Wednesday 13th December. Alarm at 6AM. Listened to the World Service for half an hour. Heard a report on the singing station announcer at Richmond Railway Station. Great news - Trumps man in Alabama has lost. Surely it’s simply an issue of getting decent people to vote. If anything is simple in America. Blood Pressure 103/67. Pulse 73. Why it is when my blood pressure goes up my pulse comes down? Some of the Murdoch commentators are extremely disappointed at the defeat of Judge Roy Moore. I don’t understand why they are convinced Trump is good for the world. Unless of course they want to see some destruction. We go to visit Denis at Lewes via Victoria. Was walking down Oxford Street to Oxford Street Circus when a bus went past marked Victoria so I suggested we should hop on. It was much slower than the tube and by the time we got to Victoria I was starting to panic that we might not catch the train. Got the tickets but they could not tell me which platform the train would be on. Also some confusion about the word Lewes. I pronounced it Lewes but of course it is pronounced Lewis. I am starting to have to ask people to say that again and they don’t like it. We arrived at 11.45 and recognized Denis without much trouble. He drove us around the town for a quick look before we started to head for East Hoathy which is where he lives. Caught up a bit on the drive. I related incidents to him which he claimed he could not recall.
There were many more incidents that stuck in my mind which I will relate later. Denis brought us up to date as to what has happened in his life. He seems to have done OK. Retired at 52 after a successful working career. Had his own business. Wife and 2 children. Has immersed himself in Village life. Secretary of the Cricket Club. Plays golf to the point where he goes on golfing holidays. Is in the Drama society. Has actually been in a Glyndebourne Production of The Mastersingers of Nuremburg as an extra. Glyndebourne is not far from where he lives. We got to his house and met his wife Jean who has recently been quite ill. But she seems OK now. Denis showed us his house and we talked to Jean. His house is just large enough for them. Very comfortable. Jean is a very nice woman. Good talker but can also listen and conduct a proper conversation. A caring sensitive woman. Does a lot of volunteer work in the village. Volunteers at the local prison crèche for instance. Is the sewing mistress for the local dramatic society. Very well informed person. Was recently suddenly taken ill and Denis says he did expect her to die. But thankfully she didn’t and has made a good recovery. Denis is devoted to her. And why not. Obviously had not met the right girl when I knew him 50 years ago. We had a drive around. He took us to the top of the downs. Windy spot but quite good view. More green grass than expected. Sheep well fed. Some unusual rather larger than normal paddocks. Denis very proud of the area. We drove through 1 or 2 nearby villages. Extremely stereotypical English. We drove into Glyndebourne itself and had a bit of a look. Could not get out of the car though as were not supposed to enter the grounds. Denis is indifferent to Opera and does not go even though he has been an extra and mimed the singing. Jean likes it and has been to a lot of productions. Had several conversations with Denis alone. Quite enjoyable. Nothing really has changed in 50 years. Time may as well not exist – the 50 years were irrelevant. We talked quite easily. He still has the same political beliefs. I am sympathetic but always want to know the precise model. Is maybe even firmer in his views than 50 years ago which is surprising. Voted for Brexit. That’s 2 out of 4. I’m sure Ray voted Brexit also. Denis did it because he says he was voting against the austerity regime that has been in place for several years. His was a protest vote. I’m sure he regrets it now. As I patronized/advised - the EU is a noble concept - the EU is a definite good for the world - the leave campaign was full of untruths and exaggerations and bore no relation to reality. He politely declined to reply. We went on to talk of other things. At night they took us to eat at a Pub in the next village. I had Venison Pie. It had no distinct taste. It tasted much as normal meat. The pub was quite old. Elm sprigs attached to the roof. Christmas lights up. I had 2 half pints of English beer. Tuesday 12th December. Up at 6AM. Coldest night of the year. But we were snug. Listened to the radio for a few minutes and heard a hypnotist interviewed who treated Sadam Hussein’s son. Amazing. Sam Dastiari has resigned from Parliament. Not a wise move as far as I am concerned. He should have stuck it out. Sadiq Khan has released a policy manifest of sorts where he says he will build more public toilets. Fantastic. There is definitely a lack of public toilets in London. We should have sued the IRA into Liquidation when they started blowing up public toilets. Blood Pressure 144/74. Pulse 57. We go to Oxford today. No problems in getting to Paddington by 8.21. I got told off for walking through a restricted area. The gate was opened and it led to platform 4 so I went through it. Did not see the sign. I was looking at the train timetable which was not easy to read. Sunny day but extremely cold. Train impressive. Modern and comfortable. Saw lots of snow covered paddocks. Very white snow shining in the sun. At Oxford within the hour. Jenny’s ticket did not come out of the gate and I was suspicious of the return tickets so I consulted the man in charge. It turned out the tickets were not return tickets. I bought them on line in Australia and from the start I should have been suspicious. I had $111 deducted from my bank account to pay for them and this is about all contact I had with the firm selling the tickets. The total cost was supposed to be $72. In the end the man in charge felt sorry for me and issued us with a voucher that would allow us to return to Paddington in the late afternoon. Said he had been well treated when he went to Australia. We took the hop on hop off tourist bus around Oxford. Probably overpriced. Should have walked but it was freezing cold. It was warm on the bus and when the sun shone directly through the bus window it was enjoyable. Lots of colleges. Lots of churches. Lots of tourists. Lots of mushy snow. The canal was frozen though. Playing fields of Oxford covered in snow. Because we were on the bus we could not get photos which was a pity. Went to the Bodleian Library and The Ashmoleum Museum. Bodleian is interesting but security tight. Warm inside building. City is smaller than I expected. Well the university part that is. I know there is a manufacturing town which is separate and has no contact with the university. Must be very enjoyable to live in the university part. More colleges than I anticipated also. Learned much about the place I did not know before. And what they do. It’s simpler than I thought. People apply to go to Oxford and they are allocated a college. Colleges don’t specialise. People can study anything. Lectures are done in lecture halls. Tutorials are