Woke up at 5.45AM. Watched TV for about 1.5 hours. Mainly RT and The Parliamentary Channel.
Watched the debate on International Women's Day about equality for men and women. About 40 women and 4 men in the Chamber. What struck me was how young the women looked. The men also but not so much. All the women were very impressive and spoke well even if they did look so young. Some of the woman looked very young - girls even. Because the SNP had that landslide I assume a lot got elected when they didnt expect to and a lot of these were young woman. There is a term in the UK - paper candidate - where people stand to make up the numbers. This time they all got unexpectedly elected. All speakers determined to try and do something but general impression is that they were not confident of making any change at this time. No men are taking up the 15 weeks childcare leave they are entitled to. Not in the culture apparently. RT is interesting. Probably more balanced and less sensational that last time we were here. They definitely give a different coverage of ISIL and Syria. They showed the recently liberated Christian Town which as far as I know hasn't been seen on Western TV. As the girl reporter said we don't know what happened because there simply are no survivors left to tell us. Not even one lucky accidental survivor. Apparently ISIL removed all citizens some time last year before destroying as many Christian Buildings and monuments etc as they could. With Russia's help the town has been retaken by Syrian Forces but the town is in complete ruins. No inhabitants. Maybe there is something in Russia's claim that the West wants ISIL to attack Russia. One mention of Australia as being one government to set up an inquiry into the Panama Tax Evasion Papers and Australia's involvement. No mention of the Australian Election on Russian TV though. Blood Pressure 134/73 Pulse 70 We left at 10AM. Recorded that it took 10 minutes to walk to the station. Sunny day. Quite warm. Took the tube to Kings Cross St Pancras. We had a walk around both Kings Cross and St Pancras stations. St Pancras has been redeveloped since I lived here. The hotel which was part of the station had a hang dog and run down look in 1969. Not so now. Now part of the same chain of hotels that Jenny stayed at in Beijing. We walked to the British Library. Very interesting. New building. Renovated in big way since 1969. Lots of rare books on special display. Special exhibition on Alice in Wonderland. Actually saw the original of Lewis Carrolls hand written book. Under glass of course. But readable and whimsical. Folios of Mozart, Handel and Beethoven etc. Mozarts writing neat and clear. Handels not so good. Letters sent within the ruling elite at the start of WW1. Some only mention what might happen in passing. None of Shakespeare's folios but interestingly there were a number of handwritten examples of his poems. Not in Shakespeare's hand of course. Apparently people would transcribe his poems by hand and circulate his poems by this method. His poems were the first things that were published and were popular. People were so taken up by them they would write them out by hand themselves and keep them to read at their leisure. Disappointing examples of Beatles handwritten lyrics. Only four songs and none in good condition. Of course they didn't know they would be historic when they wrote them out on a sheet of paper. Apparently they only have the only example of George Harrison writing out the lyrics of a Lennon/McCartney song. The other lyrics are Help, Yesterday and A Hard Days Night. There is a good summary of The Beatles historic impact though. Enjoyable reading. All true. We had lunch at the Library Cafe. We both had sandwiches and tea. Jenny bought some things at the shop. We had a good walk around. You cannot go into any of the Libraries without a reading card. Instructions as to how to get one on display. Tempting. The place is full of people doing things with their computers. People hurrying everywhere. We then went to The Toy Museum at Bethnal Green. Jenny found it more interesting than I did. Lots of parents and children. Mostly non Caucasian. Children running everywhere. Some of our children's toys are now old enough to be included in a museum. Also included in the building was part of "The Children Removed" exhibition that we saw in Liverpool last time. Said only 6500 children went to Australia. I would have thought that more went to Australia seeing that 200,000 overall left England. Pretty depressing. Learnt that Kevin Rudd had officially apologised to survivors before Gordon Brown did. Learnt that one of the reasons why Australia wanted children was because they were white and our official policy was populate or perish. And it complied nicely with our White Australia Policy. We spent some time in the gardens at Bethnal Green. Lots of flowers. Lots of grey squirrels. Three eucalyptus trees. I took photo's of the squirrels. Jenny took photo's of the daffodils. We came home changing lines at Liverpool Street. Saw some very tough looking idiots running as fast as they could along Preston Road. A short time later 3 police inspecting the streets. All of them very slight people who wouldn't have had a hope in hell of restricting the young hoons we saw running for their lives. Maybe it was one gang chasing another. Bought Australian wine to drink from Preston Road ethnic shop. Afghan bread. Salad. We are both slightly better today. Jennys blister pads work. We should be AOK tomorrow. Watched Inspector George Gently. Seen it previously in Australia. To bed at 20.18. Blood pressure 139/71 Pulse 83. Very sore feeling in my left side. Must be a pulled muscle. Hurts when I take a deep breath.
