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snacks & adventure

Tag Archives: London

Big Night in the Big City

25 Monday Mar 2013

Posted by frannyritchie in Uncategorized

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Hollie McNish, London, my friend kamilla, Paper Tiger Poetry, poetry, Vauxhall

On Friday, I went to see Paper Tiger Poetry in Vauxhall, a neighbourhood of London I’d never been to before. It was an open mic night with two anchor poets, Donall Dempsey and Hollie McNish.  You may have heard of Hollie; I’ve written about her before on this blog and was even present at the genesis of her most recent hit, a commentary on Flo Rida’s ‘Blow My Whistle.’ I’m taking credit for having inspired the bit about zumba, as well as the last line that I don’t want to spoil.

Anyway. I invited My Friend Kamilla to Hollie’s gig.  The two anchor poets were great, and there were some notable successes who gave open mike presentations, and the whole night finished with a group singalong in honour of St. Patrick that I thought was absolutely fantastic. Also, the venue was the Tea House Theatre, which was a delightful spot.

However, there were some notable failures – enough that, when we adjourned to The Black Dog hipster pub down the road, Kamilla and Hollie and I kicked off a round of ‘which open mic poet would be your secret boyfriend?’ (it was almost all dudes) that lasted more or less until the bar closed.

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Django FanGirls

15 Friday Mar 2013

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Battersea, Le QueCumBar, London, music, my friend kamilla, my friend mary, UK

django

Battersea High Street is a train, tube and bus ride away from my home. But its a place I’d been wanting to go for a while – not because the street is that great, but because if you turn off it, and walk down some nondescript residential streets for about five minutes, you will find yourself at Le QueCumBar, one of the most famous gypsy jazz venues in the world, decorated with portraits of Django Reinhardt, with tasseled lamps and surly-cute waiters with piano braces/suspenders (the poor bastards, I’d be surly too).

My friends Mary and Kamilla and I went to Le QueCumBar on a Tuesday in February, on a jam night (I have since learned that its called a Djam). the night we went, there were about ten people who rotated in and out all night – all ages and many instruments, but only one woman, who kicked off the night.  After the first few songs, Mary said ‘how do they just do that?’ And Kamilla, who is a professional musician, looked at Mary like she was nuts and said ‘practice.’

In addition to a night of amazing music in a very idiosyncratic venue, it was a night where everyone was nerdy in their own way: Kamilla talked about music; Mary talked about literature; I talked about birds (Kamilla got psyched about birds with me, which I appreciated more than she could have known.  We had a whole talk about the wingspan of albatrosses.  Seriously, these people are friends to hold onto.)

Too Much Fun for My Own Good

13 Wednesday Mar 2013

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Barbican, first world, London, my friend kamilla, my friend mary, Rain Room, UK

As predicted, having a job and a social life and a long commute gets pretty time consuming, and I’ve had less time and interest in maintaining a blog than I had a year ago.  But I love being able to look back at my own little scrapbook of adventures, so even though these next few posts are all Old News, they’re also treasured memories.

rain room

 

The best things I’ve done in London in 2013 can be mostly attributed to the all-too-short sabbatical of my friend Mary, who did a 2-month research stint in London at the beginning of the year (and is now in Paris, the poor dear). Because she was only here for such a short time, we really mobilised and did All the Fun Stuff while she was here, including a trip to the Rain Room, which had been on my list since November.

The Rain Room is exactly what it sounds like – a room full of rain. There’s a plaftorm on which it appears to be raining, but as you walk through the water stops above you.  Its the world’s most high-tech sprinkler.

Unfortunately, the five month installation is now over (apparently there were 6 hour waits in the final days).  We waited two hours (I did a Supermarket Sweep of Waitrose and made a picnic, complete with single-serving wine bottles and chocolate-chip cookies, that we ate while waiting) and then had more or less unlimited time in the room itself (people were self-regulating because of guilt, and also because you do start to get wet and the novelty wears off a bit). The whole thing was, as my New Friend Kamilla pointed out, very First World, but also totally captivating.

09 Wednesday Jan 2013

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friends, London, Tate Modern, UK

The Tate Modern has some dumb stuff.

Our return to the UK pretty much coincided with the arrival of another friend, who came into London and whom I met at the Tate Modern on Friday evening. I was only able to go to the 4th floor, which is half awesome and half AWFUL.  Tate visitors: You can go ahead and skip the “Energy and Process” section.  Also, I’m just going to go ahead and say this: I FRICKING HATE VIDEO INSTALLATIONS. That’s right. I went there. I like movies, I like paintings and sculpture and especially photography, but I hate video installations. A lot. They are stupid. Much of the 4th floor of the Tate is stupid.  But I really enjoyed the opportunity to walk across the Millennium Bridge eating candied almonds and the view of the Tower Bridge across the water, and some of the art didn’t suck – the Picassos were ok, for example. They can keep the Picassos.

