..

At large in North London.  I visited Whittington Hospital and saw a rather strange sculpture in the forecourt. Not sure what the plastic domes are about. Is it for people who smoke or is it a residue from the covid times when everyone thought they had to keep distant from others

Decided not to enter Highgate Cemetery which has been privatised and which will cost you 10 quid to get in. I don’t particularly want to see Karl Marx’s grave and I find the whole place a little bit creepy at least seen from the outside.

The good news is that there is a very large park adjacent, map featured above, where you can stroll to your heart’s content and it seems like you are in the country. Sample below, map above

..

.Well there are two sides to every situation and these are pictures of Israelis who have been captured by Hamas.

Back to the hotel and picked up by my friend to be taken to what I discovered was and extraordinary buffet patronized almost entirely by Indians and Pakistanis. It is part of the Hoover Building in West London and is called the Royal Nawaab. We did stand out as the only white people there but these staff were friendly enough so it didn’t matter. The atmosphere was very noisy indeed and I could hardly hear what my four companions, fellow guests, were saying though catching the odd word it was very interesting and controversial

..

The cost per head is about 27 pounds. Pakistanis are meat eaters and they were very few vegetarian and fish dishes. You have about 50 main dishes to choose from, a substantial starter and huge amount of very colourful sweets all of which looked delicious. Expect to spend a couple of hours there to do it justice. They do not serve alcohol but made up for it with a number of fruit juices and drinks which were quite delicious.

It is difficult to describe the size of the place . While we were there, about 50 men walked in and was seated at a long table . They do things on a big scale here .

Our motley crew. Eastern Europeans (My hosts tech. employees)  think in a different way, more tough, more survivalist but then they have had to go through more than we can imagine. ‘Only the fittest survive’. I am seated on the right

I get the impression that the children are spoiled. This was a young lady being left to look at a cartoon featuring people wearing pink and she was dressed entirely in pink. I don’t think this behavior was conducive to socializing but then I do not understand the culture of the country.

I was chauffeured home, we wizzed around the North Circular Road.  It was a very nice birthday party and our host was generous. While we were there, I recalled that ‘ Happy Birthday’ was sung three times so there were at least three separate birthday parties going on. I have not been to a restaurant like it nor do I expect to do so again. Maybe I should visit Pakistan or India.

A memorable evening.

Next