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Woke up at 6.06AM. Listened for a while to the radio station LBC (Londons Best Conversations). A commercial radio. Compared by a man who could literally talk under water. Very competent. Commenting on the daily papers and television gossip. Not frightened to make disparaging comments. In fact pretty well all his comments were disparaging. But funny and to the point. Very English. How different to the shock jocks of Australia. Listening promotes much regret and nostalgia about what could have been.
I now maybe regret that I didn't come back to London earlier. This is in hindsight of course. For one thing I would have been able to walk further. There have been changes for the bad but some good things are still intact. There is still evidence of the essential English character being alive. Maybe if I had come back earlier I would have felt too regretful about leaving. Maybe if I had stayed I would have hated all the changes and would have found it hard to cope. There was Mrs Thatcher to contend with. Not only her but the millions who supported her. I was fortunate to have lived in London during the last stages of Atleeism. This was a more secure age for the lower classes. Big Unions and Big State owned Corporations offered a comfortable life for people like me. People were poor but government was good intentioned. People were poor but I thought life was fair. The Government did have a sense of egalitarianism. Everybody was more or less in the same boat. Everybody could get a job. There was full employment and I mean full employment - not someone working 3 hours a week and therefore not considered to be unemployed. People were poor but the intellectual life was rich. People were poor but life had a serious feel to it. And the rich were respectful of the poor. They were wary of showing themselves up. They were fearful of flaunting their wealth. It went without saying they all had philanthropic intentions. Or at least pretended they did. For all of the 20th Century Britain had been edging towards Socialism. A lot of people considered it inevitable. I had hoped it might happen and I wanted it to happen. I liked living in a country that was trying to make it happen. It's all been swept away now. We have people begging in the streets. We have people living on the streets. We have an economic system which guarantees permanent unemployment of between 10% and 20% of the population. We are starting to have generations of people who,live on welfare from cradle to grave. We have people who can never get a job. The proud working class has disappeared. It no longer exists. No doubt our present system is more efficient than Socialism. Mrs Thatcher believed that Socialism was unfair and unjust. She hated it. Her millions of supporters must have thought the same way. Blood Pressure 127/73 Pulse 70 We left the house at approx 10.00AM. Light cloud covering the sky. Still not cold enough for my liking. Took the bus to Wembley Central. Went into stores to try on shoes and trousers. Jenny bought something in Primark. Could not find any shoes that gave instant relief. Could not find trousers to fit. Very hot inside the store. I am so angry about being conned with my shoes that I am determined to suffer for my stupidity. I am not going to buy a new pair of shoes. Unless we can find my special Nike Air of course. Wembley is a very mixed ethnic area. We then took the 82 bus from Wembley to Euston. Long journey. Shops along the way have a Middle Eastern look about them. Until we come closer to London where it has been gentrified. Forty Five years ago there would not have been any businesses or very few and now almost every house has been converted into a small shop. People come here and when they cannot get a job they are forced to try and make a living by setting up small businesses. We are staying quite a way from Central London. Could not walk there in an emergency. I once walked to work from Earls Court when there was a rail strike. Took me one and a half hours. The walk into London from here would take several hours. We had to change buses because the driver had to stop for lunch and there was no relieving driver waiting for him at a certain spot. Everyone had to get off the bus. After 5 minutes another 3 buses came along and a young person who didn't speak very good english gave us a voucher to show the driver on the new bus because we had been forced off the previous bus. Finally arrived at Euston where we had lunch in a Pret A Manger. I had Korean Pork thick soup. Jenny had Tomato. We sat and looked out the window at the people walking in the street. A man was mowing a small lawn nearby. Jenny considered herself much better at mowing than he was at mowing. We then took another bus to Piccadilly Circus because Jenny wanted to buy some souvenirs. I sat next to a person who was studying both a bus map and a tube map. I asked him where he was from and he said Germany. Turned out very friendly and personable. He was only in London for a few days and only had daily bus tickets. Didn't know how to get to Trafalgar Square. He had driven here from Frankfurt. He was staying close to Trafalgar Square and he needed to get back there. We were able to help him. He spoke very