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America, Countries, Culture, Europe, Ireland, UK

It’s a crime… police dramas around the world

7th March 20217th March 2021 funtime65

Excitement is building to fever pitch ahead of the resumption of police drama Line of Duty on March 21 which allows us to explore police dramas around the world.

Hastings’ landscape

Belfast: I can’t find evidence but it must be true that Superintendent Ted Hastings is named after Belfast’s faves Hastings Hotels.

The seahorse on the wall of the Great Central Hotel is your compass wherever you go in the Northern Irish capital.

That is if you can drag yourself out of the Observatory bar atop the hotel where you get the best views.

And where James Nesbitt opens his Bloodlands detective drama.

Adrian Dunbar on the Graham Norton Show watches Vicky McLure at his Line of Duty mural

Hastings, aka Adrian Dunbar in Line of Duty has been immortalised.

As are all they take to their heart and allow to film in their city.

By having their image set as a mural… and be sure to take a black taxi tour around Belfast.

Check in at the Europa Hotel, part of the story, and get ready for a potted history of The Troubles.

Mob rules

Once upon a crime in America: And everywhere there is an American dream there is a big job to realise that dream.

You can see how Las Vegas was built by Bugsy Siege.

And The Mob in Chicago in the Mob Museum and channel your inner Al Capone.

Call him Fonz

Tom Hardy as Capone in the Netflix dramas

Fonz Capone is synonymous of course with Chicago.

Where he was invited from New York by Johnny Torrio, and ended up running the city.

The invitations have piled up over the years for me to visit Chicago but the big job has eluded me thus far.

Last year was to be me marking the centenary of the Volstead Act which beckoned in Prohibition.

And I was all set to join one of the retro tours

My cocktail will be all the sweeter when I do get there…

I’ll just have to watch at the speakeasy doors for the cops.’

Florida where he ditched the Al

We never did find out why Mae Capone insisted to the police watching the house: ‘We don’r call him that [Al] here.’

Here is Palm Beach, near Miami, where the syphilitic Capone spent his last days under house arrest deep in the doo-doo (literally).

You can see it all in graphic detail on Netflix’s Capone, starring Tom Hardy.

Italy, the Old Country

Of course Fonz (or Al) and la famiglia are really all just displaced Sicilians.

Visitors to Sicily will always head for Mt Etna until it gets too hot to handle.

But for those who stay awhile and see Taormina then a Godfather tour is highly recommended.

This one I’ve stumbled across includes a Fiat 500 {Cinquecento)and me and the Cinquecento have history.

When I stalled in the car park in the French Riviera and the good monsieur took over.

I’m not sure whether Capone would be so understanding.

America, Countries, Culture, Europe, Flying, Ireland, Sport, UK

My Sporting Weekend – baseball in England

27th February 2021 funtime65

And judging by what a mess England are making of their cricket Test series in India, maybe they’ll go back to baseball.

There are few things more American than baseball.

And that obviously means that it came from somewhere else.

And this somewhere else is England where it had been a folk game.

Lord’s, the home of cricket, gave itself over to baseball for the first time when it hosted the Boston Red Stockings and the Philadelphia Athletics in 1874.

So for all the big Wembley and Tottenham Stadium American Football matches it’s not a new phenomenon.

To bring American sporting franchises over to the Old Country.

We do, of course, have splendid memories of Aer Lingus‘s biennial American Colllege matches at the Aviva. Happy days!

For the record Boston beat Phladelphia 24-7.

In truth Beantown and Philly are winners when it comes to sport and you can’t visit without being touched by their love of their athletes.

Paris, non

And the hairy-arsed Scots who make a biennial pilgrimage to Paris to converge around the Arc de Triomphe.

And watch their Bravehearts lose to Les Bleus were unable to do so this year.

So too did the Scotland rugby team whose match against Les Bleus of France was called off when the home outfit was hit by Covid.

Paris hasn’t always been kind to this hairy-arsed Scot either.

I had my butt kicked when I kipped down for the night in Paris Saint-Lazare railway station in my summer holiday down on the French Riviera after schoool.

The butt-kickers en force were the Gendarme…

And it wouldn’t be my first brush with the French law who took offence to me stopping the traffic in Saint-Raphael.

