cancelled)
Sadly not every travel story this year had a happy ending. Haleigh’s a teacher and had a few days off in April for her spring break which we were keen to make the most of and have an adventure together.

We’d been toying with a couple of ideas – namely Oregon and Utah but in February one of Haleigh’s cousins (Michelle) who lives in Utah came up to Washington with her boyfriend (David) which was enough to steer us towards planning a trip down to Salt Lake City.

ValentinesDayDateNight — Valentines Day with Haleigh and my Utah favourites

We pencilled in the dates but as Covid emerged and as April neared it was apparent our plans would have to be postponed. It was a shame because we’d considered visiting Salt Lake City on my “big 3-0” trip too and it didn’t pan out then either. Maybe it’ll be third time lucky?

Fortunately the only booking we’d made was one night in a hotel in Boise, Idaho which was fully refundable but Covid robbed us of a trip to what would have been two new states for me.

As it was, my change of plans meant I spent the bulk of April at home in England instead.

August – the Norfolk coast!
After getting back to England in early April I made the decision to self-isolate and stay at home for two weeks – not that anyone actually advised me to do this. At this moment in time the UK were still welcoming people with open arms without any fuss – bonkers!

Towards the end of that second week I switched my focus back to the real world – time to find a job! To my surprise I actually got a job interview really quickly! Sadly I didn’t get that particular job but then my former employers approached me about returning in a new job role so by early May I was employed again. Even before going to Washington, completely unaware of the imminent pandemic, I hadn’t anticipated that I’d be employed that quickly.

I’d very much landed on my feet! I’d planned and budgeted for a spell of unemployment so I’ve been luckier than most this year in that I’ve not really felt the financial strain of Covid. Better yet, I’d found a new challenge and was doing something far more enjoyable than the previous year – hurrah!

By August I was ready for a break and thought I’d treat myself to a few days away for my birthday. I wasn’t quite ready to hop on a plane just yet so limited myself to staying within the UK and was intending for something a little more outdoorsy and less of a city break which I often favour.

I looked at a few options but in the end stayed pretty local and only went as far as Norfolk. I really fancied a few days by the coast and although I’ve seen a little of Norfolk, there’s still lots of it I haven’t seen so I booked myself a hotel for 4 nights in Cromer – Monday to Friday as I was keen to avoid the weekend crowds!

My second UK break of the year! It was nice to get away for a few days and it was a nice reminder of how much I love being by the sea.

It was busy in parts, which is a little inevitable in the summer months, but overall it was pretty easy to keep distanced from other people and even with the UK running its “Eat out to help out” scheme throughout August places were taking social distancing seriously with various measures in place.

Overall it was a lovely few days away and the perfect trip to refresh and re-energise before getting back to work.

October – Gibraltar!
All work and no play? I’ve long held the belief that work isn’t that important. This wasn’t some lesson I learnt in 2020 but it was probably a year that helped emphasise it.

In 2019 I was on my last legs with work and 3 months without working, particularly the first 6 weeks without lockdown was bliss. If I was financially secure enough that I didn’t have to work, I don’t think that I would.

You might ponder what relevance that has to Gibraltar but a change in working environment was a factor. There was a mixed feeling in August in not feeling quite ready enough to get on a plane and also a question over whether I was right to get on to a plane?

I was working from home, I wasn’t seeing friends, I was very much in my own little bubble and expanding my horizons seemed irresponsible perhaps. So I ended up visiting Norfolk which required little travel and being by the sea and outdoors made it much easier to minimise my social contact.

Fast forward two months and the advice and guidance had vastly changed and work wanted me to return to an office-environment with the UK government at the forefront of that advice.

That change of environment changed my mindset a little. The reality was that this change of circumstance meant that the place I was most likely to catch Covid would be at work.

So I’ll leave you to be judge and executioner as to whether it was right for me to travel abroad but it felt right for me. If I could go to work in an office with 100 odd other people, why should I feel guilty about traveling?

Ultimately it was still another solo trip so still pretty easy to keep to myself, after looking at a number of different options I narrowed down my choices to two countries with low Covid cases and countries that seemingly had a better handle of Covid than the UK (who doesn’t, right?): Turkey and Gibraltar!

