In which I travel to London, and enjoy myself

I have two alternatives when I travel anywhere - (a) I get everything together, leave myself plenty of time for expected delays and arrive at the station /airport /restaurant with enough time to spare to write a short novel, or mentally unpack and re-pack my entire baggage and convince myself that I have completely misjudged the trip and have packed the wrong things, in the wrong kind of bag and that I am probably going to the wrong destination. Or (b) carefully pack and prepare everything ahead of time so that I have nothing to do but pick it up and walk out of the door, leave myself ample time to double-lock everything and get myself out of the house and away in a leisurely fashion, and then suddenly find myself behind schedule and rushing like a mad thing to get to the station/ airport/ whatever on time.

In leaving for London I skillfully managed to combine the two. Having packed an overnight bag and found the elusive rail tickets (which had carelessly put in a safe place, when I bought them 8 weeks ago, I had of course then been unable to find ) I then woke up early with masses of time to have breakfast, lock everything up and walk down to the station. So naturally I then found myself suddenly in danger f running late, ended up walking EXREMELY briskly to the station at which point I found myself with 15 minutes to spare…

It was something of a disappointment to find that the train had no buffet or any other catering facilities, until 2/3 of the way through the journey - I wouldn’t’t want to eat the kind of food you find on a train, but I had been counting on some coffee…

In fairness, other than the regrettable caffeine deficiency the journey went smoothly and the train was on time. The carriage was blessedly free from loud or obnoxious passengers and I was able to unwind and read the papers.

On arriving, I walked from Waterloo to my hotel, in Southwark. It turns out here there is something called ‘the mayor’s festival’ going on along the river, although he wasn’t keeping it to himself, anyone could join in! There were various old-fashioned fairground rides such as a Helter-Skelter, performers, and loads of stalls selling food from practically any country or tradition you can imagine, as well as stalls selling jewellery, books, clothes etc. There were people creating sand sculptures by the Thames and literally thousands of people there. I’m not over found of crowds but it seemed as though a lot of people were enjoying themselves a great deal.
I particularly liked the Dali-inspired sculptures along the embankment,outside the old LCC building (They are permanent, not part off the festival)

Spent part of the afternoon in the National Gallery - One of the things I love about visiting London is that so many of the museums and galleries are free, so it is possible to pop in for short periods without any pressure to try to see everything, or ‘enough’ to feel one has had one’s money’s worth! On this occasion, I spent some time with the Dutch Masters, and visiting Holbein’s The Ambassadors , which is an old favourite of mine. I also took a look at the 4th Plinth, which was featuring an individual wearing a dog-suit (which must have been extremely hot, as it was very bright and sunshiney) in protest against puppy farming.

Trafalgar Square was full of people, most of whom seemed to be enjoying themselves. There were some Hellfire-Christians preaching from below Nelson's column - which made be think what a disadvantage it must be, if you wish to be a preacher, if you happen to have a monotonous, grating voice...