Ok so this is a complicated day, a bit untidy, so I left it till the last and here we are two weeks away from the actual event. Fortunately, Françoise has made a diary so I don’t think I’ll forget too much. I love getting a discount on things and we presented our two for one discount card for British rail and got two five zone passes for £21. We have more than paid for the £30 card though we have only had it three months.

New Buildings springing up in Victoria Street

Anyway off to Victoria. We decided to walk up towards Westminster Abbey to see how things have changed and sure enough they have.

A very modest display of the crib at Westminster Cathedral

Whole office blocks have been demolished to make way for greater things. Westminster Abbey had the usual crowds of people wanting to get in. The entrance charge is now a stratospheric £27. Entry fee for the Louvre in Paris is E22, cheaper for far more. The church should be ashamed of itself for such profiting. It has huge assets which it has spent in questionable ways. Needless to say come up we did not enter.

Françoise took a bus to Trafalgar Square while I walked, passing Horse Guards Parade on my right which must be the size of two or three football pitches side by side. We went to visit the National Portrait Gallery which has been completely redesigned. There are works still going on so it is difficult to judge. One or two images caught my eye.

Hows that for an original self portrait

Trafalgar Square itself was the usual gaudy mix of sales stalls offering  seasonal food items, mulled wine etc. The weather was favorable so a lot of people were out. We considered whether we should go to Covent Garden but Françoises’ legs were hurting so we contented ourselves with a walk through China Town which as ever was busy with tourists.

We took the subway to West Finchley to visit our friends and arrived 4.20 pm. Andrew had booked us in at an Iranian restaurant, the entire staff was Iranian as was the food. The others had a glass of wine each but I contended myself with a bottle of water which was on sale for the bargain price of £5.10 the bill including four drinks, four main courses and one sweet course plus wine was about £150. They’re ain’t no such thing as cheap eating anymore. Bling is bling and money is money so if people have it they’re going to spend it and I did not get any feeling of poverty in this area of Finchley High Street.

I would not go there again because I don’t think it was value for money. Also, the waitresses had not been trained and were not observant when it came to trying to get their attention.

Pam, Andrew’s wife, his suffering from some dementia and the beginnings of Parkinson’s Disease so she had to be carefully escorted along the road. She got particularly confused when there was poor lighting and indeed I can say that I find the same. I lose my orientation if it is dark and stumble around a bit.

One thing that annoys me are the almost continuous announcements on subways and trains. The obvious aim is to keep people frightened. See it, say it, sorted, repeated again and again.  I have no idea if anyone benefits in any way but it does keep anxiety levels high which is the aim of those that wish to have power over us.

We took a tube from Finchley Central to Battersea Power Station on the northern line. People who have not been to London recently, the Northern Line now has an extension from Kennington that goes to Nine Elms and then the power station. We took a long winding way around after having inspected the commercial units and the restaurants within the power station itself.

I met a stranger and asked the way to Battersea train station. I heard from his accent that he had the remnants of South African dialect. In fact it was Zimbabwe but we had a good laugh about that and the importance of listening to people and trying to figure out where they came from.

Back home 10.30 pm, a bit aching and tired.