Big In Japan

So, we’re off to Japan first thing Wednesday.
We have the currency. We have the guidebooks. We have the “pointy” idiot tourist books. Needless to say, I have these two songs on the brain.
Finally, in order to fully prepare myself, I did what any sensible, urbane and culturally-sensitive traveller would do and watched all I could find on [...]

Dancing about architecture

While strolling around midtown Manhattan the other day, my wife wondered aloud what it must have been like to have lived there in the first third of the 20th century and to suddenly see unprecedentedly tall buildings sprouting up around you. While New York is now synonymous with skyscrapers, only a hundred years ago they were a [...]

The Bronx is up and the Battery’s down

Previously on “Simon Says”…
OK, my brain’s still a little fluffy from the jet-lag, but here goes.
Friday
We arrived at the airport, as instructed, three hours before departure (which is to say, at 0630) anticipating stringent security measures. We were asked for both our passports and our national identity cards, asked whether we had anything that looked like [...]

Start spreading the news

Tomorrow we leave for three days in New York. Pre-planning and research has mainly consisted of trawling YouTube for clips from favourite New York movies, either for inspiration before departure, or so that I could re-enact the relevant scenes once I was there.
This one for getting in the mood before we leave.
This one upon arrival.
This one [...]

Intercultural dialogue

It’s been a while since I read a book that made me laugh out loud. The author is a Canadian, hitch-hiking from one end of Japan to the other.
“An old man approached me. He was tiny and tidy and as wrinkled as my thumb after a bath. He seemed to be shrinking back into himself [...]

I go in America!

Tickets have been booked. Guidebooks have been purchased and are being scrutinized, highlighter pen in hand. We’re going to New York for a weekend in March, to buy a camera.
Yes, I realise it’s rather a long way to go for a single consumer electronics purchase, but take a moment to consider Señor Rasmussen’s eloquent argument. So, [...]

In f***ing Bruges

Readers with long memories may recall that earlier this year the wife and I spent a weekend in Brugge. The trailer for the film Colin Farrell shot in the very hotel where we stayed, is up now (warning - trailer features lots of “language”).

What have the Danes ever done for us?

At a recent training seminar, we had to play a stupid game which involved trying to work out which country the other teams represented from a shortlist of about half a dozen possibilities.  We asked one team which food items their country was famous for, and they replied “cheese”.  Since, via a process of elimination, [...]

Been there, done that

I am currently inbetween phases 1 and 2 of holiday planning. Phase 1 involves preliminary research so as to identify the optimal combination of destination, transport and accommodation. Phase two, which is now commencing, involves deeper analysis of the site so as to better identify food, entertainment and sightseeing options. But I have become wary [...]

Our daily bread

Two very different dining experiences this week got me thinking about bread.
First up was a trip to the recently opened Kokob, the first Ethiopian restaurant in Brussels (and only the second one in the whole of Belgium), run by the husband of one of my wife’s colleagues. The food was excellent, and very filling for two [...]