I’d been itching to visit Turkey for a while but something swayed me towards Gibraltar. I didn’t want to get stung by a last minute cancellation and I just couldn’t see the UK halting travel to a British overseas territory. It didn’t look like there was any reason for the UK to halt travel to Turkey either but that, the fact Gibraltar had yet to register any Covid deaths (that sadly isn’t the case any more) and a couple of other things pushed me towards visiting Gibraltar.

As it was, Turkey went on to the UK’s naughty list a matter of days after I’d booked my flights so I got pretty lucky.

I was excited to visit a new country and having had no huge desire to visit Gibraltar previously, it was a pleasant surprise. I already wrote about my time in Gibraltar here but it was the perfect mix of British and European culture – the best of both really.

Overall it felt much safer than the UK too, I felt a little vindicated in picking Gibraltar over taking a break within the UK. Gibraltar seemingly had a good handle on things whilst the UK was spiralling. Maybe I could just buy a boat and stay in Gibraltar?

I think I would have liked Gibraltar regardless but visiting in Covid times, making comparisons to back home, made it so much easier to love. I forgot all about work and was mentally back to sipping tea in Moses Lake, the only difference being this time it was beer in sunny Gibraltar.

I’d go back in a heartbeat and it didn’t take long to see why so many Brits visit and retire here. It’s that South of France or Spanish retirement dream without the language barrier – perfect!

November – “where to?”
I’d optimistically booked off Thanksgiving week months in advance, on the off chance travel might have recovered by then and I’d be able to get back to Washington.

As it got closer to November it was clear that wouldn’t be happening and I was pondering what to do with my week off of work? I figured I’d probably not actually do much and maybe squeeze in a couple of nights down in London before the end of the year.

Then the UK went in to lockdown for pretty much the entirety of November which scuppered any hope of going anywhere. In the end I don’t think I even left the house in that particular week – not the most exciting of breaks and the first time I’ve ‘wasted’ annual leave in probably six or seven years. I had to use it before the end of the year though so it was unavoidable, still better than spending a week working.

December – London!
I had three more days to use up before the end of the year and having coming out of lockdown I was keeping an eye on where I could potentially visit.

Options by this point were even more limited than they had been for my trip in October. I was determined to book a trip as late as possible, hoping that the weekly Thursday travel updates might offer somewhere but it wasn’t to be.

So I reverted back to my November plans, I really wanted to get to London before the end of the year. December / Christmas is such a magical time to visit London and I hadn’t spent any time in the capital since February!

Ordinarily I’d visit London at least twice a month I reckon so ten months without a visit left me feeling like I was long overdue a trip. I was particularly keen to visit some of the museums in the capital, I haven’t really been to any of them since I was a kid living in London. My only real opportunities to visit are at weekends or public holidays too and they’re just hell-ish to visit when the kids are off school – no thanks!

Keeping in mind my plans, I decided I’d book myself a couple of nights in a part of London I rarely stay in – Kensington! The National History Museum was towards the top of my list to visit and it was just an ideal location to base myself in and I was surprised to find London so ‘cheap’ for this time of year and this location – clearly feeling the wrath of the pandemic!

So with Peterborough and London both in ‘tier 2’ I hopped on a train and enjoyed a couple of nights in the capital, again by myself.

It was the best and worst time to be in London. The best because London was so quiet by usual standards, a lot of central London was dead – two weeks before Christmas and no crowds or people anywhere. I had Westminster and the likes all to myself!

So why was it the worst time to be in London? Call me crazy but.. London was dead. I love London so much. I love the hustle and bustle, I love how much life London has and it broke my heart a little to see London so.. un-London-like.

I shouldn’t be able to walk around Westminster without cursing dawdling tourists. Either move quicker or have the awareness to get out of the way!

There were a few things I really got to appreciate and gave me a small taste of London, I managed to enjoy a couple of people busking in a couple of locations and London still feels so magical at this time of the year but it was a very different London to the one that I’m used to.