good English and I complimented him on this. Turned out he was actually Rumanian and he started learning English in grade 1. He lives in Germany but says he mostly speaks English in his job as a Medical Scanner technician in a large Hospital. We all got off at Piccadilly Circus. Our friend even made a joke about animals and circuses. We showed him how to get to Trafalgar Square. Jenny bought her souvenirs. I thought they were pretty tacky and too expensive. Shop was crowded. Had to queue to pay. Piccadilly Circus is not as good as it was 45 years ago. There is no fence around the circus. Cars go close to the people. There are some interesting historic momentoes below ground. They haven't managed to completely refurbish it. Interesting notices still on the walls. Old signs still intact. One little shop is still there that was there 45 years ago. He has a newspaper article stuck on his wall. The headline is "The Man who Refuses to Move" We then came home changing from the Bakerloo Line to the Metropolitan line at Baker Street. Bought some Afghan bread from one of the many ethnic shops in Preston Road. We are eating leftovers tonight. Watched some TV. University Challenge exactly the same as it was 45 years ago. York University against Penleigh Cambridge. The Four York University participants all had that hang dog apologetic working class look about them. Three out of Four Cambridge participants gave excellent impressions of being competitors in the Upper Class Twit of the Year award. The fourth was a beautiful young girl who held the ship afloat. Why do some intellectual woman have to be so good looking? Of course Cambridge won. Some questions very hard. Lots of answers wrong. We are both in better shape today that we were yesterday. To bed at about 8.30. Slept well. Woke up at 6.00AM. Watched a bit of Carry on at your Convenience for a while until it became unwatchable. The same 120 channels available as last time. A few nostalgic old films on. I then watched the Parliamentary channel for a longer while. Scenes from both the Scottish and Welsh Parliaments. They both make the Australian Parliament look uncivilised which of course it is. Also a lecture about the Easter Uprising by historians. Some mention of the large number of women involved which is not very well known. Blood Pressure 121/78 Pulse 85. We left home at 10.00AM. Light cloud covering the sky. Still quite warm. Went by tube to Liverpool Street. At one of the stations we passed through football hooligans were chanting some slogan. Very disconcerting. Reminded me of Skinheads behavior in 1970 in almost the same circumstances. Finally got to Liverpool Street. Last time we were here it was being renovated. Finished now although the MacDonalds I used as a toilet is no longer there. The Station has a sign that says Toilets with an arrow but I could not find them. Did the IRA ever understand what kind of lasting impact they would have on London? We should sue them for pain and suffering. 46 years ago there were toilets everywhere. Or so it seemed to me. We walked towards the city but it being Sunday everything was closed. Including Leadenhall Market. We will have to come back again during the week because I have not been there before. We noted that Threadneedle Street was off to the right. Building going on everywhere. Police and Firetrucks driving up the street with sirens blaring. We waited for some time for a bus and eventually a couple told us that the street did not have any buses as they had been diverted. We walked until we found a bus to Hoxton and went to the Geffrye Museum. This is a Museum showing the evolution of the house or home since the 16th Century. Well worth the visit. It is crammed with examples of everything relevant to living over the past 4 centuries. I listened to some extracts from Samuel Pepys. His passion was house renovation. He definitely did similar things to what we do. For instance : On one day he walked to Bermondsey. Looked at the shops. Bought some building material. Went home to find the washing everywhere and the house in disorder. Looked at his maid and noted he could see her breasts through her clothing. What has changed in 400 years ? Dont we all do this from time to time? Or whenever we get the chance? The Museum building itself looks American. Like Washington could have owned it. Even has the look of the American Embassy in Canberra. Must have been built at the same time. Beautiful lawn and garden. It was originally a charity that gave homes to poor ex servants. Donated by a wealthy middling sort. An Ironmonger who made it in politics. Name of Geffrye. Houses have got bigger and more complex over the past 400 years. This is obvious but its interesting to have it laid out for you to see. Houses have got better and bigger. Didn't have water on tap until very recently. The standing of servants and staff has surprisingly changed also. In 1600 servants were part of the family and were treated well. They were important people. Mainly female. Society at that time was only Aristocrats and those who served them. As time went on the "middling sorts" (those between the aristocrats and lower classes) made more money and created the middle class. In time they became the real ruling class. They controlled public