Let’s be Frank about Bruno

For those of us whose golden years (so far) were the Eighties Frank Bruno was ubiquitious, know what ah mean, Harry.

And his story was inexorably tied up with that of Mike Tyson’s though he was merely a punchbag for the Baddest Man on the Planet.

Sky Documentaries’ excellent Bruno v Tyson chronicles Frank’s story.

From inauspicious beginnings in South London through to him becoming the Gentle Giant of the Nation.

Las Vegas looms large as the two fights were held there…

The first Bruno v Tyson clash was set to be held in London before Iron Mike pranged his car.

The Las Vegas Hilton was the venue for the first fight and the MGM for the second.

With Vegas our venue for the American Travel fair this year we’re all hoping there will be boxing on then.

And with a seniors circuit now kicking in in which Iron Mike figures.

Let’s get this Bruno v Tyson III on in Vegas in the Fall.

MEET YOU AT A VIRTUAL SPORTS EVENT

America, Countries, Culture, Europe, Ireland, UK

I’m listening – Seattle and other sitcom worlds

26th February 202126th February 2021 funtime65

Frasier’s returning which means more Seattle.

And New York‘s finest, Friends while Will & Grace are with us already.

All of which means we get to peer into their sitcom worlds.

It’s no exaggeration to say that I chose Boston as my destination for my post-university summer because of Cheers.

Here’s to Cheers

Cheers, Boston: As is the way of such things there was a little less Boston than I’d have hoped for.

The exterior and the stairs are what you see on the show.

And there was an actual pub in Beacon Hill, near Boston Common, which was serving Beantown beerflies since 1969.

When the telly people turned it into the phenomenon it now is after launching it onto our screens in 1982.

What Cheers did was use Boston as the conversation to draw me and my pals out with one even working on a merch cart.

Mork calling Boulder

Boulder, Colorado: And it would be as easy to pick out Mork’s planet Ork back in the day than it would have been Boulder.

The Coloradan town though is a must-visit for Mork & Mindy fans.

Boulder is everything you would imagine an artsy, outdoorsy Colorado town to be.

And check out the bluegrass music and the food tours.

Golden Girls’ Miami

Golden Girls, Miami: Florida is, of course, the state where America’s golden oldies go to live out their retirement.

In a case of life imitating art the girls‘ Miami house was put up for sale for $3m at the turn of the Millennium.

I might have missed the boat then but as we approach our retirement years Miami is on our list…

I suppose I better share with my Golden Girl!

The Liver Birds

The Liver Birds, Liverpool: The opening credits when you see Beryl and Sandra skipping with the Royal Liver Building as the backdrop sets the scene.

And without a doubt Liverpool, Liverpudlians and their humour mark this show as the pioneer of a new genre…. the Scousecom.

We’ve had Bread, Watching, Boys from the Blackstuff and Jim Royle. A lorra, lorra laughs!

Derry life

Writing on the wall: In Derry

Derry Girls, Derry, Northern Ireland: And like The Liver Birds, Derry is very much a key cast member.

Set in Derry around The Troubles in the Eighties, this coming of age sitcom has been embraced beyond the city.

And isn’t it great to see Old Derry’s Walls boasting a mural of schoolgirls and not political symbols for a change.

Africa, America, Canada, Caribbean, Countries, Cruising, Europe, Ireland

Water waterfalls

24th February 202125th February 2021 funtime65

Don’t go chasing waterfalls. Please stick to the rivers and lakes that you’re used to – TLC

Only I do go chasing waterfalls… or rather they go chasing me.

And probably you too… after all they are a staple of your holiday day tours.

But like rivers and lakes usually once you’ve seen one then you’ve seen them all.

The must-sees are obviously Niagara Falls, Victoria Falls and Angel Falls.

The Big Three

The first of them I have ticked off in Canada on a trip to see family in Toronto.

The second on the list is with my friends from Ethiopian Airlines en route to Namibia.

Victoria tall. www.victoriafallstourism.com

While the third in Venezuela I’m inching closer to having acquainted myself with the Venezuelan Spanish ladies of Tobago.

Not all waterfalls have to have come down from the highest heavens.

Nor do they have to be at a neck-craning height to be blessed by the gods.

Water world

As I discovered in Kythera in Greek Attica.