I was really concerned that our friend get the authentic pub experience, because she’d eaten at a Wetherspoon’s (which is kind of like an Applebee’s). So we took her to the Old Spring, which is one of our faves. But then we also went to The Anchor in London and so it ended up being a very pub-filled few days.  But oh well. There are worse things.

More Things to Love about England

30 Friday Nov 2012

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Bond Street, emails, England, London

I was running down Bond Street at full tilt on Tuesday night to try to catch my train back to Cambridge.  Bond Street is a famous shopping destination and its the holidays and so I was waving between pedestrians when I saw a guy up ahead, right in my path.  He saw me as well, and we both zigged and zagged until I smashed right into him.

He was taller than I realized; my head only made it to his chin.  And in this fantastic accent that I recognised but can’t place, he said “whoops, sorry, darlin!” and moved aside as I, flustered idiot, untangled myself from his jacket and took off.

It was the sweetest thing. I instantly regretted not at least, you know, making eye contact as I apologized.

This little incident came on the heels of an email from an acquaintance – 20something architect, kind of a goof, seems like a nice guy. He and I had a lovely chat about our favourite radio shows, and so he sent me a list at my request.  It was a totally normal, friendly email, and he added an “x” after his name.

The thing that I love about that is that its typical.  Last week I got an email from a different architect (30something, seems like a nice guy) about a social event – and he signed it with an “x” as well.  People sign all their texts with “x”s as well.  Its such a thing that a coworker has accidentally signed professional emails with an “x” and only realised too late.

I think its delightful.  I love it especially because England can be so formal in so many ways; people aren’t super effusive or touchy-feely.  But they call each other darlin’ and they sign emails with kisses, and I find that completely endearing.

Misc. Awesome

15 Thursday Nov 2012

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Amsterdam, London, new job, saatchi gallery, travel, yarn bombing

I posted this yesterday on the train, with a nice little rumination about my new job (which is going well).  Apparently WordPress needs to work a few kinks out of their app, because it never actually showed up on the interwebs. So: second attempt.  Photos above from Amsterdam, Somerville and Cambridge, MA, Toronto, the Saatchi Gallery and my living room.

Your friend,
Franny

 

Weekend Highlight: Okinomi-yaki

09 Friday Nov 2012

Posted by frannyritchie in Snacks

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Abeno, Barbican, Big Day Out, London, Okinomi-yaki

Last weekend, after zumba (like I was going to miss gangnam style!), Ian and I headed into London to meet our friends Felix and Klara, who have been featured here before. Our initial plan had been to go to the Rain Room at the Barbican Gallery (which has also been featured on My Other Blog).

The idea of the rain room is amazing:

But the queue was not – two hours long, which is apparently pretty typical, because there are all sorts of warnings on the website (which I just visited, but did not look at before we got there).  So instead of hanging out at the Barbican with the hipsters for two hours, we went to dinner, which was the other raison d’etre of day.  We went to a place near the British Museum called Abeno, which serves obinomi-yaki, a Japanese omelette/pancake sort of thing.  We got four different kinds, including pork and kimchi; pork, squid and shrimp; a daily special with too many ingredients to recall, and one other.  We also got gyoza and a cucumber salad as appetizers and an apple-cinnamon-maple okinomi-yaki for dessert.

Holy crap, it was amazing.

It was a little weird to have your food make in front of you, because you feel weird carrying on your conversation with someone’s elbows between you (not to mention feeling rude to your server). Of course, it was also part of the appeal. Our waitress, Yoshe, was a Japanese girl with a clearly American accent.  Because I am my mother’s daughter, I asked where she was from, and she said Japan – but that her family had lived in Salt Lake City for 6 years.  When I asked what brought them there, she said they’d been Mormon (“yeah,” she shrugged, “it was kind of a part-time thing.” Naturally).

Also note: I have raccoon eyes in this photo because I went dancing on Friday and put goo-gobs of mascara on, and it somehow persisted the entire weekend.  This is serious stuff.

Summer 2012?

20 Monday Aug 2012

Posted by frannyritchie in Snacks

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London, summer, the Peak District, UK, Wales

How have I fallen off the wagon again? After my friend Georgiana told me she checks Snacks & Adventures religiously, I promised myself I’d step up the posting and recommit to my quest to become internet-famous (it still might happen!) (Hi, Georgiana!).  Summer 2012 is drawing to a close, but in 2011 England had a terrible summer followed by an incredible autumn.  Since we’ve already had a terrible summer, here’s hoping for a repeat performance!  Its a little early for a retrospective, but now is as good a time as any to reflect on the last two and a half months…

Anyway. There have been many things that haven’t warranted a blog post but have been pretty great: a lazy day in London with my friend Robert; a stroll across the lawn at King’s on my birthday (those are my feet on the grass!), many breakfasts of challah and fruit (I particularly love challah for two reasons: 1. its delicious and 2. the cute bread vendor at the market always smiles at me and makes small talk when I buy it). Its been too cold to have leisurely drinks in pub gardens very often, but I have still managed to make the rounds and do some indoor drinking.

