UK – 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

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

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

An update on life!

Hello my dear readers!

It has been a few months since I last posted but I assure you I’m still alive and well. Some of you will have seen me floating around on other social media but I fell out of the habit of posting here regularly, or reading other bloggers posts for that matter.

I want to try and get back in to the swing of things but before jumping in to the travel, I thought I’d offer a bit of an update. Why haven’t I been posting? Where have I been? What have I been up to?

In all honesty, there’s no real reason for the lack of posting. You miss one week and before you know it it’s three months without a post. I’ve come close to finishing off a few draft posts on a number of occasions but I haven’t got as far as hitting that ‘publish’ button and consequently the blog has felt a little bit neglected.

With Covid and more time at home I can’t even say I haven’t had the time, I’ve just preoccupied myself with other things. Be it watching football, learning Finnish (Thank you Duolingo – long overdue!), watching Netflix, training, work or a number of other bits and pieces. Despite spending the bulk of my time at home I have been keeping myself busy.

I’ve also squeezed in a couple of trips since I last posted. I was a little more cautious / hesistant with the first trip but in August I went and spent a few days by the sea with a four-night trip to the Norfolk coast. I didn’t really feel right to be flying across the globe for my travel fix so decided I’d stay in England and pretty local too. I was also conscious about the weekends during the summer being busier so restricted myself to a Monday-Friday getaway which was nice.

Cromer Pier

It was good to have a little taste of normality, particularly with the UK running the ‘eat out to help out’ scheme in August which coincided with my trip. A few days of sunshine was a good little fix and the perfect escape after three months of home-working in which I rarely left the house.

After August I still had 11 days of annual leave to use before the end of the year. I’d already optimistically booked off Thanksgiving week but as November draws closer it’s safe to say I won’t be visiting Washington. If the border re-opens this year that’d be a miracle!

The other six days I split in to two with the aim of a long weekend in October and a long weekend in December. I figured the first of those I’d travel somewhere and was toying with whether to stay in the UK or go abroad.

Work swayed my decision a little bit, I was more than happy working from home but work asked me to return to the office in September and it changed my mindset I think. I feel like an office environment with 100 odd other people is far riskier than the minimal social interaction I’ve had over the past six months.

So I kept an open mind about getting on a plane in October – still considering the Covid situation of course. With ever-changing circumstances and travel restrictions I narrowed my options down to a long weekend in the UK, Turkey or Gibraltar – leaning in favour of a trip out of the country.

Growing restrictions in the UK, such as curfews, only emphasised that thinking and it was a toss-up between Turkey and Gibraltar in the end. Both countries had low cases and the latter has still had 0 Covid deaths – zero! Incredible really.

I wanted to leave the decision as late as possible so I wasn’t stung by any restrictions or quarantine. I’ve been itching to go to Turkey for a while now so it seemed like the early favourite but something in the back of my mind must have swayed me in another direction as I eventually opted to book a trip to Gibraltar! A few days later Turkey unexpectedly went on to the quarantine list, it was a bit of a shock given the numbers but I felt a huge sigh of relief when the news broke.

Gibraltar

Anyway, a couple of weeks ago I flew out to Gibraltar for another four night trip and a long-weekend in a country I’d never been to. With the situation getting increasingly worse in the UK I actually felt better about going abroad than had I actually booked a ‘staycation’.

I enjoyed Gibraltar a lot, I could definitely have stayed there for longer and just not come home haha. I’ll be writing up about that trip next time on the blog, hopefully very soon, and then getting back in to the swing of things and continuing the “big 3-0” series.

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

London revisited!

Last time out on the blog I wrapped up my NYC series which I hope you all enjoyed! I could only follow on from that series in one way, writing about my favourite city in the world: London!

I’ve written about London on the blog before (here) but that was quite some time ago and perhaps also a little more generic. That post focused on what you could potentially do in London, this post is going to be focused on what I actually DID do in London on my recent trip at the end of the year.

As some of you will know by now, I’m in a long distance relationship and I had the pleasure of hosting Haleigh here in England for her first ever overseas trip. I’ve made the journey the other way a few times so Haleigh had been keen to make her first visit in this direction. Consequently I went from traveler to host which brought a new type of preparation and a little self-imposed pressure too. I don’t think Haleigh was overly concerned but I was keen to make it a memorable first trip to England (London mostly).