Whether you’re gazing on nature’s wonders among the world’s great mountain ranges such as the Pyrenees

In the valley of the Rockies. cruising through the fjords.

Or with the sun on your back in the Caribbean waterfalls are one of the Gods’ gifts.

Unless, of course, it’s Powerscourt’s waterfalls in my old back yard of Co. Wicklow in Ireland which you have to pay for.

Powerscourt, its gardens and splendid hotel and grounds and best-value restaurant is one of the country’s jewels.

Spray that again

All of which waterfall waffling brings me to the subject in hand, an invitation from one of the best Travel providers in the business.

American Holidays are flagging up their Canadian market and as well as Niagara Falls, the less well-known Montmorency Waterfalls.

The Montmorency Falls in Quebec are actually 30m higher than its much-vaunted Ontario neighbour.

You can decide for yourself which you prefer on your nine-day tour of Canada’s great Eastern Cities.

Where you’ll spend three nights each in Toronto, Montréal and Quebec.

You’ll fly from Dublin to Toronto and return from Montréal from €1539pp.

MEET YOU BY THE WATERFALLS

America, Countries, Culture, UK

Happy Deliverance Day when it comes

23rd February 202123rd February 2021 funtime65

Happy June 21 when it comes – but what about us Travel people?

June 21 is the glorious date when out Covid restrictions will be lifted and we can all go back to the way we were.

So if it is to be a Deliverance Day we all celebrate in the future then a bit more about its significance already.

Harry’s Day

Harry Potter: No not that merry merry band of brothers that fought with King Harry on St Crispin’s Day nor the pussy-whipped current Prince Harry.

No this Harry is the magical boy wizard Harry Potter whose book the Order of the Phoenix was released today in 2009 and became the fastest selling in history.

And so the legend which is celebrated from Watford through Edinburgh to Orlando grew.

Make way for the Molly Maguires

Molly Maguires: Anyone who has enjoyed an Irish trad band in an Irish bar will have ‘made way for the Molly Maguires’.

Probably without knowing who they were.

Irish coal-mining activists in Pennsylvania, ten of whom were hanged this day in 1877….

‘They’ve drinkers, they’re liars but they’re men, you’ll never see the likes of them again.’

Reagan shot

The 47th President of America: In Washington DC

Ronald Reagan shot: In a country where everything is marked with a plaque it is noteworthy that the spot where John Hinckley shot Ronald Reagan is not.

I looked for it but didn’t find it when I stayed at the Washington Hilton

I did find Ford’s Theater where John Wilkes Booth assassinated Abraham Lincoln, and a swathe of American history in DC.

A new King Billy

Prince William born: The one who will be king and probably why he’s sticking around.

That and the fact that his wife isn’t homesick for Hollywood.

Prince William was born this day in 1982. Who knows when he will sit on the throne but London and all its royal schmaltz will reopen. Hurrah!

America, Countries, Culture

Rainy Days and Songdays – Marc, Gene and Vegas

22nd February 202122nd February 2021 funtime65

Something’s gotten hold of my hand. Dragging my soul to a beautiful land, Yeah something has invaded my night. Painting my sleep with a colour so bright. Changing the grey, and changing the blue. Scarlet for me, and scarlet for you. – Gene Pitney and Marc Almond

Apropos nothing other than my invitation came in for the American Travel Fair in Las Vegas this Autumn.

And this banger screamed out from the television on a nostalgia fest for the year 1989.

It completely passed me by back then and is only relevant to me now that the video was filmed in the Vegas Neon Boneyard.

The Neon Museum is where building frontages go to retire now LED lights have taken over.

It is a surreal site, like Vegas itself but if you suspend belief then you’ll get it.

Particularly if you’ve got curator Beverley to show you around.

Sign of the times

There are 19 working signs there while two Riviera and Fitzgeralds were received in working condition.

Fitzgeralds might not be one you’d immediately associate with Vegas but it is a reminder of Neon City’s Irish imprint.

It stood on Fremont Street, Vegas’s Downtown, from 1987-2012.

So if you find yourself watching the Gene and Marc Something’s Gotten Hold of My Heart see if you can spot them moving through any of these other sites.

Put your shirt on this

Lucky Shirt: And not all of the signs are from hotels and casinos.

