Old Friends: Bristol!

Bristol is a medium-gorgeous city. IT's kind of whatever-jawdropping. I give it a C+ for making me want to live on a boat there forever.

England has been incredibly grand. The return to an Anglophone land has felt a great relief, it's been gorgeously sunny (by UK standards but also in comparison to Berlin) and most importantly of all, I've been able to spend time with some of my best and oldest friends. Last week I stayed with Kate, my friend since the start of undergrad, and her husband Stuart, who I've known just about since he and Kate started dating. I couldn't have asked for better hosts - Stuart kicked off my stay with a selection of English cheeses and charcuterie, made me tea and various English breakfasts every morning, and served as the most eager, informative tour guide you could ever ask for. Kate and I shared hours of conversation about our lives, explored Bristol when Stuart was away (and when she and I weren't working on our day jobbery), and all three of us got into London for a day. I met some of their friends, I had a full and rewarding week, it was all extremely neat is the point. Photos, video, and more past the jump as usuallllll.


First the video... and guys, Secret Time: it's sort of a Bristol video (and a bit of London) but it's also sort of about Kate and Stuart and how much I love 'em and admire their relationship. It was a real joy to get to spend almost a week with them, and I hope some of that comes through in this thing:

Most of our time was spent in Bristol, but we did get into London, which was wonderful. I hadn't been in years - the last time I went it was with family, though I had a few days to explore on my own a bit. But it felt different this time - I suppose being with friends and just having a greater familiarity with a number of city's designs made it feel a bit more normal, which was surprising to me.

Kate's one request for the day had been that we go to an exhibit of Yayoi Kusama's work at the Victoria Miro; "She works in dots," Kate said, and Stuart and I immediately became extremely annoying about the whole thing. "She does a lot with pumpkins in this one," Kate clarified, and we gave her reason to wish we had not come along to begin with. But here's the thing, is that Kate's basically always right when you get around to it, and jeez she sure was here. Snippets in the video above, but this was well worth the queuing, and a nice reminder to keep checking out things like this In The World even as a non-art-world person.

Pump-a-kins! Only two people were allowed in this mirrored cube at a time, for twenty seconds. IT WAS COOL, DID I MENTION THE COOLNESS OF IT

The rest of the day was Exploring Mode, with Stuart taking us on a walk through Islington, down to the Barbican (the whole complex of which is fascinating and cool) and swinging by the Guildhall, Bank of England, and a few markets before making our way up to a reading that I skipped out on to catch up with my dear friend Katie Swimm, just arrived that day for her own London-based research. It was a swell, all-too-brief day in the city to which I hope Stuart and Kate move so I can continue to bother them as an obnoxious houseguest.

Leadenhall Market! Sadly, we were by this point running a bit late to meet Katie for a drink, so had to rush through a few cool spots. It seems that I am compelled to return?

FRIENDS AT DRINKS! Kate J apparently refused to be in this picture, and also seems to be shockingly tall, or else that table is shockingly tiny, anyways photos are fun good job everybody.

The rest of the time was in Bristol, which is quite a lovely city. Banksy's home town, it's got a robust counterculture, and is the kind of place where every weekend there's something afoot - a festival, a show, or several of each. Kate and I did a good deal of work during the days, but fit in a few exploring wanders (including a duck into one of my favorite animation studios!) and had some delightful evenings out with friends, at speakeasy bars and cider boats. It was FUN and we were PARTY PEOPLE and now we are all taking a weeklong NAP, good work everybody.

CIDERBOAT! Out for some ciders (PRO TIP: I am terrible at picking ciders, there are so many good ones and I only picked terrible ones!) with Gillian and her friend Richard, both of whom were lovely and delightful, and with whom I was and always shall be proud to share a drinking-boat.

Bartender coven scheming our next round of drinks. This was the FIRST speakeasy of the night!

Stuart holds court as Alex and I pay attention. This was the SECOND speakeasy of the night, and it is here that I achieved my greatest accomplishment of the week: saying something about economics that was not grotesquely incorrect and terrible! It was something to do with bananas or cans of coke I believe.

I know what you're thinking, this must be from a THIRD speakeasy but guess what idiot, it's the first one again, because linearity is a phantasm and life moves to its own rhythms and I wanted ONE photo of me and Kate on this lousy post since she kept successfully avoiding it (except for this entire series of selfies that she took on my phone). Anyway this is me and Kate, we're pals, she's nice if sometimes scowly.

Now I'm up in York, at the start of about a week in Yorkshire, and I am loving it. More to come soon - afternoon tea, city walls, a staggeringly gorgeous cathedral, and a couple of superb museums! Stick around for THAT, or whatever!