Nevertheless it was a nice trip to end the year and given the circumstances still not a terrible travel year. I got to have a taste of living in another country, took four flights and managed to visit one new country. I also managed to visit a couple of new places in the UK so all in all, I probably still did better than most.

However I’m hoping 2021 is a much better year for travel. I’ve got no travel plans at the minute and it doesn’t feel good haha!

Quarantine! — Masked up and waiting for adventure!

I hope you managed to squeeze in some travels this year too! Up next on the blog? I continue with the “big 3-0” trip. Stay tuned!

Jason

Lincoln – May 2018

Welcome back dear readers! I hope you’re all keeping well in a crazy environment but it’s business as usual here. It’s Thursday which means another blog post!

I said last time out it’s rare for me to have blogged about England and then here there are two English destinations on the bounce. In spite of a little staycation up in Manchester in the March, I was still itching for some adventure and with no annual leave to use and pennies to save towards the summer I had to look to my own country for inspiration.

Fortunately the football season keeps me occupied to a point between August and May but with the football season nearing its conclusion I was desperate to make the most of a free weekend and a city I’d been meaning to visit for a while was Lincoln.

It’s not too far from my home in Peterborough and yet I’d somehow never visited the city. It’s only about an hour away on the train so actually really easy for me to get to. Therefore on the first Sunday in May I decided I was going to go. It turned out to be a gorgeous day for a daytrip too. A surprisingly sunny bank holiday weekend, who would have thought?

LincolnCastleandCathedral — Lincoln castle and Lincoln cathedral

Anyway I hopped on the train mid-morning and a little while later I was arriving in to Lincoln. On a daytrip I figured there were probably two must sees in Lincoln – the castle and the cathedral. If I saw anything else whilst in the city I considered it a bonus.

I left the train station with no real clue which direction to go so I figured I’d just walk until I saw some signs. If you leave the station and walk straight the first thing you’re likely to stumble upon is Lincoln’s shopping district. You’ve got a shopping mall here and then a bunch of exterior shops too. Given it was a sunny Sunday and mid-morning it was inevitably crowded.

I quickly saw and followed signs towards the castle and cathedral. For anyone else that’s visited Lincoln you’ll likely know what this entails but I’d liken it to my struggles in climbing to the view point at Kerry Park in Seattle – it’s an uphill struggle! You know what the prize is at the top, beautiful architecture and history but it looks like a long way up when you’re at the bottom of the hill – aptly named ‘Steep Hill’ – they’re not joking!

On the plus side it is a beautiful walk up there at least. The streets are cobbled and there’s pretty and old buildings along the way – most of which home to shops or businesses of some sort that provide perfect shelter or respite from the climb.

Having reached the top myself and feeling the need for a reward of some kind I couldn’t help but tempt myself to an early lunch. I’d passed Brown’s Pie Shop, which I’d heard good things about, so figured it would be a perfect place to fill my stomach before any further exploration. The food was great, it’s somewhere I’d recommend visiting if you’re ever in Lincoln and was a worthy reward for my climb of Everest (Steep Hill).

I made the castle my first proper stop of the day. I hadn’t done any prior research so wasn’t sure what it would cost to visit, however as it turned out I’d timed my visit perfectly. There was some event on which meant entry was free to the public today. Ordinarily there’s an admission price of £14 plus a further fee if you want to walk the walls so I’d saved myself a good chunk of money by visiting today.

LincolnCastleEvent — Lincoln castle grounds

On the grounds was a tent set up for some artists performing live music. Further in to the ground were old planes set up on the grass which were pretty cool to look at. It’s a little pricey if you visit ordinarily but I still think I’d have been pretty content had I paid an admission, rather than getting a free visit.

The grounds are absolutely beautiful and that’s before you tackle the medieval wall walk. This is particularly worth doing as you can walk the walls of the castle at your own leisure and get incredible views over the city.

Lincoln Castle — Exploring the beautiful castle grounds!

I took so many photos, some of which I think are the best I’ve ever taken. Admittedly the clear blue skies added to them but I could have spent so much longer exploring the castle. My only surprise was that it wasn’t busier given the free admission. For all of the castles you’ll find in England, I’d say this is one of my favourites I’ve been to so far.