This one is from a dry cleaners and was the suggestion of the owner’s daughter.

We R Vegas

The Sahara: And an old Vegas institution here namechecked in many a song.

There’s an ‘A’ at the end. The Hara? Well, there is a Harrah’s on The Strip with the best 70s/80s tribute band.

And there’s always a duck

The Ugly Duckling: And you know me I’m a sucker for a duck but Vegas surprises here too.

Again, it’s not a casino, but of all things the Ugly Duckling Car Sales from the 90s. Only in Vegas!

Vegas weddingland

Weddingtown: And sometimes what happens in Harrah’s will end up in a wedding chapel!

So credit to the two blokes in our party who camped it up at Graceland Wedding Chapel for ‘Elvis’ to marry them.

Viva Li Vegas

Liberace’s: And back to our friend Beverley who has that flash of Vegas we all seek.

Nobody does that better, of course, than Liberace and Beverley can tell you all about her time in his employ.

And jangle her Liberace ear-rings and bling at you.

The Neon Museum is open under Covid restrictions.

And for more information on how Vegas is emerging from Covid visit Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.

America, Countries, Sport, UK

Rainy Days and Songdays – Jerusalem

15th February 202115th February 2021 funtime65

I will not cease from mental fight, Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand, Till we have built Jerusalem, In England’s green and pleasant land – Jerusalem (William Blake)

And they’ll have to do a bit of rebuilding with England‘s sporting chariot derailed of late

Whisper it around Scottish parts though but their anthem Jerusalem is a lot more rousing than our dirge Flower of Scotland.

The Corries’ call to arms was adopted by Scottish sporting teams some 40 years ago after pressure from the fans.

The Flower of Scotland www.sixnations.com

Which was around the time that Scotland’s rugby team last beat England at Twickenham… before last week.

Before that it was the British national anthem God Save the Queen for the Scots which Wales and Northern Ireland can all play.

And England still do.

And did those feet: The Last Night of the Proms www.royalalberthall.com

The thing is that God Save the Queen is British, while Jerusalem is quintessentially English.

The song has an interesting history dating back to Victorian times and the great aesthete while randomly San Fransiscans love William Blake.

You know him too, the way-out-there poet and artist who also wrote about fiery lions, meek lambs and God’s plan.

Do you need a bow of burning gold? William Blake

And God’s plan of course was to restore England from the Industrial Revolution chasm it had descended into its previous rural idyll.

It’s unsurprising that this assertion of Englishness should have been taken up by The Last Night of the Proms.

But it equally conjures up images of St Andrews beach in Scotland too and Olympic hero Eric Liddell in the film Chariots of Fire.

Everything is cyclical of course.

America, Canada, Countries, Culture, Music, Sport

Rainy Days and Songdays – Weeknd & Canada dudes

8th February 20218th February 2021 funtime65

A Blinding performance from The Weeknd at the Super Bowl Half-Time Show I think you’ll agree.

It hasn’t gone unnoticed on America’s Big Day, not least by me, that they drafted in a Canadian, The Weeknd, to lead the parade.

And so this Rainy (more snowy) Day and Songday I’ll toast the Torontonian The Weeknd and Canada.

And run through a fave five Canadian singers.

Joni, remember me

Joni Mitchell, Fort MacLeod, Alberta: Who Mountie John MacLeod was I’ll have to do some digging to find out.

But he must have had some Scottish in there somewhere.

Joni has history with my homeland of Scotland of course, and not that far from an old workplace.

The singer-songwriter was allegedly thrown out of The Doric bar.

On Market Street just down from the old Scotsman newspaper building.

Whether she is prepared to look at things from Both Sides Now you’d have to ask her.

Leonard, the Montreál thing

Leonard Cohen, Montreal: I remember you well in the Chelsea Hotel lyrics and those dirty New York stories which always appeal to an adolescent.

The poet laureate of pop is rightly revered in his home city of Montreál, an arts city par excellence.

And you can do the whole Leonard thing on a tour of his haunts around the city.

Alanis’s jagged little thrill

Alanis Morisette, Ottawa: Capital cities come in many different shapes and sizes but often it’s the ones that aren’t the biggest cities that enchant the most.

Proud Ottawan Alanis burst onto the scene in 1996 with her cynical classic Jagged Little Pill.