done anywhere. There is one college that doesn’t even have students. Everyone there is doing post graduate pure research of their choosing. Got the 4.31PM train back to Paddington. We bought provisions at M&S. Not much on TV. Monday 11th December Up at 6 AM. Listened again to the Shipping forecast. The announcers certainly give the impression of enjoying what they do – practicing their pronunciation. Reading endless weather forecasts that are all the same except for the location. Not much on TV. But I can easily waste time fiddling on the computer. Blood pressure 134/72. Pulse 55. Cold day outside. Misty rain. We walked along Oxford Street to Bloomsbury Street and went to buy Daisy a card at the bookshop Jenny had previously seen. Turned out to be The Young Socialist Bookshop and the Socialist Worker is still on sale. Still looks the same as 50 years ago but has moved with the times and is in colour. Bought a copy for Denis. One of the first memories I have of him is him telling his girlfriend that he had to give her up because he was giving up his life to The Socialist Workers Party and this involved him in spending most of his spare time in selling the Socialist Worker. She had a look of disbelief on her face. He did stick at it for about 6 months. There was light rain as we walked along and very cold. I cannot remember it being this cold. Because it was so cold we went into a Primark and of course bought something. I never know what to buy Chloe. I bought her 2 bangles. I hope she likes them. For lunch we went into a Korean Fast Food place. It was quite good . The receptionist felt the need to warn me that it was spicy. I didn’t have the wit to ask if I looked that Australian. Intermittent snowing as we ate. We were early and the place filled up as we ate. Would like to go there again. They have unusual not seen before seats which might be Korean. Came home for a cup of tea and the Landlord has sent me an email telling me he is in London today. He almost immediately called around to pay for the aerial. Very nice person. Used to live in this flat. Said they were the best 2 years of his life. Now has 2 small children and lives in Surry. We walked up the street to get supplies from M&S. Definitely dark by 4.30. Warm inside the flat. Sunday 10th December. Up at 6AM to watch some old TV. On the Buses. Third Rock from the Sun. Sweeney Todd. All very enjoyable. Read the Sunday Papers at leisure. Cold nippy day. No rain. Blood Pressure 139/70. Pulse 57. Walked to Tesco’s to buy a Guardian. It started snowing as I walked out the door. Not a thick blanket but enough to say it snowed. I had snow adhering to my jacket by the time I got to Tesco’s. Took some photos. We watched it snowing out the window for some time. Took some photos. Enjoyable. Not exactly a white Christmas but heading in that direction. We walked along Oxford Street to Bloomsbury Street. Some snow hitting the ground. Jenny found her bookstore but it was closed. We got on a bus to Victoria just for the sake of it. Took us through Trafalgar Square and Piccadilly Circus. Had a bit of a look at a new shopping mall at Victoria. Well new to me. Victoria has changed out of all recognition over 50 years. Came home for lunch via the tube. In the afternoon we took the tube to Brixton. Had a bit of a look around again. Definitely more light skinned human beings here this time than last time. Probably even more light skinned than dark skinned in total. How demographics change. The area is being swamped by whites. What would Pauline say? Disgraceful. We must stop it somehow. Took the bus to the Horniman Museum. Quite a long ride. Went through Woolwich and Dulwich. Went past Dulwich School. Saw the playing grounds where P G Wodehouse would have played cricket. More snow here. White fields. White front yards. Mushy snow on the footpath. The snow covering the playing fields is a bright white and quite attractive. The Museum has lots of stuffed animals. Some of them looking worse for wear. The Australians look decidedly dodgy. A full size Dodo on show. A detailed story of its tragic life attached. Did not take much to send it extinct. Extensive grounds outside. We came back by bus to Victoria. And then by the tube. Well and truly dark at 4.30. Unfortunately as it was dark we could not pick out any landmarks on the way. It was cold today. I admit it. Lots of news about the snow in London on TV. Not much on TV. If anything it’s not as good as I thought it would be. It’s entertaining but not as good as it was 50 years ago. Maybe its spread thinner. Saturday 9th December. Woke up at 6AM. Watched TV for an hour or so. Went and bought The Times and came home and read it cover to cover. Blood Pressure 117/63. Pulse 61. We went to Brixton to check it out. Much the same as last time but I would say the demographic has changed. There are definitely more Caucasians walking around than last time. No singing Jehovah Witnesses though. do Jehovah Witnesses celebrate Christmas? I bought a Louis Farrakhan Newspaper. I didn’t take the chance to say that I was a supporter of Malcolm X to the young man selling. I wish I had. I did ask him what it was all about. He gave an explanation that included telling the truth and some other clichés. The paper is interesting in that it does have some straight news about various places in the world. But it mostly lauds the speeches of Louis Farrakhan and Elijah Muhammad. Less children in evidence in the street. Maybe we came a different time of day to last time. The Market itself is slightly more upmarket. Same high class looking restaurants. Saw a new type of shop. You go to a large index and pick what you want and then order it on line and the goods are delivered to this point. They also offer 2 months interest free credit terms. But if you transgress the interest charges are 29% per day from the date of purchase. The pop up area is now covered in and has obviously gone upmarket. Night time disco etc. Same eating places and much more comfortable eating area. We got the bus back to Liverpool Street and walked to The Barbican. You have to walk through what should be called The Barbican Tunnel. We took an Architectural Tour of the complex. All of it outdoors and very cold. I was uncomfortably cold for most of the time. But the tour was educational and given by a passionate girl who we presume was German. I was slightly ill informed about the place previously. I thought it was the post war Labour government’s attempt to provide an example of socialist living. But not exactly true. It was built because the City of London was in danger of losing their member of parliament because the population had dropped so much during the war. It did have elements of social experimentation in it. But essentially it was a deal between Westminster and The City of London that a housing complex would be built by the City. Planning started in 1948 but it was not finally finished until 1982. It was not designed as public housing and each unit was individually leased. In the 80’s along with all other social housing the leases were sold to tenants. There was no conventional public housing