Opposite the castle is the cathedral. Inbetween were a host of markets selling little bits and pieces. I’m not sure if this is just a Sunday market or regular market but it was nice to have a quick look at some of the things on sale.

Escaping the market crowds I made my way over to the cathedral which is impressive in its own right. Like the castle it was surprisingly quiet too, the market inbetween the two seemed the busiest part of this area of the city. I enjoyed looking around for a little while, both interior and the exterior of the cathedral grounds. It’s worth a visit but there is an admission charge for the cathedral.

The castle and cathedral had taken up a bit of time between them and I was content I’d seen the main things I wanted to see in Lincoln. However I figured I’d also squeeze in a visit to the Medieval Bishops’ Palace.

I have to say, I actually found this a little underwhelming and wouldn’t go out of my way to recommend it. I had a brief look through the ruins but the highlight for me was probably some of the views of Lincoln’s cathedral from the gardens. That said, as disappointing as it was, it appears to be under renovation currently so perhaps wasn’t at its best on my visit. I’d be tempted to go back and see what has changed and if it’s improved at all.

Having seen all I wanted to I made my descent down the steep hill, feeling some sympathy for those heading upwards. At the bottom I decided to have a little stroll along the river which took me past the shopping mall, also aptly named ‘Waterside’. However I wasn’t really looking to do any shopping so made it a brief walk and headed back to the train station to enjoy my Sunday evening back in Peterborough.

LincolnTrainStation — Lincoln train station, time to go home!

It had been a fun few hours in Lincoln. The cathedral was impressive but the castle is undoubtedly the highlight of the city. The grounds are stunning but the views from the walls blew me away, just the luxury of being able to walk the walls make this a must visit I think.

I’d definitely recommend Lincoln as a daytrip, it’s a great place to spend a few hours. However if you find yourself tempted to visit for longer and want more ideas on what to do, I’d suggest checking out one of my favourite fellow bloggers for more inspiration. Marion recently spent three days in the area and wrote about it here.

Lincoln’s a university city so I’d be tempted to stay for at least a night next time and experience some of that ‘famous’ nightlife. I say famous, I just know a lot of people who’ve been to Lincoln University but still.. I’d like to go for longer next time!

Anyway, hopefully you enjoyed my first visit. I’ll wrap this one up! Next on the blog? Here’s a sneak preview of where I’ll be writing about next!

Stay tuned!

Jason

Manchester – March 2018

Despite being an Englishman with 30 odd years living in the country, England is a destination that hasn’t frequented the blog too often. I wrote about the likes of London, York, Canterbury and even Peterborough in my early blogging days but they’re generally posts I don’t look back on and enjoy reading.

I’m not suggesting they’re badly written or they’re even particularly bad posts but I look back at them and I couldn’t tell you who wrote them. Everyone has their own blogging style and I won’t knock anyone else but I quickly learned that the “5 reasons to visit Canterbury” style just wasn’t for me. It might be what people want to read but it wasn’t what I wanted to write. I had no motivation to write those sort of posts and if I’m not enjoying it, why bother, right?

So I might go back and do those cities justice at another time (I did with London) but this will be my usual ramble-y type nonsense that I don’t really know why you lot keep coming back to read.

For my American readers, not so familiar with Manchester, it holds a reputation somewhat similar to Seattle. It is supposedly the one city in England where you can always expect rain. So why would anyone visit?

ManchesterArchitecture2 — Photoshopped or actual blue skies in Manchester?

Well, like Seattle it’s also quite a fun city. Manchester is nowhere near as pretty on the eye as Seattle. It’s very much an industrial-looking city and has a history that backs that up but it stakes a claim as “England’s second city” and is probably the unofficial capital of the North.

Surprisingly Manchester wasn’t a city I’d actually spent much time in. I’d twice visited the city to watch my beloved Spurs – once at the Etihad and once at Old Trafford – two of the bigger football stadiums in the country.

I’d also briefly visited on another occasion as I was joining some Northern-based friends on holiday and we’d decided to fly from up North. However the reality is I’d not really seen anything of Manchester outside of a couple of pubs or a couple of football stadiums.