And isn’t it ironic that it’s in sharp contrast to the chilled vibe of Ottawa.

Where locals put on a summer yoga class for hundreds on Parliament Hill

While there are few cooler things to do than skate on the world’s largest naturally frozen rink, the 7.8km long Rideau Canal.

The Groover from Vancouver

Bryan Adams,Vancouver: And we’ll even forgive Bryan his annoying Robin Hood ballad ‘Everything I Do’.

Because he gave us the rousing nostalgia favourite The Summer of 69.

Vancouver reminds you that Canada is the second biggest country in the world with a Pacific vibe quite different to the Atlantic Canadians on the other side.

Regularly ranked in the world’s top five of liveable cities (you can both hipster and whale watch) it has a stunning backdrop.

Drake’s Toronto

Drake, Toronto: I, and every red-blooded male, should by rights hate him for Drake taking Rihanna off us.

Quite what they’re Facebook personal status is is almost certainly just toying with us.

Toronto is as we know home to hundreds of cultures but there is a special fusion with the Caribbean.

Not that that gives this uppity Torontonian the right to lay hand on my Ri-Ri.

Under the famous CN Tower the city is teeming with life and entertainment although Brady and Mahomes would go largely unnoticed.

In the Big Four Gridiron (they call it Canadian Football lags behind Ice Hockey, Baseball and Basketball.

All of which the Torontonians have beaten their neighbours at over the years. Eh!

America, Countries, Culture, Sport

My Sporting Weekend – Reagan, The Gipper and the Super Bowl

6th February 20216th February 2021 funtime65

Ronald Reagan and George HW Bush will be watching the Super Bowl on a cloud up there shouting ‘One more win for the Gipper’.

Ronnie’s most famous acting role, other than as the 40th President of the USA, was as Notre Dame great George ‘The Gipper’ Gipp in the 1940 film Knucke Rockne, All American.

And like all the best method actors he even took it into his own life off the screen, adopting the persona in his political campaigning.

As we mark Reagan’s birthday today (he would have been 110) we can look forward too to the Super Bowl tomorrow too.

It features the defending champion Kansas City Chiefs and Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

And while nobody is saying Ronnie was a Patrick Mahomes nor Tom Brady, he had some American football acumen having turned out as a lineman for Eureka College in his native Illinois.

And like both he boasted Irish heritage.

Ronald Reagan’s Irish heritage remembered in his Library

The Great Communicator made California his home, of course.

And that’s where you’ll find him now, and where everything Reagan related is kept at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. in Simi Valley 40 miles from Downtown Los Angeles.

Keepers of the Reagan flame

Just like Ronnie himself, the keepers of the Reagan flame are charm personified as I soon discovered at the American Travel fair, IPW.

And like the best friends they always stay in touch.

The good folk at the Library have put on a virtual event which does justice to the Great Man, livestreamed on YouTube at 12.30pm Pacific/3.30pm Eastern.

The commemoration includes brief remarks, a three-volley salute, musical entertainment, and the laying of the Presidential Wreath on President Reagan’s gravesite.

A word or two from Ronnie

Of course as it should be Ronnie, his life, achievements (and remember he oversaw an economic boom and helped end the Cold War), and words are to the fore.

His old office: A replica of the Oval Office

True to the wit of the man, the Library has adapted a famous story from his life to mark the 110th in their spiel for the Big Day.

‘President Reagan would have joked that it is the 71st anniversary of his 39th birthday. As President Reagan quipped on his 73rd birthday ”Even though this is the 34th anniversary of my 39th birthday, those numbers don’t faze me at all. I believe Moses was 80 when God first commissioned him for public service. And I also remember something that Thomas Jefferson once said. He said, ”We should never judge a President by his age, only by his works.” And ever since he told me that, I’ve stopped worrying.’

And someone else who fills out the seat of office

Ronnie’s distinguished Vice President and a future President himself, George HW Bush spoke emotionally at the Republic Convention in honour of his great friend in 2004.

When he exorted the audience by saying ‘this time we can truly win one for the Gipper.’

George HW Bush passed away a couple of years ago when I was in his adopted state of Florida.

I saw then the affection then in which he, and ex-Presidents, are held there and across the country.