as in council flats. People had to pay. However it had a strong utopian element built into the planning and was built in the brutalist style. They were unashamed about this. If you want to joke about it you can ask whether it influenced soviet style building or whether soviet style building influenced it. There are lots of concrete. Lots of levels. The young woman doing the tour was very passionate in explaining the reasons behind the concept. The whole area was raised to the ground during the blitz. It was 35 acres of completely open ground. The City needed the building and they had money to pay for it. The Architects made it their life’s work. The driving philosophy was beauty and functionality. They did try to provide the perfect life for the people who lived here. Whether they achieved their aim is debatable. It’s a lot of concrete. Not a lot of flowers. Lots of levels. It’s pretty brutalist. But from the limited number of people I saw who now live there they appear to be happy. And not all rich. In knew of it in 1970 and took an interest in it although I never came to look at it. But I was curious as I was with all social experiments. It had completely fallen into disrepute and was derided by the Tories as the perfect example as to how social experimentation could go wrong. How socialism simply does not work. Jokes were made on TV about living there. Film was often shown showing how alien the place looked. What not to do. If they wanted to illustrate Orwell’s 1984 they always showed film of The Barbican. How easy it was to get lost on its various levels. How crazy it could make you just by living there. How windy it was. Etc. However after they sold it to the public in the 80’s they built an arts centre and this has resurrected the whole area. The price of apartments is in line with all real estate prices. Everyone wants to live there now. We had lunch at The Barbican. Sandwiches and orange juice. We sat and looked out the window. The sun was out but as per usual I can make no sense of it. It’s always in the wrong place and goes the wrong way. East is always in the west. We had afternoon tea at The Barbican. We went to a free showing of an Art Installation at The Barbican. Five screens showing film while a new symphony played in the background. A silent film accompanied by a Symphony. Not sure what the film was actually about. It wasn’t too bad. We watched all the way through. We walked to the nearest tube. Cold and dark by 4.30. Sunday 10th December. Up at 6AM to watch some old TV. On the Buses. Third Rock from the Sun. Sweeney Todd. All very enjoyable. Read the Sunday Papers at leisure. Cold nippy day. No rain. Blood Pressure 139/70. Pulse 57. Walked to Tesco’s to buy a Guardian. It started snowing as I walked out the door. Not a thick blanket but enough to say it snowed. I had snow adhering to my jacket by the time I got to Tesco’s. Took some photos. We watched it snowing out the window for some time. Took some photos. Enjoyable. Not exactly a white Christmas but heading in that direction. We walked along Oxford Street to Bloomsbury Street. Some snow hitting the ground. Jenny found her bookstore but it was closed. We got on a bus to Victoria just for the sake of it. Took us through Trafalgar Square and Piccadilly Circus. Had a bit of a look at a new shopping mall at Victoria. Well new to me. Victoria has changed out of all recognition over 50 years. Came home for lunch via the tube. In the afternoon we took the tube to Brixton. Had a bit of a look around again. Definitely more light skinned human beings here this time than last time. Probably even more light skinned than dark skinned in total. How demographics change. The area is being swamped by whites. What would Pauline say? Disgraceful. We must stop it somehow. Took the bus to the Horniman Museum. Quite a long ride. Went through Woolwich and Dulwich. Went past Dulwich School. Saw the playing grounds where P G Wodehouse would have played cricket. More snow here. White fields. White front yards. Mushy snow on the footpath. The snow covering the playing fields is a bright white and quite attractive. The Museum has lots of stuffed animals. Some of them looking worse for wear. The Australians look decidedly dodgy. A full size Dodo on show. A detailed story of its tragic life attached. Did not take much to send it extinct. Extensive grounds outside. We came back by bus to Victoria. And then by the tube. Well and truly dark at 4.30. Unfortunately as it was dark we could not pick out any landmarks on the way. It was cold today. I admit it. Lots of news about the snow in London on TV. Not much on TV. If anything it’s not as good as I thought it would be. It’s entertaining but not as good as it was 50 years ago. Maybe its spread thinner. Friday 8th December. Up at 6AM. Watched TV for an hour. There will be no hard border with Ireland. Apparently it is going to be cold today. Blood Pressure 119/74. Pulse 73 Went and bought a paper. The Daily Telegraph today. Read it and watched TV for 3 hours. Then had a snooze. Might as well be home. Still I feel pretty fit. I don’t feel 72. We did a little shopping before we left for the day and when we went outside we had a beggar right outside our front door. Caucasian of Middle Eastern appearance. Begging with his hand outstretched. Whining in a sing song voice. Couldn’t tell if he was crying or pretending to cry. I didn’t give him anything. Resolved to give him some change when we returned from shopping but when we came home he was gone. There are a number of beggars in the streets. All of them seem to be doing it hard. Some have dogs. One man had two dogs. I think that the public have become harder in their attitudes since we were last here. Well I’m convinced of it. The Brexit vote has hardened attitudes considerably. To buskers as well. I have checked their begging cups and none have much money in them. As inflation has run riot these last few years I cannot see anyone living off the fat of the land when begging or busking. Coins have no value. You need notes to survive. We got simcards for our phones from our local O2 outlet. We now have UK phone numbers. Mine is 07934 752100. We went to the café near here run by the same two girls as last week for lunch. Had the same lentil soup. Excellent again. They have lots of food for a very small café. Only a few tables and chairs. But very well decorated. Lots of atmosphere. We then walked to Hyde Park exploring all the way. Passing through many streets that we have seen mentioned in novels. Wigmore Hall. Walked down Harley Street. There are a lot of Doctors. Finally came to Hyde Park and inspected the Winter Wonderland. Larger than expected. Security at the gate to get in. Once inside you could walk where you want but we did not find the ice sculptures. Asked one of the attendants but he didn’t know. I asked him where the toilets were and he didn’t know this either. I must say the fairground rides are more dangerous looking that what used to be at the Wangaratta Show. So much bigger than in the past. Some look very dangerous. Went very high up in the air. Not a lot of people riding on