Hm, this was supposed to be daily, but what with one thing and another, updating been a little less frequent. Still, we’ve been knocking things off the list pretty well, so all is not lost.

Day 6 – Primrose Hill

It was almost a rest day, but we took a small perambulation in the evening through the delightful Primrose Hill[18] village, bought some cheap rosé in Nicolas and some chocolate in the poshest little mini-market in the world. We then strolled up to the top of the hill to take in the twighlit view of London with the key lights of the City shining out: tower 42, check, London Eye, check, crappy tower blocks in Mornington Crescent, check.

Day 7 – Wellcome Collection

Definitely a quiet day. We wandered down to my doctor, then to the Wellcome[19] Collection (open late on Thursdays!) to see the medical waxworks exhibition on display which certainly gave context to the history of medicine and grossed Louise out nicely. We then got rained in at the Founder’s Arms on the South Bank at the London Perlmongers meet.

Day 8 – And so to Bath

We got to Paddington a little early, so we took the opportunity to knock another one off the list: we nipped out the back to see Little Venice[20]. Cute. Will definitely take a boat from Camden to Paddington at some point.

First order of business on arrival in Bath was FOOD. This used to be my home town so I know which tourist holes to avoid. We went to the wonderfully gnarly and twee Old Green Tree for the quintessential English dish, co-opted by the pub trade, the Ploughman’s lunch[21]. It was pretty good overall with huge chunks of bread, plenty of salad and of course nice mature Cheddar and Stilton cheeses. Oh, and nice foamy ale of course. The house ale was light and hoppy, perfect for a summer’s day.

That left tackling two of Bath’s many tourist attractions: the Roman Baths[22] and the Royal Crescent. The Baths are great to visit and give a sense how how far we’ve come in a couple of thousand years and yet in many ways we’re the same people. The Royal Crescent just is. Oh, and on the way back in to town we popped in to the Georgian Garden. Pretty.

Day 8 – Photographers Gallery

I had some business to do today while she checked out Muji[23] and Uni Qlo. Then we went to the Photographer’s Gallery[24] which today mostly had exhibitions which didn’t piss me off for once. Result. Nice bookshop too.

Day 4 was a Sunday, so we headed East. First up with the kitschness that is Spitalfields market[15]. I’ll claim two connections to this: first, when it was a fruit and veg market, my dad used to use it sometimes when he didn’t use Covent Garden. Second, I used to work in Spital square back when this area was “the badlands”. A few food wagons used to ply their tasty goodness at lunchtime, and of course the legendary Bubba charred up some meaty comestibles. These days, it’s all been done up and is as safe and sterile as any other market like the previously visited Borough. We had a quick beer in the legendary Meson de los Barriles and sauntered over to grab one of the super tasty rotis. Oh yes, lovely fresh veggies and the occasional fruit and a lovely warm roti. Awesomeness.

We then moved on the the slightly edgier top end of Brick Lane[16], through the yard past yet more food stalls and ducked in to Rough Trade to see what’s happening in the world of music. A quick peruse round the Upmarket to see if the great Taiwanese illustrator tpcat was on her stall. Sadly, she was at a book fair in Euston. Still her friends had some of her stuff for sale. After that, we cut back through onto Commercial Street and ducked into the amazingly camp Commercial Tavern to rest our legs and sup a lovely hoppy blonde summer ale.

Day 5, we did Camden Market[17]. For me, it’s all a bit local and “meh”, but Louise enjoyed it. We had dim sum at Teachi first, which has always been excellent and good value. Then a wander up the back streets avoiding the plague of the first stretch of Camden High Street, we entered the lock and immediately hit up Yumchaa on the balcony for some lovely tasty tea, coffee and chocolate brownie. Refreshed, we hit the market stalls, working our way up to the Proud Gallery to look at the nice pretty music pictures. Many are not as good as mine, but I’m just waiting for one of my bands to make it big! Still, nice to see some of our gnarly old stars in their younger days.

Day 6 is a rest day. We’ll probably venture out to get some new strings for my guitar.

Day 7 is booked to Bath. Expect tourist pics.