I met Haleigh at Heathrow ahead of her arrival, equipped with a brand new Oyster card and tube map for Haleigh’s benefit. I don’t think I’ve ever used the Heathrow express, admittedly the tube does take a while to get in to London itself but it’s surely the most convenient mode of transport?

So immediately Haleigh was getting her first crack at the tube – her only comparative was San Francisco’s BART system in the summer which is much more simplistic to navigate.

I’d booked us a hotel near Tower Bridge, leaving us just a short walk away from the Thames. Having dropped off Haleigh’s things (I’d checked in earlier) we took a little time to relax in the hotel before having our first proper glimpse of London together.

LondonJan19 — First glimpse of London, not bad eh?

Haleigh was instantly mesmerised, admittedly I’m a little biased but it’s hard not to be when you’re overlooking the Tower of London, Tower Bridge and the bright lights of the city. Also closeby was the Shard which I’ve somehow never seen after dark (keeping in mind it gets dark early in Dec) so looking up at it I presumed it was always lit up in different colours. My parents later told me it was a seasonal light show so it was nice to have witnessed that albeit unintentionally, mind you had I known that I might have got some pictures of it!

In the same general area London was hosting some of its Christmas markets with a long line of markets, including a wooden little tavern-like building which had seating for people to eat, drink and be merry. They even host Christmas movies there at various times of the day which adds to the festive mood of the place. We were feeling a bit peckish so grabbed a Bratwurst from one of the stalls, shamefully making Haleigh’s first meal in England a German delicacy. Oops!

Following some food we passed by the famous HMS Belfast and then cut through the impressive Hay’s Galeria. It’s a bit like a shopping arcade. It’s largely full of brands and, no doubt, expensive restaurants but the building itself is absolutely stunning. We took a slow stroll through it in admiration before coming out of the other side of the building, crossing over to London Bridge station and hopping on the tube to Green Park.

London6 — Green Park – not taken on this particularly trip!

There are some things that are always going to be in London and other points of interest that are more seasonal. I was hopeful Haleigh would want to come back to London so I had it in mind to see some of the places that are particularly worth seeing around Christmas time in London.

With that thought process I figured I’d take Haleigh to see Hyde Park’s famous Winter Wonderland. I expected it would be less busy going this evening, given it was a Thursday night, rather than our remaining time in London but that proved to be wrong. It was a struggle to even get out of Green Park station, let alone switch lines to go to Hyde Park Corner. It was crazy. In the end we abandoned hopes of jumping on the tube and exited at Green Park. With that in mind I figured we might aswell cut through the park and see another nearby famous landmark.

We walked through Green Park which was actually somewhat of a struggle. Much of the park was pitch black. Here we were, stood in one of London’s richest areas and all I could think was “can’t they afford to put up a few lights so you can actually see where you’re going?”

It’s somewhat embarrassing as you step out of the park on the other side and in front of you is Buckingham Palace. Surely the queen has a few lightbulbs going spare? Seriously, sort it out London. You can afford to stick a few lights up in the neighbouring park!

Anyway, where were we? Ah yes! Buckingham Palace!

Buckingham Palace is no doubt impressive but I think less so at night. It was after dark so whilst Haleigh was still impressed seeing it for the first time, I think we both intended to return and see it again before we left.

IMAG7056

We could have walked up to Hyde Park after our little detour but given the queues we’d seen we thought better of it, plus I had work in the morning and Haleigh had only just arrived so an early night seemed a better idea. Ordinarily I would have just got the tube but Haleigh wanted to see a little of London so suggested catching a black cab.

With the benefit of hindsight we might not have bothered as my parents ended up giving us a guided tour through London on our return to Heathrow but it was a fun idea so we flagged down a taxi and made our way back to the Tower of London.

Unfortunately a mixture of traffic and roadworks meant we only briefly saw the London Eye before our driver ended up taking a lot of back roads which didn’t really take us past anything particularly noteworthy. It was still a fun way to travel through London though and gave Haleigh a London black cab experience, plus myself too as I’d generally avoid them as they’re pricey haha.

