Morning, beautiful, originally uploaded by Caroline.

Although my hotel on Osborne Street in London gets bad reviews on travel sites, I didn’t have a problem with it at all. Yes it’s a little run down and I’m sure some people may not find the area attractive. But I like Brick Lane with its vintage clothing shops, cool record store (Rough Trade), Bangla Deshi restaurants, ‘beigel’ bakeries and photo opportunities. Plus some excellent coffee at Coffee@.

Some photos taken in the Tower Hamlets area.

Marco Derksen was making German and Italian playlists on iMeem today, using input from Twitterati. That set me on a quest to try and make an Irish one. Only I didn’t want to pick too obvious songs, but rather unearth some of the late 80s/early 90s bands that nobody really knew or cared about outside of Ireland. Before the internet as we know it. Before bargain flights. Before the Celtic bloody Tiger. Back when every Irish musician was washing up dishes in crappy restaurants and looking for a Green Card. And every Irish drummer played on Larry Mullen’s second hand kits.

I couldn’t find a whole lot of them on iMeem so I had to make do with what I could find, alternate tracks, etc. My own collection is mostly on vinyl. I really must get a USB record player.

As I searched online I found out a lot of the bands are making ‘come backs’ on MySpace (An Emotional Fish, Something Happens, The Golden Horde, Into Paradise, Zerra One, The Dixons, Screech Owls, In Tua Nua, Aslan) and I also found this rather marvellous website hosting the Irish punk & new wave discography.

Is it me or is making playlists on iMeem a lot of work? Search a song, click through to a song, click ‘playlist’, choose profile or group, make playlist… find next song, start over…

You’ll just have to imagine that this playlist also contains: I want too much (A House), You ain’t lovin’ me lately (Aslan), Parachute (Something Happens), Friends in Time (The Golden Horde), The Bridge (Cactus World News), Dog with no tails (The Pale) and my entire obscure Mother Records collection… perhaps I will pick up that USB record player tomorrow.

So, consider this a botched attempt at creating a playlist of the ‘best’ (read ‘available’) Irish bands.

Just when we we were getting very bored with Stratford-upon-Avon (at 11am on our second day) we came across this man whose name we may never find out. He built a miniature version of Stratford junction as it would have looked a long time ago and has opened his house to show it. I was a little startled when he suddenly appeared amidst the trains and started telling us all about his work there and upstairs, where he was working on a even smaller scale version. While Hg diverted his attention, I snapped a few shots of him and his pride and joy.

And that’s just one part of our Grand Tour of Britain, conveniently cut into three manageable stretches (Stratford Feb 24/25, Nottingham March 3, Newcastle-Manchester-Leeds March 13-17). I am flying to and fro from various airports where I am met by Hg, the man behind the wheel. Going back to the job in between these outings is nothing less than torture.

While the Nothing Like the Sun shows are the reason we embark on our journey, they don’t seem the centre of it. I am enjoying England, the landscape, the architecture, the drink, the food and the people in their pubs, restaurants and homes. Old fashioned comforts, tasty like the Dandelion & Burdock drink I tried in Beeston’s Victoria pub.

Whether it’s just the two of us going for a pint of Old Trip, or meeting up with friends, having a big cooked breakfast with Hg‘s parents, or being treated by our mad musical hero, it feels like family is the focus.

I feel out of place most of the time. In my house. At work. In my country. With these people. Within myself. But being on the road like this, is like coming home.

Tjie = Jee / Gee = Pork

A-Fusion is a really nice place stuck between the mostly grisly looking shops and restaurants on Zeedijk. Once you’re inside it’s kind of hip and trendy in a cool Asian way. I tried their bubble tea, they’ve got tons of different flavours, but I have to say I thought the coffee flavoured one I tried was a little bland. I prefer the Indonesian version of this type of drink, called ‘cendol‘.

I also tried their ‘thigh’ meat (deep fried battered chicken) and siu long bao. I’m not an expert, but I think the siu long bao was too dry. Descriptions of the dish always warn for the hot broth that spills from the dumplings once you bite them.

Service was a little hapless, though I noticed they were a lot more attentive to their regulars.

Looking for visa information I hit upon some Dutch travel tips for the USA. Halfway through I found this eye-rolling passage:

‘Overigens mag u in restaurants ook gewoon vragen om een glaasje water; dit is (meestal) gratis, en niemand kijkt er raar van op. Dat scheelt toch weer een dollar of twee. (You can ask for a glass of water in restaurants, most of the time it’s free and nobody will be surprised. That’ll save you at least a dollar or two.)’

Elsewhere on the page we are told not to use your mobile phone, or the hotel phone to ring The Netherlands, because it’s really, really expensive!

Or you could just go and, you know, ENJOY yourself.