them. Not that there was a lot of money changing hands in the food stalls either. The theme of the eating area was Bavarian. Lots of people there. Probably all tourists from Europe. Will they still come after Brexit? After that we walked along Park Lane to Marble Arch and saw a bus going to Finsbury Park so we got on it. It took us through Piccadilly Circus and up Shaftsbury Avenue. I thought Finsbury Park was further out. But it was well worth taking the bus. When we got to Finsbury Park of course I did not recognize anything. Only the tunnel leading in to the underground and the above ground station on the hill above. But nothing else. I used to get the bus to and from Muswell Hill at least once every day but don’t know where the bus stop actually was. I cannot remember for the life of me. It looks completely different. I remember grass but there’s no grass anywhere on show now. I remember getting out of the train and the bus was always waiting. Day or night. Just across the road. It’s not like that now. There seem to be many more buildings. Certainly more than I can remember. There is a very busy road outside the station which includes a bus station. But it’s not unusual for me to have forgotten things. There is a church right next to Australia House that for the life of me I cannot remember being there. We had coffee and tea at a Pret. I could not find anyone over 60 to ask why everything looks so different. Came home via the Victoria Line. Only took about 5 minutes. Lots of people in Oxford Street. Jenny took a video. Dark by 4.30. It is disorienting. Makes you think it’s time for bed. I like it. I went and had a drink at the pub next door. Conventional clientele inside. Mostly men but some woman. All in their 30’s I would say. Nice atmosphere. Everybody happy. Beer wasn’t too good. I had trouble finishing half a litre. Thursday 7th December. Woke up at 5.30AM with intense pain in my right hip. Could not get back to sleep. My iPhone alarm went off at 6AM and I got up. Blood Pressure 113/70. Pulse 79. President Trump has recognized Jerusalem as the Capital of Israel. Dare I say it - probably a good thing? What am I doing agreeing with Trump? I went and purchased a new aerial and it appears to work perfectly. Except I cannot get BBC1 or BB2. But can get lots of other channels. Nippy day. A bit of a mist in the air. I have advised the landlord I have bought a new aerial. Jenny went to M&S to buy supplies while I sorted out how to use the TV. We went back to Notting Hill Gate to look at the old Stationmasters Cottage where we stayed when we first came to London. It has been done up obviously. Jenny says it is listed in Airbnb. Notting Hill Gate is much the same although some shops have shut. The wine merchant has closed. The homemade food shop has gone. Jamie Oliver’s Restaurant has gone also. The Fish Restaurant is still there. If I was generous I would go and eat there. We had lunch in a Pret. Much the same as yesterday. Very healthy soup. Sat and watched the traffic and people go by. Saw 2 really old people - one male one female – they weren’t together. Something highly unusual. We took the tube to The Natural History Museum. I bored Jenny by relating to her how I once jogged the whole length of the tunnel corridor without seeing one other human. Maybe I exaggerate slightly. But I did jog the full length and I didn’t see too many people. I thought it would make a good subject for a film. I did not jog today despite her invitation that I do so. I sat down at every opportunity. 50 years makes a difference. I thought when we came to London I would simply take up where I left off. Queue to get in. Thousands of European tourists. Once inside it was OK. Saw a model of a blue whale which they now admit is slightly larger than the real thing. Even so it’s surprisingly large. Lots of photos of it being hunted and what they did with the products they extracted from its body. Hints that Russia and Norway are still killing them. Awful grisly photos showing the whales being led to their slaughter. Human beings used to think it was good sport. I know – I grew up in that sort of society. Unfortunately it still exists within a certain element in Australia. I think it’s entirely appropriate that the Blue Whale as a species has said “seeing you have tried to destroy me I will follow my collective unconscious and commit suicide by not reproducing”. Which is what it appears to be doing. It is not reproducing like the rest of the whale population is. Its numbers are simply not increasing. Mysterious but perfectly understandable as to why not. Lots to look at - but again – too many people. We came home by bus. Got caught in a traffic jam. Was stopped for 45 minutes. I kid you not. It was dark when we finally got going and because we were late the bus route was terminated early. This often happens apparently. Thankfully it was at Vauxhall. The bus was supposed to go through to Elephant and Castle. Left the Museum at 4.30. Did not get home until 6.15. On the bus for over 1 hour. Still it’s an adventure and we were not in any hurry. We experienced at first hand peak hour travel on the tube. Watched the news at 6.30. Later we watched Timothy West and Prunella Scales sail down the Welsh canals. We saw them when we were here last time sailing the English Canals. Still in perfect sunshine. Who says it rains in England. She has aged a bit over the past 2 years. Of course now that we have TV there is not much on. Jenny turned the heating down manually. Doing it digitally doesn’t seem to work. We needed to have a blanket on us for the night. Wednesday 6th December. Woke up at 5.30AM. Still have the hot pain in my right hip. The alarm on my phone is now working properly. Christine Keeler has died. Poor woman. Tragedy personified. Blood Pressure 125/66. Pulse 46. We made it to the bus by 8AM. But much panicking along the way. Walk to Oxford Circus not factored in. Once at Victoria we find there are several bus stations. Depending on where you come out of the Underground you can be a long way from where you want to be. All this contributed close to one genuine nervous breakdown. Not saying who. However we got there. Buses are getting closer to an airplane in concept. The driver’s area looks like a cockpit. Seats are much the same. Earplugs on the seats. Video screen attached to the seat in front. Very limited leg room. We seemed to be heading the wrong way – as per normal I was turned around. Went past Heathrow and Staines – or was it Slough. I had time to almost read The Times all the way through. Enjoyable. Not as good as it was 50 years ago but still better than most papers. I thought Stonehenge was closer to London. Does not look like winter. Plenty of lush green grass. Finally got to the Stonehenge Visitor Centre. Immediately took the shuttle bus to Stonehenge. Still surprisingly interesting. You cannot go up to the stones. You are roped off and walk around a circle set well back from the stones. You can get to touch the stones only if you do the rather more expensive night tour. Lots of information on plaques. The place is now owned by English