Welcome to my fascination with Skate parks. It all started at Venice Beach, CA circa ’15 but that’s another story for another time.

19:56 Monday April 10, 2017

Clissold Park, Stoke Newington, London

Fact: Clissold Park is a designated community park (22.57 hectares (55.8 acres) in Stoke Newington, within the London Borough of Hackney. Its facilities include children’s playgrounds, sports fields, a bowling green, tennis courts, the café and some other attractions including terrapins in its lakes, as well as deer, quail, and rabbits.

After hanging out in the pub drinking Coca-Cola and soda water next to where we saw Gavin James, Ellie and I jumped on the night tube and went to see our good friend James Sayer; an immensely talented and passionate Pianist and Singer/Songwriter. There’s no better way to describe the energy here every Saturday night as that of a ‘wedding after party’. James had a packed room full of music enthusiasts singing classics at the top of their lungs, you’ll notice all the requests scattered across the piano. We felt like the most sober people there but it was still great.

1:22 Sunday April 9, 2017

Players Bar and Kitchen, The Arches, London

Fact: A piano bar (also known as a piano lounge) consists of a piano or electronic keyboard played by a professional musician, located in a cocktail lounge, bar, hotel lobby, office building lobby, restaurant, or on a cruise ship. Usually the pianist receives a small salary plus tips in a jar or basket on or near the piano, especially from patrons requesting a song traditionally written on a beverage napkin. Some piano bars feature a baby grand or grand piano surrounded by stools for patrons (or, somewhat humorously, an upright piano covered by a counter that makes it appear to be a grand piano). Others have a bar surrounding the piano or keyboard.
Jimmy Durante started as a piano bar player, as did Billy Joel. Joel’s classic hit “Piano Man” is based on his experiences as a piano bar player. Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli also played in piano bars to pay for singing lessons.

Ellie and I went to check out the second half of Gavin James’s headline and biggest London show so far. We met him a few weeks ago at KOKO the day before he flew to Dubai to play St Patrick’s Day; a lovely Irishman with a very beautiful voice.
Our back row positioning wasn’t conducive to getting a good photo…

22:09 Saturday April 8, 2017

O2 Forum Kentish Town, London

Fact: Gavin James is an Irish singer-songwriter who has opened for chart-toppers Ed Sheeran, Kodaline, Tori Kelly and Sam Smith on their respective tours. In 2013, James independently released the single “Say Hello”, which won the Meteor Choice Award for Song of the Year. By 2015, James had signed deals with Sony in Europe and Capitol Records in the US. In March 2016, he won the Choice Music Prize Irish Song of the Year award again, for “Bitter Pill”. His songs recently surpassed 200 million plays.

Friday. 3/4 of the way home.

17:34 Friday April 7, 2017

Seven Sisters Rail Station, London

Fact: In maritime circles, it has long been considered unlucky to begin a voyage on a Friday.

Back to the far SW suburb of London where I lived circa 2012/13 and never understood why nobody would make the effort to visit. “Come East,” they said – I get it now but tonight was a given. We surprised our beautiful friend Cara (l) who has just hung up her Qantas flying wings in pursuit of Interior Design studies back home in Melbourne. This is Cara thanking her BFF Lauren (r) in genuine disbelief for organising an unforeseen room full of love; friends, drinks and balloons. Friendship goals.

19:40 Thursday April 6, 2017

Lost & Co, Putney, London

Fact: Dunbar’s number is a suggested cognitive limit to the number of people with whom one can maintain stable social relationships; relationships in which an individual knows who each person is and how each person relates to every other person. This number was first proposed in the 1990’s by British anthropologist Robin Dunbar, who found a correlation between primate brain size and average social group size. By using the average human brain size and extrapolating from the results of primates, he proposed that humans can comfortably maintain only 150 stable relationships. Dunbar explained it informally as “the number of people you would not feel embarrassed about joining uninvited for a drink if you happened to bump into them in a bar”.

Running is lifting whatever you were worried about when you left home, to a place of almost insignificance by the time you catch your breath. I found this view from the grass lying below a flight path.

19:54 Wednesday April 5, 2017

Hackney Downs, Lower Clapton, London

Fact: Because Heathrow is so busy, most planes coming into land at Heathrow wait in ‘holding stacks’. The stack acts as a waiting room, allowing air traffic controllers to efficiently organise planes for landing. There are four stacks around Heathrow called Bovingdon, Lambourne, Ockham and Biggin. The UK Government sets their locations and they have been in the same places since the 1960s.

Tonight my super cool friend Emily Burns (also an insanely talented singer/songwriter, look her up) took me on a private tour of Abbey Road Studios; felt so in awe of what’s been created within these walls and the history preserved here. We hung out in the bar with beer drinking audio engineers and peppermint tea, then took photos on the Zebra Crossing on the way home.

21:35 Tuesday April 4, 2017

Studio One, Abbey Road Studios, London

Fact: Studio One is the world’s largest purpose built recording studio and can comfortably accommodate a large symphony orchestra or chorus as well as full band. It’s played host to celebrated classical recordings from Elgar and Prokofiev, as well as iconic film soundtracks including The Lord of The Rings Trilogy, The Empire Strikes Back, Skyfall and Gravity, plus artists from Stevie Wonder and Kanye West to Rag ‘n’ Bone Man and Alt-J.

Street performers and kids with cash money.

13:15 Monday April 3, 2017

Covent Garden, London

Fact: The Covent Garden Piazza was originally inspired by European piazzas and was hoped would create the first of many public open squares in London. This became a huge influence on town planning throughout Britain.

Sunday sunset feat. James and his broom. What is Summer without a pretty rooftop terrace?

19:02 Sunday April 2, 2017

Brooke Road, Stoke Newington, London

Fact: The sun starts to lose colour as it sets. As the sun starts dropping to the horizon it starts to lose its blue wavelength hues, then its green and yellow hues, and eventually orange, leaving only red wavelengths. That is why the sun at the end of a sunset will look like a ball of fire.

No April Fools here, these kids have quit their jobs and are hitting the road in the new whip ‘Ruby’ to explore the Balkans and Northern Greece before a long hot Cretian Summer. What is London without your chosen family? But seriously… Until we meet again in Crete & Melbourne I’m going to miss these two.

10:57 Saturday April 1, 2017

Tudor Court, Mildmay, London

Fact: Crete’s waters are so clear you can enjoy a 40-metre view from above; the clearest coastline throughout Europe. Crete also has the oldest history throughout Europe; excavations under the Palace of Knossos have revealed that the first settlements in Crete date back to the 7th Millennium BC. The largest and most populous of the Greek islands was home to the ancient and powerful Minoans, who thrived on the island since 2700 BC. The Minoans were the first civilisation to introduce sheep, pigs, goats, cattle and dogs to Crete.