The Mr. Kipling biscuits in the photo are so weird even English people laugh at them (I mean, someone must buy them, but no one I know).  But I had my first tea cake yesterday, and those are no laughing matter.

Big Night in the Big City

28 Monday May 2012

Posted by frannyritchie in Snacks

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adventure, England, entertainment, London, Nightjar, Scorpion bowls, travel

A few weeks ago, I had what for me amounted to an epic night out in London.  It began at 5:30 in the evening and ended roughly 11 hours later, as the sun was juuuust beginning to rise over Hampstead.

The night began near the American Embassy, where my friend Erin and I grabbed some tapas and then rendez-vous’d with embassy employees.  In the two minute walk between embassy and tapas, I had my friend English celebrity siting: Mark Francis, from Made In Chelsea.  And I freaked out a little.  If you’ve read the blog much, you know I regard Made in Chelsea as the ultimate guilty pleasure and I’ve been a regular watcher since arriving in this country.  So the night kicked off with a little thrill.

We went to a club called Amber, near the Barbican Centre.  It was a sprawling nightclub complex, really, which three different dance floors.  We stuck to the one that had a light-up Rubik’s Cube dance floor and go-go dancers (some on roller skates) wearing orange legwarmers.  For me, though, the highlight of Amber was the giant disco-ball drinks – the only other place I’d had communal drinks like that was at Asian restaurants, where they’re typically called Scorpion Bowls.  But these came served in the bottom half of a disco ball.

We were among the last to leave the club, around midnight, when we went to a bar a few blocks away (it had a sort of vintage feel and a big booth for all of us, but I forget what it was called or where it is).  And then around 1:30 am, we went to a Bar Nightjar.  I am obviously unschooled in London nightlife, but Nightjar is apparently a big deal.  By showing up at 1:30, we were able to waltz right in and get a booth in a little alcove in the back, and then we each got an incredibly complicated, lovingly-crafted cocktail.  When they kicked us out hours later, we paused at the little stage (pictured above, although the picture is an advertisement) to play some Beatles tunes. The waitstaff was so bemused by this display that they just stood there and waited for us to finish.

I didn’t realise until later, but when I told my friend Robert we’d gone there he said “And you just walked in? No waiting? No crappy table?So lucky!”  So my advice is, if you go, go really, really late at night.

The next day, having not really recovered, I left for Switzerland and had a mercifully wholesome holiday, with lots of looking at cathedrals and brisk walking and bread and cheese, but not a lot of copious quantities of alcohol.

 

Broadway Market, Victoria Park & Portobello Market

03 Monday Oct 2011

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adaptive reuse, Broadway Market, canal, London, Portobello Market

Day well spent.

About a month ago, I spent a fantastic day in London with my friend and classmate Lizzie, pictured above, who has since returned to MIT to torture herself with a truly impressive line-up of classes.

A month ago, however, she was here, and we spent a truly beautiful late summer day wandering around Bethnal Green, with specific focus on Victoria Park and Regent’s Canal.  Bethnal Green, which is fairly distant from Central London and not suuuuper well-served by public transportation, is nonetheless up-and-coming, filled with stylish people and beautiful adaptively-reused residences,  plus miles of scenic house boats.

We lounged in Victoria Park, the first public park in the world (according to Lizzie; I could have sworn it was in Birkenhead, designed by Joseph Paxton – the Crystal Palace dude – in 1847. Not to geek out too much…).  After eating some chocolate biscuits and being menaced by a squirrel, we strolled back along the canal and through Broadway Market, which was full of stylish people, delicious food and adorable bookshops.

That night, our hosts Erin and Oliver cooked a delicious meal, and then we went to a bar and drank very delicious, very fruity drinks.  The next morning we went to Portobello Market, which was a full-on sensory experience that actually kind of overwhelmed me. We stopped at a very cool vintage map store but I was most entertained by the food stall area: blocks of fruit sellers (kind of like Haymarket in Boston, but more expensive); giant pans of street-paella; chocolate-covered churros; Cambodian food; it went on and on. It was amazing.  Man, do I love food.

I parted ways with Lizzie, Erin and Oliver at the end of the market but I can’t thank them enough for a really great 24 hours.

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