Heritage. It’s surprisingly tasteful. We had several changes in the weather. Including a burst of sunshine. Made the place look much more attractive. A fair crowd in attendance. Most were tourists. Mostly from Asia. We talked to a young couple who were from Minnesota. I remarked that Fargo is set in Minnesota and it looks exceedingly cold. Lots of black humour about the snow and ice. I don’t believe they knew what I was talking about. But they were young and probably do not watch conventional TV. Had a fair amount of metal attached to various parts of their bodies. The visitor centre was OK. Gave lots of explanations. Plenty of examples etc. They have built some huts purporting to be similar to the buildings that housed the workers who built Stonehenge. Stonehenge wasn’t built in a day. So maybe the workers were not always there. The fact is no one knows who or why or how Stonehenge was built. Did the Druids build it? Maybe. Probably. They lived surprisingly sophisticated lives. We could change places with them without too much changes to our lives. Not much has changed in the life of humans over 3000 years. They do agree on where the stones came from. A long way away. There is one large piece of rock cut into shape with a sign attached daring anyone to try and move it. They have even gone to the trouble to put it on rollers to make it easier for whoever tries. It takes 100 strong men to move it just a fraction of a centimetre. We talked to a volunteer who recently returned from several years in Australia. Served in the Australian Army. He had some contract he said. Served in Sydney, Darwin and Canberra. I didn’t ask him how come he was able to return to the UK after he had served in a foreign army. We had a cake and cup of tea at the Visitors Centre café. Quite good. Finished reading The Times on the way back. Just like 50 years ago. Takes all day to read it. I felt totally attuned to The Times 50 years ago. It could have spoken for me. It did speak for me. I totally identified with it. I read it happily from cover to cover without hitting one jarring note. Totally immersed in it. I felt it was speaking to me. It was at my intellectual level. Or I was at its intellectual level. Do you get the picture? It reinforced all my political feelings and prejudices. The current paper is enjoyable but unfortunately it is owned by Mr. Murdoch and I cannot see through my prejudice. I don’t trust him to be unbiased even though the paper says it is. The format is essentially the same. The writing is good but does not seem to be as deep. I could be totally unfair. It’s always said that you cannot compare era’s with era’s. That was then – this is now. It can never be the same. Maybe we should be grateful to Mr. Murdoch for keeping The Times alive. Even if he does use it to bolster his own status. We got off the bus at Gloucester Road. Went to a Pret and had a soup with bread. Jenny had a long subway like stick of bread and meat and salad. She said it was excellent. We took the tube to Paddington to see if I could arrange our tickets for next Tuesday. I didn’t have the correct papers but the man did me a favour and arranged for the tickets to be printed. I had arranged and paid for the tickets via the internet before we left and the firm I used do not even have an office in London. Just as well we did a recce. We came home via the tube and walked looking for a firm called Maplins to see if we could get a new aerial. We walked to Soho without success. Lots of people about. But we did find a smaller shop and they directed us to where Maplins are in Great Portland Road. The landlord has given us permission to put a new aerial in. I think I inadvertently made a racist remark to the shop assistant at Maplins. I could tell by the look in his eyes he was hurt and considered me a conservative racist Caucasian who in turn considered him to be alien to England. He pointed out he was British born and raised even though he had an unusual accent. After I had said I was Australian I said I was more British than most English. Stupid thing to say and I know he took it the wrong way. I tried to explain that I was 70 years old who went back to Empire days. Even more stupid thing to say. Probably made it worse. People like him must get sick of being considered alien when he feels as English as anyone. He did look Indian but this is no excuse. Maybe not as many people in the street as last night but still too many people. Where do they come from? It’s worse than China. Britain will soon have to bring in the one child policy. Perhaps Brexit will make it possible. Denis Drinan has said we can visit next Wednesday and stay the night. Tuesday 5th December. Woke up very much alert during the night. I guess this is a perfect example of jet lag. Listened mainly to Radio 2 and Radio 4 and The World Service during the night. Scanned the whole spectrum. All pretty good. There is also commercial talkback similar to Australia with similar sentiments expressed. I actually listened to the shipping forecast. Or is it called the Shipping News. I can see why they make jokes about it. The announcer should get bored but appears not to. Up at 6AM. Blood Pressure 141/74. Pulse 57 Brexit Vote in the news. Northern Irish border the problem. DUP have reneged on their deal with the Tories. Lots of Northern Irish people interviewed. Is there a less attractive accent in the world? I thought that when the class system was demolished then accents would go as well. But they haven’t. Why? What makes people have accents? Especially unattractive ones. They must go eventually. You think the Irish are held back by not being the smartest people in the world but then you come across the Northern Irish and you don’t know what to think. They seem determined to be stupid. Unfortunately they aren’t smart enough to comprehend this. Still no TV. What do you do when you are awake and fully alert in the middle of the night? Left home about 9.30. Cold nippy overcast day. Not really cold though. 50 years ago I mainly wore shirt and jacket. Never an overcoat. Its still the same. Lots of young people hurrying to work. The place is different than 50 years ago. The young people are richer for one thing. They easily spend money on coffee and cake. They look much more sophisticated also. I felt completely attuned to them 50 years ago. Not so much now. Went to Charles Dickens House. Booked to attend a reading of Dickens work. Did a bit of reading in the bookshop/gift shop. Several books worth buying. A sympathetic book by Simon Callow. I will buy it and read it on the plane. We went by tube to Russell Square. This is where I stayed the first night I came to London. It also looks different to 50 years ago. We then had a fair walk to Dickens House. After that we went to St Paul’s. Took the bus. I am trying to travel as much as we can by bus. You get a better idea of the layout of the land – dimensions – distances – etc. We were trying to get tickets to a free performance of Handel’s Messiah. No luck. All tickets were sold out the day it was announced but we were advised if we came at 5.30 on Sunday and queued we