Sadly the next day I had to work so I left Haleigh to explore. I’d left her a host of recommendations and directions so with tube map in hand she was well equipped to tackle London by herself. My departure was also a good chance to catch up on some sleep / recover from jetlag so it was a fairly relaxed day for her I think. Our close proximity to the Thames also meant she didn’t have to venture too far for lunch or to have a little wander once waking up.

Coming back to London I suggested that we meet at Kings Cross station, partly as that’s where my train would take me but also because it covers a lot of the tube lines and would mean we could move on to our next destination quite conveniently. Haleigh had no problem navigating the tube by herself for the first time so all that practice in San Francisco had paid off!

Whilst Haleigh waited for me she enjoyed Kings Cross’ street performers and interesting characters that public places, such as train stations, often provide. The area outside Kings Cross station is a good meeting point and additionally it’s a great area to do some people-watching. I highlighted that there was also a Harry Potter store (and the famous platform sign) in the station if she wanted to amuse herself whilst she waited for me, she took that advice so I can take some blame for the inevitable Ravenclaw inspired purchases that followed.

Having arrived we quickly turned our attention to some food, opting for a nearby pizza favourite of mine (Pizza Union). It’s cheap for London, the food is good and the atmosphere is nice too so I regularly end up here before catching a train home during the football season.

Stomachs full, we hopped back on the tube and headed for Oxford Street. Much like the previous nights intentions, one thing you’ve got to see in London at Christmas time is London’s Christmas decorations and Oxford Street & Carnaby Street are home to some of London’s best. This years theme largely revolved around the 25th anniversary of Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody which was pretty cool. It was definitely worth a visit and Haleigh managed to pick up a couple of souvenirs in this cool little independent shop that wae passed along the way.

London3 — You have to visit London around Christmas!

We ended our night with a quick pub visit, offering a little insight in to England’s drunken little culture. She’d already witnessed some human traffic cones earlier in the day which was some indication at the state of our drunkenness but this was topped off with some old woman doing laps of the pub whilst talking to herself (mostly mumbling really). It was somewhat amusing for both of us to watch. From there we hopped back on the tube and made our way back to the hotel for the night.

The next day was our first full day in London, together at least. We had a bit of a lay in before heading out to begin exploring. Before the trip I persistently, perhaps annoyingly, kept asking Haleigh what she wanted to do whilst she was here. I had a rough idea on places we should see on a first time visit but also wanted to allow for some input so we didn’t miss anything Haleigh might be interested in. We talked about possibly going to the Sherlock museum so I squeezed that in as something to try and make some time for.

Consequently that was our first stop of the day. We contemplated breakfast options before and decided it’d be better to go to Baker Street first and find somewhere near the museum. We ended up visiting Bill’s which is a chain restaurant, albeit not one I’d personally been to for breakfast before. I’ve been there for dinner but only heard good things about the breakfast. It lived up to its reputation, I was content with my pancakes and they offer a huge teapot which amused Haleigh as I regularly kept topping up my cup (not a pot of tea intended for one person I expect).

We walked up to the museum, which was barely in sight as we stumbled upon a large queue. Surely this wasn’t the queue to get in to the museum? Sadly it was! We decided to wait it out in the cold, you have to go and buy your tickets in the gift store beforehand but by the time Haleigh came back with the tickets the line hadn’t really moved very far. We had a lengthy wait but eventually we reached the doors!

imag2674 — Sherlock Museum, Baker Street

It was a little anticlimatic. The museum itself isn’t very big and in hindsight it probably wasn’t worth the wait. I think we spent more time in the queue for the museum than the actual museum itself which is a bit laughable. If you’re a fan of Sherlock it’s cool, I did like it, but if you’ve got a long wait then come back and visit outside of peak times.

Following on from the underwhelming museum visit, Haleigh suggested she’d like to take a red bus so rather than make our way back to Baker Street, we hopped on one of the first buses on the street opposite the museum. I was ideally hoping to go to Westminster but the first one to come along going in that general direction was to Victoria which I figured was good enough.

The journey took us past Hyde Park and Winter Wonderland so we did briefly see it, albeit only from the upper deck of a bus. Whilst we were feeling quite content admiring the view through the streets of London, the same couldn’t be said for our driver who’s customer service skills were lacking. He bit passengers heads off (not literally) at a couple of points along the journey and was in a pretty foul mood. We were pleased to depart and see the back of him at Victoria.

