It was predominately a trip for FOOTBALL. I saw the Saints play two at home in Southampton and one on the road in Norwich. They won their home matches against Swansea (5-0) and Plymouth (2-1) and earned a draw against Norwich (1-1).

Highlights

• Using the heated rooftop pool at the TWA Hotel in late December. You could hide in the steam coming off the water.
• Biking the near empty streets of London after midnight mass at Westminster Cathedral at 1:30 AM
• Viewing of Eurostar trains from the Renaissance Hotel at St Pancras
• Riding the Ferris Wheel at the Christmas Market in Southampton
• Seeing the Saints throttle Swansea 5-0 at St Mary’s on Boxing Day.
• Visiting my old neighborhood cafe in Richmond before they opened. The staff were my extended family when I lived in the UK.
• Enjoying a cold shave in Richmond
• Viewing the football grounds from my hotel room in Norwich
• Walking to Great Eastern Model Railways in Norwich
• Attending mass at the Cathedral of St John the Baptist in Norwich on January 1, 2024
• Eating lunch twice at Shanghai 1814 in Southampton
• Enjoying the lights and music of Christmas at Kew

Related
Things You Didn’t Know About Westminster Cathedral (Londonist)
Southampton’s biggest free seniors Christmas lunch feeds 300 people (EFL)
A Look Inside The Stunning St Pancras Renaissance Hotel (Living London History)
Saint Thomas Becket (The Catholic Thing)
Empires (Poems on the Underground)
The Holy Innocents (The Catholic Thing)
Southampton v Swansea City extended highlights (YouTube)

A Spotless Rose
A spotless rose is blowing
Sprung from a tender root
Of ancient seers’ foreshowing
Of Jesse promised fruit
Its fairest bud unfolds to light
Amid the cold, cold winter
And in the dark midnight

The rose which I am singing
Whereof Isaiah said
Is from its sweet root springing
In Mary, purest maid
For through our God’s great love and might
The blessed babe she bare us
In a cold, cold winter’s night.