might get in. We did gain entry to inside the Chapter House which was interesting. Went there to ask about tickets. Saw a painting of the Fire of London showing the fire before it got to St Paul’s. I have seen the painting in history books. This was the original painting. Over 500 years old and in good condition. Colour’s surprisingly good. Bright. Very good details of London Bridge and the old St Pauls before the fire got to it. The bridge did not get burnt but the fire came right up to it. They must have been able to somehow stop the fire coming onto the bridge. I suppose they would have had access to enough water from the river to stop it. Then bridge was made of wood and in parts was 2 stories high. People lived on it. Apartments above the shops. Interesting that after the fire they changed the local building regulations and all buildings after that had to be fire proof. Or were supposed to be. Certainly the new St Paul’s is made of stone and concrete. The Chapter House is stone with Brick Veneer. In Paternoster Square they have 2 table tennis tables set up. Jenny insisted on playing and got an Italian Women tourist to take our photos. But it was too windy so we did not play for long. A big Christmas Tree being set up. It is interesting to reflect that in the same place – and all of England for that matter – just a few hundred years ago all Christmas celebrations were banned. If we could recreate Cromwell’s day it would be exceeding interesting. We then had a long walk to The Barbicon Centre. We wanted to check out the free tours they have. Big crowd there. Some kind of academic graduation ceremony. Lots of young people in gowns and mortar boards. A slash of purple in their gowns. Does this mean anything? Both sexes and right across the heritage range. Lots of proud parents and grandparents having their photos taken with the graduating pupil. Lots of congratulatory handshakes. We had lunch in a Pret. It took us some time to find one. Normally they are pretty thick on the ground but this area is devoid of them. I had Chicken Soup and shared a bread stick with Jenny. They have a new innovation since we were last here – a half size soup - and she had one. After that we walked to the London Museum. Some changes since we were last there. But walked through all of it. The Roman history is the most interesting. The Romans were here for more than 400 years remember and the Brits tried to obliterate all of it. They hated foreigners as much then as they do now. More Victorian clothing items etc than last time. I would have thought that they would have made a special exhibition of television but no. Just a small screen showing an obscure children’s show. 50 years ago whilst there was less television than now some of it was better. There was rubbish on television 50 years ago believe it or not but there also was television that was so good it would easily beat anything on today. Young people hate me saying this but it’s true. We came home by bus. This was extremely enjoyable as the route was along High Holburn – the road seemed wider 50 years ago – I didn’t recognize anything – but the route took us past Australia House. I looked in the window where I used to work and there were 2 people in there. But this was the whole room – there were 20 or so when I worked there. The front door appeared to be open also. Went over Waterloo Bridge to Waterloo Station. Saw the Thames for the first time this trip. Came home via the Bakerloo line. No problem getting a seat. Went to M&S to buy some instant coffee. Dark at around 4.30. We had had enough of walking so came home and did not go out again. We have an interesting looking pub just two doors down we must visit. And there are lots of authentic looking eating places – a Skandi Noir – our English place run by the two girls previously mentioned. Our landlord has given me permission to go and buy a new aerial. Denis Drinan from the flat at 75 Eardly Cres has contacted me. Did a fair bit of walking today but I think I am getting fitter. Not so tired or sore. Had a few breaks from continually walking though. If I have a break I normally get a second wind. Monday 4th December. Slept through to 7.30. Intense pain in the right hip forced me to get up. Blood Pressure 130/62. Pulse 54. I have to get my phone alarm working. Overcast nippy day. Temperature about 8 Celsius. Not really cold. Did not wear jumper. We have some currency left over from our last trip that has been made redundant and we had to go to the Bank of England to get it changed. Would only change notes. Would not change coin. Said we should go to Tesco’s of Kensington where they will accept coins. Cannot believe that it’s so difficult to get it changed to acceptable currency. You would think the Bank of England would feel responsible. No explanation as to why this is. Modern thinking. Modern living. We then went to the Information Centre at St Paul’s. Saw a German girl named Doris. She spoke excellent English. Very wide vocabulary. How do people become so proficient in a second language? I would like to know. I complimented her on her language and asked her why she was called Doris. Not exactly a German name. She said she didn’t know but her parents must have liked British names – her sister is called Linda. We booked a trip to Stonehenge for Wednesday. More expensive than I anticipated. I hope it’s worth it. 50 years ago it was free. Stonehenge was situated in the middle of a paddock. Suddenly you saw it when driving along the road. Small carpark on the side of the road. A middle aged man was on hand to explain things. I thought he did a good job. Didn’t even ask for money. Maybe he asked for a donation. Cannot remember – but I do remember his enthusiasm and sincerity in telling the story of Stonehenge. And what he said. Where the stones came from. There is an outside ring of stones buried underground. There are other rings of stones in other parts of the country. No one knows why they are where they are or what their purpose is – except for aligning up with the summer solstice. A genuine amateur. Maybe he held out his hand for payment. But then we knew the value of money. Nowadays he would not be allowed within 1 mile of the place. From there we went to the Physic Garden at Chelsea. Took the District Line to Sloan Square and walked. Further than I thought. The map showing how to get there is not to scale. Interesting selection of plants cultivated for medicinal purposes. One small section of Australian Plants and some explanation of how aboriginals used them. Some were good for skin irritation. Others for removing fungus growth. Had lunch at the café. Excellent food. Great salad. All ingredients grown onsite. We returned to Victoria Bus station by bus. The bus passed us when we were 50 metres from the bus stop but the driver saw us attempting to run and waited for us. Made a joke of it. We made a recce for Wednesday to Victoria Bus terminal. Saw where the bus leaves. Had a walk around to check the place out. I once arranged to meet a friend on a Saturday afternoon at Victoria Terminal. Neither of us had been there before. No idea there