Louise pulled out of her “flu-like symptoms” well enough to start complaining about hunger. Well, after CL’s theraputic soup noodle at lunch. She demanded fish and chips, so we got the bus (did I mention I messed up the tubes to Borough Market yesterday?) to Baker Street and strolled past Marylebone to the Seashell for some great fish and chips[13]. Amusingly, my friend CL who is unafraid of stinky tofu was defeated by the mushy peas. Wuss. We also got to witness another great British institution which wasn’t on the list: a fight![14] OK, it was handbags but still. A short fat old guy took on a 6′ fit bloke and unsurprisingly got lightly chopped to the ground in one punch and that was that.

So, a day I thought would be a rest day, took in two more London things. Now, what for tomorrow…?

Tourist Stuff in London

This is an updated version of this list. Thanks to everyone for the comments and suggestions! I also remembered a few more things. In two days we’ve knocked quite a few things off the list. Taking day 3 off to rest though!

Museums

• Tate modern – great building, meh exhibitions
• Tate Britain – good exhibitions
• Hayward – free at the moment I believe
• Victoria and Albert – will miss the next big Friday late, but still good to visit
• National gallery – lovely art, great buildings, great commentary
• National portrait gallery – hopefully something photography that won’t piss me off
• British library – yes, apparently there IS stuff to see
• Royal Academy – anything free and decent? Worth it if we’re near Fortnum and Mason
• British Museum – cool stiff we stole
• Photographers gallery – 50/50 chance of pissing me off
• Canary wharf (museum) – can double up with Greenwich
• Museum of London at the Barbican
• Wellcombe Collection – love this and great café!
• Geffrye Museum – good when doing the Hoxditch badlands

Historic Buildings

• Hampton Court Palace – she likes Henry VIII
• St Pauls – great building, great view from the top
• St Martin in the Fields – nice café in the crypt
• Westminster Abbey – never done it. Would be nice
• Buck House – actually neither of us care about this
• Royal Albert Hall

Theatre Stuff

• Avenue Q – yeah yeah. it’s cheap and funny
• Globe Theatre – bit of culture
• ICA – I’m a member and they show cool films
• IMAX – not especially London, but I want to see Harry Potter
• The Proms! – They’re on now!

Shopping!

• Forbidden Planet – laugh at the nerds
• Japan Centre – good books, good food
• Hamleys – just because
• Harrods – same
• Carnaby St – not what it was, but Austin Powers

Markets

• Camden Market
• Spitalfields
• Brick lane
• Portobello road
• Covent garden
• Chinatown
• Borough Market
• Marylebone high street
• Greenwich – market and park. And the college buildings

Other Random Stuff

• London zoo
• Smithfield
• Tourist bus
• River bus/tour
• Primrose hill – view London, nice pubs in the village
• Tower of London/London bridge – at least look at the outside
• Cinema Wednesdays – I got her an Orange SIM. Would be rude not to
• Regent’s Park – my back garden, so rude not to.
• St. James’s Park – close to the ICA and other tourist stuff
• Hampstead Heath – handy by bus from Camden
• Kew Gardens – used to do these as a kid when they we 6d and so see the pagoda

Food!

• Pie and mash eels
• City fullers- PIE!
• Teachi – good, cheap dim sum
• Leongs – Taiwanese food in case she gets desperate for home cooking
• Crown and goose – my local. Foamy ale
• Somers Town coffee house – nice pub in an odd place
• Fish and chips
• Brick lane curry – people have a big downwer on this. I have one cheap caff style place I love, but otherwise, I agree: meh. For food in the area, definitely the Lahore Kebab
• Drummond street curry – mmmm…dosa

Other Towns

• Brighton – English seaside
• Bath – My old home town
• Windsor – The Castle!
• Cambridge – not my thing and packed with tourists

50 Things to do in London

This came out of these doodlings on the train to London airport. This is my account of how many of those things we achieve.

