Fun, London

Celebrating quirky Englishness in style: London’s 2024 Tweed Run

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For many years my good wife kept on voicing her grievance that we never made it to the annual Tweed Runs. FINALLY ABLE TO JOIN THE TWEED RUN We always seemed to be out of town on the respective weekend. Yesterday, for the first time, we got our shot at this jaunty cycle ride through central London. Ellie had bought our two tickets (£50 each) six weeks ago, as soon as they became available. The tickets always sell out quickly. I’ll freely admit, my expectations had been low. I’m not huge on cycling in Londontown. It just feels a tad dangerous.   NOT ANOTHER FRANKFURT COUNTRYSIDE BIKE RIDE I also had less than fond memories of the Frankfurt Countryside Bike Ride Ellie & I had joined a few years ago. Ellie has done next to no cycling since childhood. Kudos to her, I thought, when she had come up with […]

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Fun, London, Runs

Best Running Events in London, from 5K Fun Runs to Marathons & Ultras

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During the last few years, everyone and their dog started running. There are now so many events out there, especially in a big city like London. It can be hard to choose an event that’s right for you. This blog post is designed to assist you in doing so. WHAT DOES “BEST RUNNING EVENTS” MEAN? While I haven’t done more than a tiny fraction of all available runs, I have done many dozen of them over the years. I also speak with a lot of other running enthusiasts. The events listed here are ones that either I have completed and enjoyed, or that people I trust have completed and enjoyed. WHAT DOES “IN LONDON” MEAN? For the distances up to marathon, “in London” means in almost all cases, that you can run the event without staying overnight, even if relying on public transport (and possibly a short taxi ride). Considering […]

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Art and Culture, London, Plays

Simon Godwin’s Macbeth – Ralph Fiennes & Indira Varma at Dock X

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Ellie & I used to watch plays all the time. I remember one occasion when we saw one matinee in the afternoon, then walked straight from that theatre to one across town to watch another play. It wasn’t unusual for us to see three or four plays a week. Back in the days of thriving thespians & thoroughly thrilling, thought-provoking theatre productions. IS IT WORTH THE EFFORT? For several years now, we’ve barely managed to make the effort of going to the theatre once every other month. And it was nearly always disappointing. We’ve come to cherish the times when a play turns out to be okay’ish, that’s how bad it got.   All pics of performance, incl. feature pic, (c) Matt Humphrey, else (c) BerkeleySqB. 25 QUID TO SEE RALPH FIENNES? COUNT US IN. So when my wife, who’s our ‘events manager’, found out about this year’s Macbeth production […]

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London

The 2024 Orchid Festival in Kew Gardens

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Yesterday, Ellie & I visited the 28th Orchid Festival in Kew Gardens. The only one we had previously visited was in 2017. Turns out, that when Kew Gardens aren’t busy celebrating the demise of women’s and gay rights with shows like “Queer Nature” (specifically linked to the obnoxious Queer Theory), they can still put on a good show. THIS YEAR’S THEME: MADAGASCAR As in previous years, the festival is ‘themed on’ and ‘inspired by’ one country. This year it’s the world’s fourth largest island, Madagascar, with its unique flora and fauna. The country is home to some of the world’s rarest plant species. Over 14,000 of its plants are found nowhere else in the world.    Moreover, the nation’s lush rainforests and tropical dry forests also happen to be home to about 750 endemic orchid species (plus another 150 non-endemic ones). While only a tiny fraction of the tracheophytes shown […]

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Fun, London, Water sports

Best Long Distance Open Water Swimming Events in and near London

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Truth be told, I’m not a great swimmer. Don’t get me wrong, you could probably drop me a few miles off the sea shore on a stormy day, and I’ll find my way back without overly exhausting myself. I like to think that I’m a strong swimmer. The thing is, it will take me a very long time to swim back. I’m just so slow. TAKING PART IN LONG DISTANCE OPEN WATER SWIM EVENTS While I’m working on improving my technique and becoming faster, for the time being, the problem still persists. So I should mention upfront that I’ve not completed a lot of long-distance open water swimming events so far. Over the years, I did take part in quite a few. RESEARCHING FOR THIS ARTICLE At those events, at my swimming club, and elsewhere, I also spoke with a lot of long-distance open water swimmers and asked them about […]

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