would be so many people there. I knew she would have trouble finding me so I sat up on a window sill high above the crowd. The place was new then. The Victorian Line had just been completed. There was no roof over the bus terminal. Nevertheless there were a lot of people there but my friend had no trouble finding me. I thought I was clever. Now Victoria Terminal has a roof and a shopping mall is included. If you didn’t know the place you couldn’t say I’ll meet you at Victoria terminal without your friend having some trouble finding you. We came home via the Victoria Line. Went to Marks and Spencer’s to get things for tea. Home by 4.30. Getting dark. Both of us tired. I am without any energy whatever. To bed at 8PM. No problem going to sleep. Sunday 3rd Dec 2017. Woke up at 5.30. Blood Pressure 110/76. Pulse 76. Still no TV. Can get one channel that shows continuously Murder She Wrote and two other shopping channels. Cold overcast day. Mist in the air. No rain. Cannot see the sun so don’t know north from south or east from west. This is the disturbing thing about London in winter. You can never find your bearings. Growing up in Australia means you always know where north is by just looking at the sun. I had this problem 50 years ago and still have it. I don’t know in which direction to walk when I come out of the tube. I wore a jumper and scarf and I got too hot. We walked to Regents Park. Some people jogging. All ages. All sexes. Reflected on the fact that youth is wasted on the young as they relentlessly jogged past. Came across 2 grey squirrels as we walked into the park. Both expected treats. One even crawled a short way up my leg telling me to get busy. But unfortunately I had nothing for him. Quite a lot of the trees still have leaves on them. Is this because of climate change? You would have to say probably. Not many people feeding the animals. All the birds looked hungry. The water in the lake was extremely clear which indicates not much food in it. One or two eccentrics feeding the birds. One man had about 100 pigeons following him. They know me he said as we passed. Pleased with himself. One of the old school. Regents Park is larger than what it was 50 years ago. Or seems so. We finished up in Baker Street. Large crowd wanting to get into Madame Toussards. Watched as the doorman ran the scanner over a small child. I should have come back to London in my 40's or 50's when I prided myself on my ability to walk. I am too old for full time walking. I had had enough walking by 12.30. Not a lot of energy left. Intense pain in my hips and buttocks. We took the tube rather than walking home. Soup for lunch. There is a danger in coming home for lunch because there is always the temptation to have a nap. It saves some money but you can get trapped at home and not get as much sightseeing as you should. We shall see. No matter what the pain quotient I will try and keep at it. This is the last time we will come to London. In the afternoon we went via the tube to Trafalgar Square. Once again it looks different than it did 50 years ago. They have changed the traffic patterns for one thing. The dimensions look different. We looked to see what is on at St Martins in the Fields. We might go to something on Sunday night. In 1970 I was in Trafalgar Square one Sunday morning and I saw Bernadette Devlin making a speech to a small crowd. In the next fountain a german was shaving and washing himself. Very different now. We went to the National Portrait Gallery. Some of it is OK. But some of it is just plain dull. Portraits of people we have not heard of and nothing particularly special about the painting itself. I think it could do with a bit of culling. Maybe a lot of culling. And there should be more modern portraits. Most of the few modern paintings are obviously superior paintings. Some aren’t but you can see the difference and get my point. Extremely hot inside the building. It definitely drove my core temperature up. Took the opportunity to go to the toilet but of course the male toilets were locked so I went to the disabled female toilet but guess what? The lid would not stand up by itself so I had to hold it by hand. Designed for females only. Males who cheat and use it will be inconvenienced. Came across the BBC Radio building. Asked at the desk if there were any tours on offer. None but we could submit an application to be in the audience for a number of shows and therefore gain entry to the canteen which overlooks the studios. I have already looked on line and all are booked out. Interesting that the receptionist is from eastern Europe. The BBC are consistently consistent. I might come next Saturday morning and see if I can spy Danny Baker entering the building. Had my photo taken under the recently installed statue of George Orwell. One of Orwell’s quotations on the wall behind the statue can only be aimed at Thatchers Government and Rupert Murdoch. It is exquisitely defiant. But brave of the BBC to put it up. Interesting also that Orwell is smoking a cigarette. They have resisted the urge to be PC. We walked home. Lots of people in the street. It is dark by 4.30 and this is misleading. Makes you think its nighttime. More and more people as we got closer to Oxford Street. Not as many as last night but again too many people. I suppose they are all shopping. Lots of people taking photographs. Must be tourists. Foreigners. Will they still be here after Brexit? No doubt the English want them all to go home. What was the Brexit vote except an expression of the long held “we hate foreigners” prejudice of the English. Struggled to not go to sleep by 6PM. Without television there is not much else to do but to fall asleep. Saturday 2nd December 2017. Woke up at 7.30. Blood Pressure 119/80. Pulse 72. How can this be? Perfect on the first day. Is this a portent? Television still not working. Disaster. What to do? Our landlord is away on the continent somewhere. The air bnb add said both TV and Cable TV available. We walked to St Pauls. Quite nippy outside. Need gloves and scarf. I only had gloves. Jenny wanted to visit a London Information Centre. It was worth it. I recommend it. They have a lot of good publications. I particularly want to go to the Gresham College free lectures that are held in London but unfortunately there are only 2 in December. Lots in other months. These lectures were in existence 50 years ago and I occasionally went to them. I didnt go as much as I should have because I didnt think I would ever leave here so there was plenty of time to go at another time. I didnt have to hurry. This is the story of my time in London in 1971. Suddenly I had to leave when I had only barely scratched the surface. I had not even started. Walked past High Holburn. I remember once coming across High Holburn during a lunchtime walk in 1970. It looked different then. But then everything does. Walked through Paternoster Square near St Pauls. What is this place? I will have to look it up. We came back by bus. We should try and only travel by bus this time around. In 1970 it was lower class to travel by bus so I didn’t. Or partly why. I didn’t