The Saturday List #212 - Ten great ways to celebrate life in London

As I sometimes do, I am going to start this list with a slighlty rambling anecdote to explain why this list. Back in November 1986, I went for a curry with my Dad, who had just come out of hospital following an operation to remove his gall bladder. When I'd seen him in hospital, I genuinely didn't think he'd make it, which was devastating, but thanks to the NHS, he'd been patched up and came home. He was on the mend to the extent that my Mum had gone down to see her sister in Bournemouth, so I took the opportunity to have a few beers and a curry with him. Mum wouldn't eat curry, but Dad loved it, so it was our gulity pleasure. I'd not got on well with my father for most of my teenage years and our relationship had been strained, until about a year before, when we made our peace. This was probably the only time that I went out, as an adult with just me and my father and had a proper chat. We had a couple of pints in Mill Hill Services Club and a game of snooker, then a curry at The Mill Hill Tandoori, and a few scotches back at my parents house.

My father was leaving the following week for a long holiday in Florida with my sister, who lives there. As an Aussie from the outback, he loved the sun and hated English winters. He was much looking forward to the holiday. We chatted and he told me something, the significance of which was wasted on me at the time, but I have mulled over ever since. He was a pilot for the RAF in WWII and on his 38th and final mission of his tour, he was shot down near Bucharest in Rumania. As the pilot, he was the last (alive) crew member out. He baled out as the plane was less than 1,000 feet from the ground and his parachute opened just enough to break his fall. He sprained both ankles on landing. He told me that as he was getting ready to bale out, he realised that his prospects where none too promising. As a devout Roman Catholic, he prayed to the Virgin Mary to protect him, and asked that he be given his three score and ten years, and said that in return he'd lead a good life.

The last picture of my Dad before he passed away

The thing was, he was in his 70th year, having been born in 1917. He said that when he'd made the deal, he hadn't considered how he'd feel about it when he entered his 70th year. I asked if he had any regrets, things he wished he'd done differently. He replied "Son, there are lots of things I'd probably have done differently, but there are no regrets". He then said "Always remember that you can't take your cash with you when you go. Life is to be lived, it's always too short and you never have enough time". The following January he died of a heart attack, completely unexpectedly. I never saw him again. But the legacy of that chat was that I vowed to enjoy life and celebrate it. I don't want to have regrets. My Dad would have been a hundred and two if he was still around last Monday. So this blog is dedicated to him!

Yesterday I was featured on ITV news talking about the Save London Music Campaign and the nighttime economy. They heavily edited the interview and one thing they cut was where I said "London is a dirty, noisy city, but one where you can have a great time, if you want a quiet life don't live in central London". I'd love to have a flat in Soho if I was single and if the noise annoyed me, I'd buy earplugs. It got me thinking of the ten things you can do in London to celebrate life. Here are my selection. I hope that they give you some inspiration.

1. Watch the sun set from the top of Parliament Hill. Take a bottle of something decent and just enjoy the moment. Watching the lights come on and start twinkling is a site to behold. When my Uncle George was 18, my grandfather, as his birthday present, took him to the top and said "Son, all this is yours". George didn't understand what he was saying until he was an old man.

2. Watch the sun rise between the Towers of Tower Bridge from Blackfriars Station. I never tire of this. If you go to the station in late November at around 7.10am, you will get the best view.

London Blackfriars station. Is there a more glorious station anywhere pic.twitter.com/Y0KisQoo2Y

— Roger Tichborne/RogT #CTID (@Barneteye) October 1, 2013

3. Have a boozy lunch in The Artillery Arms in Bunhill Row, near Moorgate. There are hundreds of pubs I could have chosen, but I think the Artillery Arms is perhaps my favourite. You have to get there bang on noon to get the best table. The food is unpretentious and the beer is good. It is a very historic area and the Krays used to conduct their business in the pub and the cemetary next door. The area has changed beyond all recognition now. The pub is busy but not jam packed and it is just a very pleasant way to spend a long lunch.

4. Watch Leyton Orient play at Brisbane Road. I agonised long and hard about this. I wanted to include a football match in the list and struggled to find the right choice. To me, the mega palaces of the "big boys" Arsenal, Spurs, West Ham and Chelsea are a bit soulless in their modern stadia. I always enjoy a trip to QPR, but on reflection the ground I have most enjoyed visiting in London in recent years is Leyton Orient. The ground is literally like going into a time warp back to the seventies. The fans are proper fans, not glory hunters, and the O's get crowds well above most League 2 teams in the Conference. There is also a not bad pub crawl up to Leytonstone for an apres match pint.

