Slept in until 8.30. We are having brunch with Tosan's family this morning at 10 O'Clock. Will not have any breakfast beforehand.
Blood Pressure 126/76 Pulse 64 We went down at 10 O'clock. Tosan's sister Beram is here from Paris for the weekend. Came on the Eurostar. Had a long talk with her. She's going back Monday morning leaving at 8 and will be at work by 10 past 10. At one time she worked for Lend Lease. She likes to work for a few years and then spent 4-6 months traveling. She is currently living and working in Paris. She has been there 4 years but does not feel French in any way. She has learned to speak French but will not stay when this current job finishes. They laid on a good breakfast. Scrambled eggs with fish slices. Sausages. Bacon. Fried Eggs. Fried mushrooms. Baked beans. Tea and Coffee. Good Coffee. I think that Tosan despite calling himself Nigerian is a true Englishman. The couple staying in the other flat in the house are Canadian. Bob and Trish from Vancouver. Our age. Here for a month. He retired on friday and they left for London on monday. Best way to do it. When Tosan and Beram asked what I might do today I said that I wanted to go to the Highgate Cemetery and look at Karl Marx's tomb. They both claimed to have never heard of him. Can this be true? Has Marx completely disappeared from University study? I didnt pursue it. Anyway we got talking about where we should go and everybody said we should have a look at Wembley Stadium. We walked there. Its quite close. We are within the exclusion zone as far as parking around Wembley goes. All cars have to have a special permit. Warning signs everywhere. There was an FA Cup Semi Final on - Crystal Palace versus Watford. I walked right around Wembley Stadium in 1970. It was an old wooden building in a run down area. Surrounded by houses. It wasn't very big. And it was quite close to houses. It was one side of the street and houses were the other side of the street. Not anymore. It has been completely transformed. Again the AFL could learn something from what has happened. The whole area surrounding the arena must have been flattened and raised. Enormous International Hotels now surround the ground. The arena is 4 or 5 times larger than in 1970. About the size of the MCG. I believe the Australian company who re developed it nearly went broke. No profit in it at all. A large shopping mall is attached to the whole complex. One of those super Outlets. Bjorn Borg has a sports shop there. I couldn't see him inside. A new train station to cater for the arena. A carpark under the building. 60 Pounds to park on match days. Great crowds of people. Crystal Palace one side and Watford the other. Supporters are kept separate although there was some mingling. Some differences between Australia and UK. In Australia the people go to the ground without any fanfare - they are hurrying to get to their seats. Here there is a lot of forced camaraderie - people cheering and chanting as they walk along - large groups of people waiting around for what I don't know. A lot spend at least two hours in the pub before the game. All the pubs are crowded. They do this to a certain extent in Melbourne but nothing like here. The pubs at the ground are enormous. Not as many woman around as in Australia. Hardly 5% women here. No women by themselves. But a few couples our age. Some men standing still quietly calling out asking for spare tickets. It must be illegal to solicit tickets. The match was sold out. Lots of people standing on walkways attached to the outside of the arena. Maybe they were waiting for the game to start before they went in. Lots of Police everywhere. Ten more times than in Melbourne. Maybe more than 10 times more. Not only Police but also private security men. Every doorway seemed to have a security man. When we had had enough we came home by train. Its only one stop. Crystal Palace won. The reason why the game was so popular was because it was a London Derby. Two London teams.
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