tastes. Houses reflected this. The position of servants changed - it became a lesser respected position. Masters and Staff were strictly segregated. The museum has displays of rooms from each century or half century which show the evolution. We both have injuries which prevent us from doing much. I did not want to walk any more and Jenny has a painful looking blister on her heel. So we had lunch at the Museum Cafe. I had Pea Soup with sourdough bread. Jenny had salad with cheese. We had a problem in ordering the tea. We wanted one pot with two cups. The male waiter could not understand. We explained twice but he kept saying two teas so we let it go, But when he sent a girl to deliver I explained that what we had really wanted was one pot and two cups. We would have been drinking all the afternoon if we had accepted both pots. No sooner had she said she would fix it and gone back to the serving area that he came almost running up asking what the problem was. The real problem was that he wasn't English and the nice waitress was. And that he was in a superior position and felt his authority was being compromised. Anyway we told him he misunderstood what we asked. He calmed down. Had no choice because the girl had already changed our bill. Perhaps she got into trouble later. We took three different trains to get home. North and south London now has an above ground system that is integrated with the underground. You can do a complete loop of London above ground if you want to. We got back to Preston Road at 4.30PM. Both very sore. Jenny took off her shoe to walk home from the station. We had salad and rissoles for tea. Meat bought from The Cooperative in Preston Road on the way home. We watched Michael Portello on a Northern line for a while but mainly we watched Timothy West and Prunella Scales on their longboat. She knows she is in the early stages of alzheimers. But she can still talk. Not to good on doing two things at once. Steering the boat and changing the speed is a problem. Anyway the scenery was amazing. Lots of historic background shown. Interviews with experts on waterways. Very enjoyable programme. To bed at 9.00PM Slept well. Blood Pressure 176/81 after walking up two flights of steps but after 15 minutes it was 132/63. Pulse 79. Woke up at 6.15. Listening to Radio 4 breakfast. Listened to The Impersonator on the BBC website. I remember hearing this in the dairy when I was about eleven after milking when I was cleaning up. I could listen to the radio in the dairy. My mother would not let me listen in the house. We left the house around 10.30. Fine day. No clouds. Got hotter as the day wore on. Of course all the buildings we entered had the heater turned up to 11. Took the tube to Finchley Road. Went into Waitrose's. I think the English supermarkets display their produce better than Australia's. Very attractive produce and lots of choices. I hope they dont have a lot of wastage. We then walked to Sainsbury's. The last time we were in Finchley Road I had to break our bus journey because I had to go to the toilet. Exactly at this building. When we went into the same building today we knew where we were. After walking around a bit we got on the bus and went to Baker Street. Sat next to a girl from Slovakia. Most people on buses do not look English. Lots of tourists around Swiss Cottage. Lots of people in the streets at Baker Street. Took note of the large Mosque at Swiss Cottage. Looked at the long queue of people to get into the Sherlock Holmes Museum in Baker Street. Couldn't discern any clues from inspecting their faces. Mainly South East Asian. Both sexes. Doorman dressed as a London Bobby. Dont know why its so popular. Also checked out the Beatles Shop a few doors down. Lots of stuff but fairly expensive. Did not buy anything. Had a Chicken Bean Soup in a Pret a Manger. It was really too thick to be classed as soup. Went back to the Sigmund Freud Museum at Finchley Road. Very interesting. Wonderful back garden. Real English. Looking at the Freud Family Tree you cannot help notice that three of Freud's sisters died in 3 different Concentration Camps. All three killed by the Nazis. A very different result to what happened to him. How must he have felt? Of course no one knew what the Germans were going to do. Freud with the help of what was called "intense diplomatic activity" was able to bring out all his furniture and effects when he fled Germany. His rooms in London almost duplicated his rooms in Vienna. Museum is thought provoking. Getting this close to Freud makes you think if you could ever survive psychiatric analysis. In the Anna Freud Room there were 14 questions that have to be asked. Just when did I last do a stupid thing? How have your self destructive urges manifested themselves? Etc. Just a few of the questions. Very confronting. Very apt though. Could I ever admit even to a psychiatrist my weaknesses? The big question to ask is - what would my life have been like if I had gone to a proper psychiatrist when I was young? By this time my body was in danger of locking up. I have blisters on both feet. I feel like suing Athletes Foot. I have already looked up their website but of course no email address for complaints. We went to both Waitrose's and Sainsbury's to get tonight's