What’s London’s best-kept secret?
Your own backyard. When all the action is kicking off in Central London, when your mates will compromise as much as “I’ll meet you halfway”, what amount of attention have you paid your local area? The same road on the way to the tube station can seem dull and repetitive three months after you moved in, but remember when you were the new kid and plotted to micro-world-dominate your neighbourhood? Check out back alleys. Drop in a pub. Go back out there and explore. Wear a Stetson if it gets you into character.
Where do you go to chill out?
With chain coffee shops within 100 metres of each other, it’s rather tempting to just leap into any Starbucks and debauch in corporate convenience; but the quainter and more ambient local establishments are where I can truly kick back and sip some black gold. Foxtrot and Ginger on Bremner Street in Soho is a personal favourite.
What baffles you about London?
The ‘London rage’, which I’ve been infected with. The mixture of fury and snobbery grips me every time tourists insist on pausing in the middle of the path and consulting tube maps, or sluggishly hauling their suitcases in stations, when lashing out on them is against my better nature. Also – and I have no idea why – I feel guilty every time I fail to pick up an Evening Standard – not possessing one while commuting seems to make me not Londoner enough.
Who’s the most interesting person you’ve met in London and why?
Although I’ve never met him in the flesh, I spoke to TV presenter Simon Reeve for 45 minutes in a phone interview. He’s circumnavigated the world three times, following the Tropic of Capricorn, Equator and Tropic of Cancer, documenting his travels as well as observing the current affairs of the countries he visited. In many ways he’s influenced me immensely to mature as a traveller. And he also owes me a real-life meeting.
Where’s your favourite place for a drink?
Drinks are so expensive in London that you often have to punch your purse till it spits pennies, just to be able to afford a drink. Often my solution to the cost problem is by hunting down pubs serving exclusively pints from Samuel Smith Brewery – with price tags as low as a gob-smacking £2.40 – and relentlessly haunting them. One pub my travel blogger mates and I frequent is Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese on Fleet Street, dubbed one of the oldest pubs in London and has an underground cavern that used to be a monastery.
What can’t you beat in London when you’ve got a hangover?
Needless to say, numb as your palates are, the consumption of kebab is a well-practised ritual. In fact, anything greasy will suffice. On a healthier note, I’ve developed a liking to Bloody Mary’s – the spiciness really awakens my senses whilst the booze keeps the alcohol depletion at bay. When I’m done sulking and wallowing in self-pity I go for a stroll, which clears my head and allows me to recall all the despicably silly deeds my drunken self had committed the night before.
What gets you up in the morning?
There’s always something new happening every day, especially in a place like London. For someone who doesn’t like conforming to rigid daily routines, it’s a joy to always feel a sense of exploration even by merely stepping out of my front door. I attend a lot of meetups, often those consisting of travel bloggers and industry people, and these events bring me to venues I’ve never imagined discovering of my own accord – and not least meeting new faces as well as greeting the more familiar ones.
What’s the first thing you think of in the morning?
In no particular order, putting the kettle on and making a brew; the second thing I think of in the morning is checking my social media accounts, like Facebook and Twitter, and finding out more about what’s happening in my city. With tweeters like @AboutLondon who’s constantly updating the latest things to do and stuff to see, it’s a good starting point for any day. As a travel blogger I tend to use social media quite a lot to plan my travels – how different should it be for me to figure out my movements within my home city?
What’s your perfect weekend?
I’m a massive foodie and tend to conduct food experiments during weekends – nothing quite stimulates my cooking instincts than a visit to Borough Market. Always start with a flat white at Monmouth, even if it means joining in the ridiculously-long queue in a near-hypnotic state, before an aimless meander among the stalls. I’ve always had a romanticism with kayaking – I’d love to take a kayak out on the Thames and go for a paddle. After a quick fix-up, it’s time to assemble some company and hit up a cosy boozer for a ‘civilised’ drink – or several.
What are your New Year resolutions?
Funny how, when much of the world’s population converges in my home city just to catch a play, I’ve hardly been to the theatres. Never mind the cliched plots of the Phantom of the Opera or Les Miserables, one of my resolutions is to check in to theatres more often in 2012 – I was gutted to have missed the stage adaptation of Birdsong, one of my favourites novels. What else? Get fitter so I can outrun chavs, and put up a better resistance against my local KFC.
What’s the biggest faux pas you’ve made?
Does not tutting enough count?
What’s the last naughty thing that you did (you have to tell us!)?
For obvious reasons I have little recollection of my mischiefs, since I carried them out in states of intoxication. In one more sober occasion, I was watching the Royal Wedding procession on Whitehall when my bladder wanted to open the floodgates. Having to walk all the way to Embankment Station to find the nearest loo, the pay toll at the entrance of a public toilet barricaded my way to a swift release – with no change in my pocket I simply jumped over the gate when the doorman wasn’t looking. By the time he noticed I’d already fled the bog scene.
Five words that sum up London?
Gotta mind that blummin’ gap.
Visit Dylan’s website www.thetravellingeditor.com or follow him on Twitter @TravelingEditor