Somewhere along the way Haleigh had mentioned she was feeling a little peckish, so after catching the tube from Victoria to Westminster I couldn’t help but notice a Greggs within Westminster tube station. I was keen to introduce Haleigh to the famous Greggs sausage roll but to my horror she wasn’t quite as enthused about it as I was.

I also explained that, at the time, the Christmas number one in the charts was a sausage-roll themed anthem but I still had little fortune in convincing her how amazing they were (more for me!!).

Whilst the verdict on the sausage roll was up for debate, as we came out of Westminster station there was no doubting Parliament Square had left a better impression on Haleigh. Poor Big Ben is a bit of an eyesore at the minute but beyond that it’s a spectacular square with some stunning architecture, notably the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey. There are also a few statues in the area commemorating some historical figures, including London’s female occupant in the square – Millicent Garrett Fawcett.

Having had a bit of a look around we ventured back towards the Thames. We had booked tickets to go up the sky garden at 4pm, which is free but has to be booked in advance. The perk of being free was that we didn’t have to commit to it and instead we decided to have ourselves a bit of a cruise on one of the boats along the Thames.

We booked tickets to take us from Westminster Pier up to St Katharine’s pier by the Tower of London. It took us past a lot of the sights including the likes of St Paul’s. Our boat didn’t officially offer narrated tours but we were fortunate to have an employee on board taking on a guide-like role, offering a typical witty English sense of humour. Haleigh was particularly amused at some of the names for buildings such as “the Cheesegrater” or “the walkie-talkie” that add to London’s famous skyline.

imag2795 — St Paul’s looking as stunning as ever!

Exiting at St Katharine’s Pier we had a few options on where to spend the evening. It wasn’t particularly well thought out but we jumped back on the tube and near enough made our way back to Westminster by visiting nearby Trafalgar Square. We had a quick look around before assessing potential food options, I noticed on Google Maps there was a nearby pub called the Sherlock Holmes, hoping the food might be a little more impressive than the museum.

It was a nice pub which included some cool memorabilia. Haleigh had her first English fish and chips experience whilst I was tempted by a steak and ale pie. It was a nice way to round off the day before we wound down and made our way back to the hotel for the evening.

Our plans for the next day were pretty flexible but we had to check out at some point so rather than drag our luggage around with us exploring London we decided to leave the city around lunchtime. There were plenty of things we didn’t get around to doing but it was a good introduction to London for a first time visit and we ticked off a lot of the main things to see. We temporarily bid farewell to London and headed North for Peterborough.

I didn’t have any big expectation of Peterborough, our time here was mostly revolved around Haleigh meeting family and friends. London was the city I felt more pressure to proudly show off, I’ve never really sung Peterborough’s praises in the same way. Nevertheless if there was any doubt in my mind that sometimes I undersell the city’s attractiveness, Peterborough quickly came to reassure me it’s as “shit” as I make it out to be – literally.

We strolled through cathedral square towards the spectacular Peterborough cathedral, however on the way back to our pick-up-point some pigeons gave Haleigh a rather unwanted welcoming present from the sky.

It was unbelievable! We’d barely been in the city for an hour and spent a chunk of that time eating lunch at the nearby Wetherspoons. We’d only gone for a short walk up to cathedral square, 5-10 minutes at the most and Haleigh was probably regretting having ever come here! Well done Peterborough, great job!

It wasn’t the best first impression of life in Peterborough, I think things did pick up from there and she had a nice time here. However London had wowed Haleigh, dare I say she’d even fallen in love a little bit.

In contrast, much like San Francisco was for me (and which Haleigh finds highly amusing I’ll add), Peterborough will now always be remembered as “that place I got pooped on”. I haven’t set the bar particularly high for Peterborough, kept expectations to a minimum and comically it has still found a way to come up short.

Anyway, on that lovely note I’ll wrap this up. Hopefully you’ve enjoyed it. Playing host was a lot of fun for me, moreso in London which I love but also know that you’ll be “welcome” in Peterborough any time!

All the best!

Jason

P.S – for clarity, most of these photos weren’t taken on this particular trip!