With a big summer trip planned I knew opportunities to travel in 2018 were going to be limited. So when my friend (and gig buddy), Lucy, suggested possibly going to see a band on their tour it made sense to look at what the best dates were. A weekend date seemed most suitable and as I scoured the options a Saturday night in Manchester stood out. It was near enough for Lucy in Sheffield to travel to and was a good opportunity for me to squeeze in some UK travel and spend some time in a city I wasn’t too familiar with.

So one Saturday in March I left a snowy Peterborough behind me and headed up North towards Manchester. Given the rubbish weather I wasn’t too hopeful it would be a smooth journey. It usually doesn’t take much more than a puddle on the tracks for the rail system to catastrophically break down, such is the unpredictability of UK train travel, but to my surprise I arrived in to Manchester in good time around lunchtime.

Lucy wasn’t joining me until later on in the day so I figured I’d try and get my bearings with the city. It’s a city I don’t know well at all so I left Manchester Piccadilly station with no real direction in mind. I had a bit of time to kill and if all else failed I’d revert to Google Maps so I just wandered on foot and figured I’d see where I ended up.

I wanted to head in the vague direction of my hotel but despite following signs in the city towards Deangate that didn’t seem to go particularly well. I ventured through the Northern Quarter of the city which has a number of bars, shops and other independent businesses. I vaguely recognised a Wetherspoons from a previous visit to the city but it was pretty busy (due to some game being on tv) so I decided to keep going in my search for lunch.

ManchesterTownHall — Manchester town hall

In an effort to get back on track towards my hotel, I stumbled upon Manchester’s rather impressive town hall. It’s certainly one of the standout pieces of architecture, I grabbed a few photos and then settled on a nearby pub to fill my stomach and get something to eat.

Feeling less hungry I made the relatively short walk towards my hotel (a Premier Inn). Having checked in I didn’t really see much point to doing too much else before Lucy’s arrival in the city. I chilled out for a bit and then wandered back towards Piccadilly station, now having got my bearings a little, and waited for Lucy’s train to arrive from Sheffield.

We had a quick catch up and then caught a taxi out to the venue for our gig. I was a bit surprised how ‘out of town’ the venue actually was, I figure it would have been fairly centrally located but it wasn’t really walkable – certainly if we wanted to catch the first band of the night.

Despite the rubbish location, it was quite a nice venue (Manchester Academy). It was a decent sized venue, I’m not sure if it was a sell out but it didn’t feel overcrowded either. It was pretty quick getting a beer at the bar and we also had a decent view of the bands for the evening (The Dangerous Summer being the main band we’d come to see).

After a fun evening of live music we caught a taxi back to central Manchester, Lucy caught her train back to Sheffield and I ventured in the direction of my hotel. I was tempted to go and enjoy some of Manchester’s (famous) nightlife but wasn’t particularly sure where was best to go. There was definitely a bit of a buzz in the city, given it was a Saturday night, but nowhere that drew me in to have a couple of beers. I figured a night out in Manchester could wait until another occasion and instead took the sensible option, hoping to make the most of my Sunday in the city instead.

I woke up pretty early Sunday and after checking out of my hotel decided I’d just wander initially. Oddly, the first experience of the day was partially-witnessing a mugging. I say partially because by the time I’d realised what had happened I was too late to stop it.

Some young woman was half running / half screaming at some cyclist who whizzed by me at speed. I could see she was upset so crossed the street to check if she was okay, it turned out he’d snatched her mobile phone out of her hand and rode off in to the distance. So I kicked off my Sunday morning on the phone with Manchester’s police and reporting a theft. Not the best start to the day!

By the time we’d finished with the police her boyfriend had randomly turned up (I’m assuming he must have attempted chasing after the thief but I hadn’t seen him earlier?) so I felt a little happier leaving the shook up local with a familiar face and we went our seperate ways.

I soon stumbled upon a Sunday market of some sorts. It wasn’t particularly big but locals were browsing through the few stalls on display and I had a little look of my own for anything that might catch my eye. Content I wasn’t going to buy anything I wandered towards the Northern quarter which is home to some beautiful buildings.