5. Watch a Ska band at The Dublin Castle. As with the football, I agonised long and hard over this choice. London has a plethora of great grassroots venues, and a night is made by the band. I settled on the Dublin Castle as it is still authentic and does what it says on the tin. At Xmas we saw The Silencerz, Lee Thompson of Madness other band there. It was a cracking night. Ska and Punk are my two favourite genre's of music and as the missus prefers Ska, I lean towards that. It is a proper London celebration of life.

6. Have a romantic dinner at The Bleeding Heart, near Farringdon. We all need a bit of romance in our life, and I think a bit of romantic dinnering (is that a word?) is a great way to celebrate life. Like many of these places, there are so many to choose from, but when it comes down to it, my favourite is The Bleeding Heart. the food is great, the service is friendly and you feel like you've had a proper night out. They do stuff that is what I consider proper food, such as Liver and bacon, but cooked to absolute perfection. There is a great wine list as well.

7. Watch a Play at The Kiln Theatre. Now I am going out on a limb here. I've never actually been to the Kiln Theatre. You may say "Well why are you recommending it then?". The answer is because it used to be The Tricycle Theatre and I have had some of my best nights out there. It has been done up. I am hopoing that the the ambience has been enhanced (if it hasn't I'll let you know, don't worry). A couple of years ago, we went to see "The man who wears womens shoes" featuring Mikel Murfi. It is a truly amazing and uplifting play and I can think of nowhere better to watch it. We all have our own ideas of what a good night out at the theatre should be. I prefer the ambience of a smaller, more intimate theatre and a play that makes you laugh, cry and think. That is how you know you are really alive.

8. Attend a Mass in Latin at Westminster Cathedral. Whilst I know that religion is not for everyone, a sung mass in Latin is a joy to behold, even for the non believer, if you can just enjoy the spectacle and the music. I am not a fan of modern religious music, but when its in Latin you can enjoy the beauty of it regardless of whether the words would annoy you if you knew what they meant. I have come to the conclusion that the second biggest mistake the Roman Catholic church made was abolishing the regular latin mass in local churches (the biggest being that they didn't get all the bad priests banged up for their sins). There is something hypnotically peaceful and soothing about the spectacle of  sung mass in Latin with incense and the spectacle. Westminster Cathedral is my favourite such place in London (although Southwark is also worth a look around). Although St Pauls is a magnificent piece of architecture, I don't believe that a Holy place should have so many military connections.

9. Visit one of the key exhibitions at The V&A museum. Did you see the Bowie Exhibition a few years back at the V&A Museum? If you didn't and you like Bowie, you missed a treat. The V&A has had some absolutely amazing exhibitions on over the years. The current one is the Mary Quant Exhibition, which I will endeavour to get down to see. Make a day of it. When I was  a child, I loved the Science museum and they have some great exhibitions there too. The Soviet Rocketry exhibition was amazing, but I think the V&A really is the one for me as a grown up.

10. Ride on Crossrail from Farringdon to Heathrow. I know, you can't do this yet, but I am really looking forward to the day you can. As I live in Mill Hill, it will give a fast and efficient way to get to the airport. I hate taking cabs. The British as a nation love to moan and groan about any new development, be it a road, railway, building or even a pier on the River Thames. I love progress. That doesn't mean I support every new, ugly block of flats being built, far from it. I do however think that projects like Crossrail are amazing in terms of their engineering and how they  improve accessibility for our great city. Sure it's late, sure its run over budget, but once it's built that will be forgotten. I recall the sheer excitement of when Thameslink opened and we found we could jump on a train from Mill Hill all of the way to Brighton. The same when the Channell tunnel opened.   Transport projects improve our lives. That is why I can't wait for Crossrail. I have yet to meet a critic of the concept of Crossrail who is anything but a tedious bore ( I am not referring to those critical of the mismanagement). So roll on Crossrail!

 Just as a footnote. One of the great things about writing these blogs is that as I put them together I come across new things researching and fact checking, often accidentally.  I thought you may want to check out this - the 15 best places to watch the sun set in London. I will deffo check a couple of these out