What can I say? Have I got London out of my system? Is it possible to let go of the unrealistic romantic attitude I have for it? Do I still see it as my home? Does the thought of it still comfort me in periods of doubt and uncertainty?
Well - yes. And - no. I have to explain myself. In 1968 I felt my life was worthless. I felt I had no life. My life was totally in the power of my extended family. By family standards I was a total failure. I felt totally alien to all people around me. I was held in contempt by everyone who knew me. I had no friends. The biggest impact I had on people was to cause them embarrassment. I often felt real loneliness. The Australian people had voted overwhelmingly to commit troops to Vietnam and I considered this to be totally immoral. And I appeared to be totally alone in feeling this. Arguments often occurred and I was often threatened with physical violence because of the way I thought. Freinds of my father would say that I should be stood up against a wall and shot. And through a series of stupid decisions I had totally ruined my private life. I had unusual sexual desires. I had no meaningful job. I felt I had absolutely no prospect of any meaningful life. What could I do? Well - I could fulfill a long standing desire to go to London. I went to London and my life turned around 180 degrees. Immediately. Without me even trying. London and its people welcomed me with an opened arm embrace. I immediately went from being disliked by everyone to being liked by everyone. If I spoke spontaneously from my heart I no longer embarrassed people. I felt suddenly I was the centre of attraction. And I knew it. I went from having no life to having a meaningful and enjoyable life. And I knew it. I was no longer disliked or misunderstood. And I knew it. And I was in a society that I understood completely. And I knew this society respected me. I was part of it. And I knew it. This society seemed to be speaking directly to me. I liked the people and respected them. I felt completely attuned to the intellectual life. I knew the people. I felt at home. And I knew it. I don't want to exaggerate or be fanciful but this is exactly what happened. It is all true. I went from being unhappy to being happy. I went from feeling I had absolutely no power to having a life that was worthwhile. I went from feeling I was totally insignificant to a life that had some significance. Why was this? Was it even possible to reflect on this? Well yes it was. I knew that part of it was how I felt. I knew that I should not be like this. I knew that no matter where I was I lived inside my body - alone. But is it no wonder that I have a favorable view of London? Or be considered guilty of viewing it through rose tinted glasses. London is a large international city with a mixed ethnic and racial population. I admit I enjoy being in a society of so called mixed races. London is a wealthy city. It is an expensive city. It has poor areas. It has rich areas. It has areas of mixed race. It has areas where races and classes are basically segregated. But nothing is fixed. It is fluid. Unlike my experience of Australia where I felt everything was fixed. I did feel at home. I really did.
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Woke up at 5. Very little sleep during night. Trying all night to log on to the British Airways web site. We departed from Australia on a public holiday and we leave Britain on a public holiday. BA's website doesn't work on public holidays and their phone number is disconnected. It was the same the day we left. We have to have an aisle seat for Jenny to get to toilet when she is sick. Could we get onto the website to book our seats. No we could not. Tried lots of times.
Of course you can pay $120 each to book early. They make great claims on their website when you buy the tickets that you can organise your seats by internet 24 hours in advance of the flight. You can not. BA are hopeless. Its disgraceful for an international airline to be so incompetent. In the words of Brian Epstein - we will not travel with BA again. Blood Pressure 138/69 Pulse 71 We had nothing planned for what we would do until the flight. We had to be out by 10AM but Tosan allowed us to leave our bags in his hallway therefore saving us the expense and time of taking them to Heathrow and putting them in storage for the day. 24 Pounds in saving. We took the Metropolitan line only to Wembley Park where the train stopped unexpectedly -signal failure. We all had to get off the Metropolitan Line and get on the Jubilee Line. The Metropolitan Line is suspended until further notice. This was a bit of a worry because it meant we could not get back to get our bags and even if we did we could not get the train at Preston Road. But we took a chance and continued on to Bermondsay. Bermondsay was where I first tried to get accommodation but they didnt want someone for 5 weeks. And Bermondsay is about as old as you can get in London. And in 1969 it was very much the deprived East End. As usual it is no longer deprived. Its pretty straight looking. I thought it would have some ethnic character. But it was all closed. Not a shop open. No one in the streets. Who lives there now - not possible to tell. They were taking the holiday seriously. We walked in the direction of London and pretty soon The Shard came into view. Eventually we stumbled on Tower Bridge. It was surprising and spectacular. We had lunch in a Pub within sight of Tower Bridge on Tower Bridge Road. I had Fish and Chips. Jenny had Mexican Salad. A Pint of Ale came in the package but I could only drink half. The waiter gave me a sample before I picked the beer. In a way the areas of London are still pretty defined. The pub is not far from Bermondsey but the clientele was all white middle class. Some Italian tourists. Same with the Pub at London Bridge. Get a bus at London Bridge Bus Station and there is a very wide ethnic mix. Go into a pub over the road and its all white middle class. We walked along the Thames bank towards London Bridge. Many tourists in the area. We had a good look at the New Lord Mayors building. It looks like an Orange cut into slices and not reconstructed properly so each slice underneath is smaller than the one on top. It also looks like its heavier one side and leans toward that side. For a new building I concede it does have some architectural merit. London is awash with new buildings and buildings being constructed. We counted 25 cranes one day before we gave up. There are too many new buildings scattered everywhere all over London. They should have allocated specific areas where new building is allowed. Restrict new buildings to one area