ManchesterArchitecture — Manchester is home to some gorgeous architecture

Nearby is also Manchester’s famous shopping ‘mall’, the Arndale, which provided the perfect location for an early lunch! Long time readers will know I’m a frequent visitor of Hard Rock Cafe’s around the world and having been to both the London (only one at the time) and Edinburgh HRC’s I was keen to complete the UK set by visiting Manchester’s too. Although they’ve annoyingly since opened a second HRC in London so I’ll have to give that one a visit at some point too.

Surprisingly, Manchester’s HRC is one of my favourites. At the very least it’s the best of the three I’ve been to in the UK. The service was to its usual good standard and the memorabilia fun to look at as always.

ManchesterHardRockCafe — Manchester’s Hard Rock Cafe

Having ticked off another HRC and appeased my hunger I visited a museum just around the corner. Manchester, surprisingly not London, is home to the National Football Museum and was a must for me.

I was going to say it’s free to visit (if you wish), however don’t quote me on that! Firstly let me tell you why I was convinced admission was free! At the time of my visit that actually was the case, free admission for all visitors! However they encouraged visitors to pay a voluntary fee which would entitle you to a couple of souvenir experiences – see below.

NationalFootballMuseum — I’ve got my hands on the Premier League and FA Cup!

Personally I decided these little extras were worthwhile to contribute towards the running of the museum but it also left a somewhat bitter taste for me given this was the national museum of the national sport – a multi billion pound industry in England. I felt it was a travesty that organisations such as the Football Association have turned a blind eye and left this museum to essentially self-fund itself. It’s a wonderful museum if you’re a football fan and something that organisations such as the above should be contributing towards.

However without such funding, it turns out, later in the year the museum introduced admission charges for anyone that wasn’t a Manchester resident. So I apologise, this is no longer a free museum. Despite the billions in English football, if you want any insight in to the history of football in this country you’ll have to dip in to your wallet (unless you’re a Manchester resident).

EnglishFootball — “Football was created here” – P.S – but we’re not supporting museums like this!

Back to my story, having made the conscious decision to contribute a fee I did still feel it was good value for my visit. There’s some great memorabilia in the museum and it’s definitely worth taking any football fanatic along to – of any age as plenty of it is interactive too.

Content I’d got my football fix for the day I went and checked out the nearby Manchester cathedral – this actually is free to visit (donations welcome obviously). It’s nowhere near the biggest cathedral I’ve visited but still has a pretty exterior and the inside was impressive too. It was definitely worth visiting.

My next stop was a somewhat unusual one. I wouldn’t ordinarily go out of my way to visit a specific pub but with the promise of a free beer I couldn’t help but tempt myself! I don’t know what the reason was but Scottish brewers ‘Brewdog’ had promised to give away 1 million pints of beer over the next few weeks and I knew that there happened to be a Brewdog in Manchester. Knowing I probably wouldn’t get another opportunity before the campaign ended I went and hunted down Manchester’s Brewdog bar for a quick and refreshing pint of their Punk IPA.

I did only have the one though! Having replenished I went back and explored Manchester for a few more hours. It’s a city that reminds me of Hamburg in some ways and for some it’s probably a comparison you’ve heard before. Neither are the prettiest on the eye, Hamburg probably moreso, but both undoubtedly have their charm and share a similar culture too. I could see why this city staked a claim to being England’s “second city”.

Before catching the train home I popped in to a pub and grabbed myself some dinner. They claimed to have award-winning pies so I couldn’t resist grabbing some pie and mash whilst catching a bit of the Manchester City game being televised.

Sadly my time in Manchester quickly came to an end. It’s definitely a city I think I could have seen more of but the 24 hours or so I had in the city definitely endeared itself to me. It’s a city I’ll hopefully return to soon and enjoy a bit of the nightlife next time too.

However with work the next day I couldn’t stick around and called an end to my staycation up North. Next up on the blog? Another quick visit to an English city: this time Lincoln!

Stay tuned!

Jason