Until yesterday, iGNorant of a connection

I didn't mean to stalk Graham Norton. I didn't even know I'd done it. It was only yesterday, over a year later, when I was listening to an old RNZ interview with him and Kim Hill that I realised I'd done it. He mentioned how he liked living in Bantry because although, same as in London, he was recognised everywhere he went there, Bantry is so small that he can recognise people right back - supermarket checkout lady, petrol station guy, man who fixes the boiler - so it's fair.

Regular 😀 readers will recall that in August last year I went on a Silversea cruise from London, around Ireland, and back again. It was blighted by a terrible case of the flu/possible pre-Covid that laid us out for most of the trip - yes, I'm still coughing, thanks for asking - but, diligent as ever, I did force myself off Silver Wind at each port to do an explore. Bantry was a little gem: colourful old houses reflected in the waters of the harbour, bustling main street, picturesque ruined church with a wild cemetery outside, grand mansion up on a hill, lively history, passers-by full of banter with our funny guide... it was a treat, and well worth dragging myself out of what had been feeling would become my deathbed. It was, if further proof is needed, memorable enough for me to properly remember it, and not rely on my trusty notebook which, for the first time ever, I had no energy to actually write in:

Not enough contact to qualify as stalking? Fair comment. But before the cruise began, we had to be driven from our splendid hotel right next to Tower Bridge, where the ship was meant to be moored, way out to distant, and desolate, Tilbury Docks. That was because the wind had been too strong for the ship, despite its small size, to be safely sailed through the Thames Barrier and up the winding Thames through Tower Bridge to its mooring beside the Belfast. It was disappointing (though made up for at the end of the cruise, by doing exactly that) but it did mean we had a long and very expensive taxi tour, at Silversea's expense, from St Katharine's through, initially, Wapping. Which is where Graham has his London residence, our helpful driver told us. Helen Mirren too, apparently. (Gary was very chatty - it took him 4 years to do the Knowledge, part-time, which he reckoned was equally as necessary to the job as GPS.)

So, ok, maybe stalking is stretching it a bit. But two GN connections in one cruise, without even trying? Good enough for me.