So tomorrow, whoever wins, let’s here the clarion call: ‘Just one more win for the Gipper.’

Africa, America, Countries, Europe, Ireland, UK

A year on – Ireland and Scotland and further afield

2nd February 20212nd February 2021 funtime65

That was the year that was – it’s 12 months now since I left my beloved Ireland for my first love Scotland.

I had though little intention of spending all my time in Scotia.

And instead had a long list of destinations to fill out the year.

So to mark the anniversary I’ll share the year that never was.

Off to a flier in Czech Hoptown

In the Strahov Monastery Brewery, Prague, in the Czech Republic

The Chinese lady with the mask on in the airport in Prague Airport seemed a curio at the time, a reminder of the latest virus that only affects Asia.

A few weeks later the fun and intimacy of the Czech Republic were but a warm embrace I clung onto as I entered lockdown in Scotland for the first time.

As I came out of isolation I engaged with my Czech friends again over the new-fangled Zoom app we were all compelled to use and toasted each other in time-honoured fashion Na Zdravie.

I was heartened to see them lay out a table for a feast along the Charles Bridge in the early summer and wished that I was back there again in Prague or in the Czech Republic’s Hoptown, Zatec.

I know this though that the Czechs will get through this because they have the best beer in the world, Pilsener Urquell.

Trump steals my Keys

Suitcase packed, bandana on, I was all set for my fly-drive around the Florida Keys when Donald Trump (remember him) closed the country to visitors while encouraging Americans to gather… at his rallies.

And so Hemingway’s six-toed cats, key line pie, Florida sunsets and easy living will just have to wait.

Of course the beauty of it is that Papa’s pussies won’t have had any idea that anything was even different about the past year.

Exile me in St Helena

And another on the back-burner is Napoleon’s island. No, not his birthplace, Corsica, or the one the British sent him to initially, Elba, but the one where he ended his days, St Helena.

St Helena, 1200 mile west of southwestern Africa is one of the most remote inhabitable islands in the world and is an ecological dream.

All of which makes you think that exile was a pretty good option back in the day. And if I end up needing to self-isolate anywhere then I’ll be back in touch.

Vegas or bust

Now I’ve always felt bad about leaving Cami from Utah at the bar at Harrah’s Las Vegas a few years ago and knowing she goes down there every weekend knew that she’d be there when I revisited in June.

The American Travel Fair was scheduled for Neon City and I was all booked and ready, my chips at the ready to make my million.

But alas I had to leave Cami waiting again and to get my fix of Vegas I had to make do with watching the world’s greatest band The Killers perform from the ceiling of Caesars Palace on YouTube.

The fair, IPW is slated for the Fall, and I’ll be expecting an Access All Areas ticket, Brandon.

And maybe even reprising my Mr Brightside from the Rising Star Karaoke Bar, CityWalk at Universal Orlando a few years ago.

The Norman request

I would have put my Monet on getting to Normandy

for the Monet festival back in late summer.

And even get a painting lesson in his back garden.

But as the UK travel corridor policy became as chaotic as the Spinal Tap boys trying to get to their gigs, again I found myself blocked.

Now what is the French word for cup-de-sac?

Bergamo go, go, go

And just as the year was petering out and I was resigning myself to my best chance of a trip down to North Berwick beach, Mamma Mia but one came off.

And in spectacular style.

The journalist in me had me tracking the evolution of Bergamo through the pandemic, it being the gateway to the virus in Europe.

And just in time I got over to Northern Italy to talk to the Bergamaschi and ask how they had got through it all and their advice on how we should all progress now.

There was specialist Lombardy food and wine, culture, history Donizetti music and art aplenty.

But the most beautiful picture was that of the emboldened Bergamaschi in the backdrop of their historic city, both in Citta Alta and Citta Bassa, the High and the Low City.

Now there are worse places to have spent this last year, with the view of the Firth of Forth from my window, Bass Rock bookending the beach and Edinburgh just along the road.

I’ve chosen to live by the sea all my adult life. It’s a primal thing knowing that exciting lands lie beyond.

I know that we’ll visit them again soon, and hopefully I can fill in the blanks above and add San Francisco, Chicago, New England and a host of other trips I had planned last year, and many to come.

All for your enjoyment.

MEET YOU ON THE ROAD