Day 1

I hadn’t decided to blog our tourist exploits at this point so I only had my iPhone camera with me and only got one snap. Still, walking from Camden through Regent’s Park[1] down the Avenue, stopping for overpriced but good ice cream was lovely. Little did we expect, that by the time we got to the bottom and were heading across towards Marylebone High Street, we would get caught in a monsoon. Not a tropical one mind, just a nasty, cold very wet one. We made it to Marylebone church[2] where we had a lovely hot chocolate to warm up. Then back home to change into dry clothes.

Our second attempt out involved getting the 88 down to Picadilly Circus, eyeballing Eros[3], wandering through Chinatown[4], checking out the rice bowl mural, across Leicester Square[5], pointing out the sites of the film perimeres and into the National Gallery[6] to check out some Turners. From there, we crossed over into Covent Garden[7] through the churchyard, only scoping it out and watching the tail end of one performer in the plaza. Then home and tasty food.

Day 2

Day 2 started slowly as I had a meeting in the morning, but we made it in time to hit Marina’s in Borough Market[9] for a bacon butty. We perused half the market twice, don’t ask, stopping to look at the various veggie and cheesy goodies on offer. A swift pint later and we headed onwards to wander the South Bank[10].

We ducked into the Globe[11] to pick up some leaflets and we’ll definitely be back to get some culture. We had an ice cream at Gabriel’s Wharf[12] and perused the art, trinkets and clothes. Finally, we walked across the bridge to Embankment tube and headed home.

Final event of the evening was a gig at the Camden Barfly[8], to see Shake who came highly recommended. They did indeed rock mightily. Sadly, I missed the finale where the singer got taken to hospital covered in blood. Ho hum!

Tourist Stuff in London

Anyone who knows me appreciates I’ve been in a bit of a whirlwind in the last couple of weeks. I went from going to Taiwan to cover some metal, to suddenly acquiring a new girlfriend (who was formerly in said band) and who turned up in a planned way on my doorstep last night intending to stay a month.

As I was trundling towards T3 on the Picadilly line the night before last, I started sketching out things we could do in London. Before long I had more that 50 things I regarded as essential, many of which I hadn’t done before. So there’s the list I came up with. We’ve already knocked off Covent Garden, the National Gallery and Chinatown.

Museums

• Tate modern – great building, meh exhibitions
• Tate Britain – good exhibitions
• Hayward – free at the moment I believe
• Victoria and Albert – will miss the next big Friday late, but still good to visit
• National gallery – lovely art, great buildings, great commentary
• National portrait gallery – hopefully something photography that won’t piss me off
• British library – anything worth seeing for non-members?
• Royal Academy – anything free and decent? Worth it if we’re near Fortnum and Mason
• British Museum – cool stiff we stole
• Photographers gallery – 50/50 chance of pissing me off
• Canary wharf (museum) – can double up with Greenwich

Historic Buildings

• Hampton Court Palace – she likes Henry VIII
• St Pauls – great building, great view from the top
• St Martin in the Fields – nice café in the crypt
• Westminster Abbey – never done it. Would be nice
• Buck House – actually neither of us care about this

Theatre Stuff

• Avenue Q – yeah yeah. it’s cheap and funny
• Globe Theatre – bit of culture
• ICA – I’m a member and they show cool films
• IMAX – not especially London, but I want to see Harry Potter

Shopping!

• Forbidden Planet – laugh at the nerds
• Japan Centre – good books, good food
• Hamleys – just because
• Harrods – same
• Carnaby St – not what it was, but Austin Powers

Markets

• Camden Market
• Spitalfields
• Brick lane
• Portobello road
• Covent garden
• Chinatown
• Borough Market
• Marylebone high street
• Greenwich

Other Random Stuff

• London zoo
• Smithfield
• Tourist bus
• River bus/tour
• Primrose hill – view London, nice pubs in the village
• Tower of London/London bridge – at least look at the outside
• Cinema Wednesdays – I got her an Orange SIM. Would be rude not to

Food!

• Pie and mash eels
• City fullers- PIE!
• Teachi – good, cheap dim sum
• Leongs – Taiwanese food in case she gets desperate for home cooking
• Crown and goose – my local. Foamy ale
• Somers Town coffee house – nice pub in an odd place
• Fish and chips
• Brick lane curry
• Drummond street curry – mmmm…dosa

Other Towns

• Brighton – English seaside
• Bath – My old home town
• Windsor – The Castle!