tea. Then home to Preston Road. When Tosans mother let us in the building the day we arrived she mentioned she was a food caterer. I immediately said I would like to sample her cooking as we had never eaten Nigerian food before. I thought I was being amusing but last night her son called at our door and asked if we would like to go and eat with them. The food was fantastic. Two types of fish with vegetables and rice. We met the father Louis, the cousin whose name I cannot recall, the daughter Missan, the girlfreind whose name I cannot recall. All very nice. We talked of general things. Their minds are focused on Europe and America. Australia is hardly on the radar. As I said the food was fantastic. I drank the majority of the wine. To bed at 9.30. Slept well. Blood Pressure 132/70. Pulse 82 Slept in til 7.10 AM. My sore hip woke me up. Still haven't got my phone changed to London time. This is both disconcerting and annoying. I don't know where I am. I don't like looking at my phone because it tells me Melbourne time. This can only encourage jet lag. We left home at approx 10.30 - I don't know the exact time because my iphone hasn't had its time changed and I have to ask Jenny what the time is - you will forgive my frustration - and took the Metropolitan Line to the end of the line at Chesham. Still has aspects of an English Village. Very nice. No cars in the main street. But I did see a dowager type driving what was obviously an electrical car down the centre of the road. No sound at all. I say every second shop was a thrift shop. We bought some Marks and Spencers shirts. Could not find any trousers suitable for India House. Jenny says a more realistic assessment would be every 10th shop. We had lunch in The George and Dragon. I had Bubble and Squeak. Jenny had Tomato Soup. Only after we had sat down did I notice the St George flags everywhere. This has to be code for Ukip supporter. But the lunch was authentic and I had a half pint of English Ale which was OK. The Pub was 350 years old. The Landlord had an east end accent. Jenny walked to the top of Chesham Hill for view and photo's. I tried to go into the Library but it was closed. Yes - closed on Friday's. So I sat and read one of the 3 or 4 free papers that are available. One is a Financial paper which is easy to read and a reasonable standard. I don't know how they can source all the articles they have. They all have a byline. The other 2 daily papers are trash but reading them takes up the time on the train. There was a local free press dedicated to the Chesham area. The record of the local Magistrates Court was depressingly similar to what goes on in Benalla Court. The main story was about the wash-up over the Easter Egg incident at Cliveden. Apparently a charity organised an Easter Egg hunt for deprived children at Cliveden. The problem was too many people came - both adults and children - some of them obviously not deprived - and they made a big mess of the grounds looking for Easter Eggs and forcibly entering into Garden Buildings etc. looking for hidden eggs. Who is to pay for the damage? And who encouraged the rougher element to come to an Easter Egg hunt when they weren't invited? We explored most of the town. There is a small river running through it and sometimes goes under buildings. Quite attractive. Beautiful clear water. Nice trees lining the banks. Pathway right beside the stream. A burst of sunshine lit the set to perfection. Reminded me of descriptions of paradise in The Koran. We commented that there must be a problem at times with flooding and sure enough in the centre of town there is a notice alluding to the increase in floods and what to do in times of emergencies. For centuries England has been lucky to have dynamic equilibrium in its waterways but with global warming flooding will be a big problem. We had afternoon tea in the cafe part of a store called Me and C. We got 5 cups out of one pot which was pretty good value. By this time my body was hurting. The expensive shoes I was assured were exactly the same as the last pair I bought from Athletes Foot are not the same. Same make maybe but not the same shoes. Why do shoe manufacturers stop making perfectly good shoes? I once had a pair of Nike Air which were perfect and I had to wear them till they fell apart because they never made the same shoes again. My hip hurts and my leg muscles are not what they were. 50 years ago I could walk all day - and I sometimes did walk all day and all night. Not now unfortunately. My genes are failing me. Plus I'm carrying too much weight. We took the train back from Chesham to Preston Road. Checked out the Vegetarian Indian Take Away and took home their special. Its all vegetarian but 4 different types with rice and bread. Wasn't too bad. We will probably eat from there most nights. Came home at 6PM. Pointless was on TV. May as well have been home. Later on watched Michael Portello explaining the Easter Rising and how it changed everything. The British General who put down the rebellion is the real culprit and the reason why Ireland became a republic. Then watched the IT man whose name I dont know doing his 2 days in Venice with Jo Brand. Very enjoyable. To bed at 9.30. |
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