and allow areas to retain their past history and flavour. As they have in Paris. London Bridge should have better identification. It certainly lacks romance compared to what it was like 400 years ago. We walked through the city to Moorgate station. Because I was a little concerned we might have trouble getting our bags I decided to play safe and go to the airport as soon as possible. As it was the tube was again operating normally. The signal fault had been repaired. We took the tube to Heathrow via a roundabout way. We took the Metropolitan to Rayners Lane. We then took the Piccadilly to Acton Town. We then took the Piccadilly to Heathrow Terminal 5. If you look at your tube map you will see we took a tour of North West London. When I left London 45 years ago there was only one Heathrow terminal. It was an open largish building full of Indians waiting for relatives to turn up. This was literally in the last few days of unrestricted immigration for all British Subjects. Because it was in the last few days everyone was trying to get to Heathrow. Especially Indians from Africa. And plenty of Indians were at Heathrow hoping they could meet some relatives. Now there are 5 large Terminals. An internal train links them all. They have plans now to put in a 6th terminal. I know London will somehow be able to handle all the people this will produce. Last year there were 600,000 immigrants into the UK and 400,000 settled in London. Its still the best city in the world. And I think this proves it. Heathrow Terminal 5 does not have very good facilities as far as eating and drinking goes. Plus its more expensive than it should be. Plenty of luxury shops advertising duty free. But we waited 4 hours until it was time to get on the plane. When I say its unfairly expensive I concede that airports are very good investments. They are monopolies after all. And I am amazed at how many rich people there are in the world who seem to have no problems with high prices. I listened to Churchill's History of the English Speaking People on the plane. The whole 5 hours. Jenny was not ill. We had a window seat from Singapore. Not much to see as it was dark all the way. Saw what I presume was Alice Springs at night. Streets like spider webs. Or a modern painting. Had to wait 3 hours at Sydney airport for our Melbourne connection. Don,t know why we could not have got on the 3 planes that left for Melbourne while we were waiting. Alex met us and we drove to Tarnook. The place is green which is good to see but our dear Magpie has decamped. I hope she has found a new home. Got up at 7.30. Jenny ill during the night. Did not sleep well Blue skies with Jet streams. Blood Pressure 99/68 Pulse 95. Today we went to Chiswick House in Chiswick. We went to Hammersmith on the Hammersmith and City Line and then took the bus. We had a slight mishap in that we got on the right numbered bus but were going the wrong way. The driver generously gave us a free ride ticket and we went to the other side of the road and got on the right bus and went the correct way. Before we went into Chiswick House we first went to the Chiswick Town Market. I had some Moroccan meat concoction. Very bland. I must say I am disappointed at the standard of street food that I have sampled in London. We did get talking to a couple - he's from Ireland - she's from Mauritius - over lunch. But the thing that was interesting was - he came to London at the same time I did and he has never left. He loves London. And he lived in Earls Court when I did. They live in Chiswick. He works at Heathrow. What a place to work. I told him how lucky he was. He says no Australians live in Chiswick now. 45 years ago Chiswick was the preferred choice of Australians. Chiswick House is unusual. Lord Burlington went on a European tour when he was 20 (as you do) and fell in love with Italy. He had 120 crates of artworks shipped back and when he came home he determined to build an Italianate House to rival anything in Italy. He did. The bloke must have had unlimited cash. Where did he get it from? Its never said. The House can only be describes as Italianate. Maybe Roman. Lots of columns. Lots of statues. Lots of concrete. A very Italian looking garden. Set in 65 acres. All remodeled to include hothouses, lakes, cypress hedges etc. Money was no object. Some paintings inside the house. None of them any good. As usual with these people he had more money than taste. But he loved the house. In his time Chiswick was a fair way out of London. He also had a house in Piccadilly but he preferred to live in Chiswick. He loved it. We can forgive him. Very extensive grounds - warm day - lots of people taking advantage of the grounds. Lot's of Italians looking at the house and grounds. To be precise the great majority of people looking were Italian - all very excited. Maybe the House is famous in Italy. Italians like all Europeans love London. And I mean Love London. And why not. But will they still come when Britain exits the EEU. I saw a woman asking why she did not get her change in Euro's at the cafe. The waiter explained she could pay in Euro's but he would have to give her change in sterling. I'm not sure she understood. No doubt his bosses would have made a killing in the exchange rate. We took the bus back to Hammersmith and then The District Line to East Putney to look at where James stayed when he was in London. A very nice place. Very handy. I could easily live there. Nice surroundings. I knocked on the door but no one was home. We took photo's. A diversion in Putneys Library which was open on a long weekend. Lots of students studying hard. Some hard nosed Library lovers. One old woman could hardly walk but was determined to read The Daily Telegraph. I have to say they have better books than Benalla. Many more new and up to date books than Benalla. A wider range as well. More and better books on popular culture. We then caught the bus back to Piccadilly Circus. An interesting journey along a road I used to jog along 2 or 3 times a week. Of course I cannot remember a thing about it. There are lots more shops. More people. The road goes back through near Earls Court. After that meanders through various interesting places that are now familiar to us. Hyde Park. Green Park corner. Knightsbridge. Chelsea. And so to Piccadilly Circus. The centre of London. Except there is no centre. On the way we had a first. The driver accidentally strayed off his route and had to turn around. Try turning around on a Double Decker bus in London's narrow streets. But he did it. So to home. Our last day in London. Tomorrow we leave. Blood Pressure 156/80 Pulse 81. |
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