Taiwan has possibly the cheesiest slogan ever: “Touch my heart”. It certainly touched mine.

I cocked up the outward booking slightly by forgetting that an Eastward flight would be an overnight one so I was due to arrive on the day of the “Free Tibet” Chthonic gig. After a typically horrible sleeper and a ninety minute transfer in Hong Kong which was only just enough, I arrived to a hot, steamy, soupy Taiwan summer afternoon. The taxi dropped me near the plaza where the concert was happening and Doris guided me to the artist tents and somewhere to drop my bags.

First mission was to get washed! Louise guided me to the department store that was unknowingly being used as the crew and artist restrooms. I improvised half a shower there and felt significantly refreshed after, getting rid of all the travel crap.

Next stop was FOOD. I’d been reliably informed that Taiwanese street food was the best thing in the world and this proved true with an oyster omlette and some fried dumplings with assorted sauces. Awesome.

I’ve reviewed the concert, but it’s sufficient to say it was great: amazing crowd with full “Free Tibet!” participation. The other bands weren’t too shabby either.

My day rounded off zipping through the streets of Taipei on the back of Louise’s scooter. Let me explain about Taipei and scooters: they’re everywhere. They’ve passed a tipping point, where unlike London where cars don’t give a shit, in Taipei, they’ve reached a critical mass so drivers have to be aware of this fragile little things zipping in and out like mad flies. Power to the people! Oh, they swarm.

My final experience that night was to sleep on a thin mat on the floor like a real Asian. It wasn’t SO bad, I guess.

Our mission the following day was to hit Tainan and Taichung for listening parties for Chthonic’s new album. This was a mildly insane drive from one lenghth of the island to another, setting out at a sensible time in the morning and finishing in the wee small hours of the next day. I didn’t get to see much of the country except for highway and rest stops but even there, the cornucopia of weird foods and drinks in the shops were amazing.

For those who don’t know, the Taiwanese have a very inclusive attitude to food. Being very Chinese in culture, having been occupied by the Japanese for over 50 years and with American and European influences, the choice of munchies ranges wide. Familiar brands like Lays, with some very unfamiliar flavours in the exotic and spicy end of the spectrum just ache to be washed down with an ice cold Taiwan brand beer. And that’s just the snacks. More of the real food later.

Oh, in Tainan, lunch was a nice soup noodle with very good stock clearly made from real bones.

Back to the listening parties. The Tainan one was held in the upstairs room of a lovely bar with around fifty fans in attendance. They played the whole album through track by track with accompanying video presentation followed by a Q+A.

A drive up to Taichung, where we dined on dumplings and had another listening party.

Then a week of not doing very much outside as it was SO hot and I had a major distraction, I did manage to get in an interview with Freddy and lots more great food.

On my penultimate day, Chthonic played a home gig at The Wall, Taipei’s spiritual home of metal.

And then I had to come home. Pretty good flight considering. Sad to be back.

Interview with Freddy
Free Tibet on Demotix
Review of Free Tibet Concert
A bunch of pictures
Another set of pics
Pictures (to buy!) on Musicpictures.com

This will be the last post I make here. In honour of my impending trip to Taiwan and a travel-filled year so far, I’m moving my blog to my main web site. Please update your RSS readers!

OK, I’m rather scared. On Friday I fly to Taiwan to see the amazing Chthonic, report back to Metal Hammer on the new album and shoot them at the Free Tibet concert and the Uloud festival later in the week.

Sadly, despite a lot of help, I couldn’t get it together to go to Beijing. Next time.

Excited!

Cacilhas
Originally uploaded by davehodg

This picture is not tweaked at all, it’s exactly how it came out of the camera.

Cacilhas is on the opposite side of the Tagus to Lisbon and has its own decrepit charm. There’s a long stretch of derelict warehouses between the ferry terminal and the old town which are just gagging to be redeveloped into restaurants and bars.

Oh, it’s lovely.