really know the bus system like I knew the underground system. Now it’s not exclusively lower class. And more enjoyable. Our bus takes us to Oxford Street Terminal pretty well opposite Great Titchfield Street. Big crowds in Oxford Street. We walked around side streets near our place just exploring and had a Lentil Soup in a local eatery run by two young girls. Excellent food. We should eat there every day. Extremely nice young girl from Coventry moved to London 1 year ago to manage the shop. The other girl is from Georgia. Judging by the state of the food they produce hard work is the order of the day. What with what the rents around here must be I don’t know how they make a living. We are living in the centre of London. Centre of the world really. The rents should reflect this. We went out again at 4.30 or so and walked along Regent Street but didn’t make it to Piccadilly Circus as we intended. Too many people. Some kind of demonstration outside the Canada Goose Store made the street almost impassable. Disciplined chanting from the demonstrators. Mostly women. We turned off Regent Street and went towards Soho. In 1970 I walked the length of Regents Street from Oxford Street to Piccadilly Circus and I did not see one other person. Admittedly it was about 9.30 on a cold night in winter. Every shop was closed. Nothing was open. There were no eating places at that time to attract people. It was so quiet that when you walked past each shop you could hear the interior music from inside the shop playing the musak of the day. Things were different then. Was it worse or better? Both I feel. I can remember the walk well. I enjoyed it. I commented to myself that I was doing something significant. Walking along the bright lights of Regent Street all by myself. Window shopping. Now you have to struggle just to keep on the footpath. There is a danger you will be pushed on to the road. Too many people. Even more than China. English women are so much bigger than what they used to be. They have grown approx. 30cm in 50 years. They are also so much more confident in their attitude. They now own the world. We inspected a new shop that sells soap products made up to look like food. Lots of people in there. It must be a new fashion. You can get facials etc. Have your skin rubbed with products which include blueberries etc. It didn’t look too appetizing but I watched a young girl having the works done. Face covered in clay. Arms and shoulders having some slime substance rubbed in. She appeared completely to be without embarrassment. Thursday 30th Nov Tarnook/Friday 1st Dec London. Left home around 5PM 30th Nov. Thursday. Departed 10.30 at night. We arrive London 11.30 AM Friday morning 1st Dec. Journey of 25 hours. We pass through several time zones. Hot day. James drove us to the airport. We left under the threat of 12 inches of rain forecast. If we get that amount you can more or less guarantee a flood. James said he would stay the night at Alex’s. Lots of new glamour stores in the international part of the airport once you get through border security if that’s what they are calling it these days. Not a lot of fast food places though. Only one really and lots of customers. Finally got on the plane. It took off and turned left towards Adelaide. Almost immediately went over ocean and stayed that way for all of the journey. Skirted round Perth and headed north. Maybe the weather is better over oceans. We stayed over the ocean – the inflight map showed all the troughs and peaks under the sea – and even flew all the way up the Red Sea. Duboi airport is fairly extensive. We only had time to go from one plane to the other. Airport so large there is a shuttle train service. Airport full of people. Notably the airport is a silent airport. No public announcements. Squat toilets in the women’s toilet. Men queued up to go in cubicles in the men’s toilet so maybe squat toilets there also. Not much sleep. But don’t feel too bad. Jenny has not got sick. How airlines are not making loads of money is beyond me. Every seat taken. A380 Airbus must hold 500 at least. Three/four/three configuration all the way along the bottom deck. Then there is the top deck. Very large plane. Mostly young people. I did not think the food was up to standard. One meal had three sausages and I could only eat one. I normally love airline food. In all meals everything except for the hot portion was frozen. Bread rolls were frozen etc. Butter frozen sold etc. Salads frozen. Most hot food was pretty tasteless. Chips were soggy. Very soggy. Nothing specifically Middle Eastern as far as I could ascertain. Simply a bad imitation of western junk food. Watched three movies. Churchill. Dr Zhivago and a Jackie Chan Chinese fantasy. None were any good. Dr Zhivago has aged badly. Julie Christie just not appropriate - looks wrong. Churchill film was simply boring. Actors no good. Only the bloke who played Churchill OK. How they make such crap movies about historical figures is hard to understand. Jackie Chans was set during Japanese occupation – lots of money spent on sets, uniforms, guns etc but still a silly fantasy film even though the subject matter was important. Hundreds of Japanese killed etc. I listened to Mozart and Beethoven. Listened all the way through to Beethovens 6th and 9th. Some Mozart I had not heard before. Listened all the way through to The Marriage of Figaro and The Magic Flute. I cannot recall there being so much dialogue in either Opera. In this case it seemed there was more dialogue than music. The standard of music in the recordings was not as good as I have heard elsewhere. Listened for a while to a lecture on Mozart and the Romantic period. I have always felt that Mozart wrote with his heart and Beethoven wrote with his head. But of course Mozart was a genius whose only interest was to write good music. Did Mozart write a brum note ever? Did he ever write anything that was not worth listening to? Of course his purpose was to provide music. Of course he knew he was good at it. The best even. He didn’t write with the intention he would be worshiped 200 years later. He just wrote the best he could for whoever paid him. Sometimes he didnt get paid. Because he was a true genius he deserves to be remembered. Hayden was wrong. Its more then 200 years and we still haven't remotely seen his equal. Beethoven was deaf when he wrote the 9th so it’s debatable if he heard any of it. I would have liked to have been in the audience at its first playing. It would have been gob smacking. The audience wouldn’t have known what hit them. It’s still gob smacking listening to it. There’s so much in it. The second movement fairly thuds along. Machine like. And the third is even more amazing. Did he know it would be his last symphony so he made it a killer? Or did he do it simply because he was commissioned to do so? Hard to say. If he had been commissioned to write a 10th it may have even been better that the 9th. Soft landing. Hardly noticed it. Brilliant sunshine. Not a cloud in the sky. Big crowd at the UK Border. Long wait to get through. In the past we have arrived early in the morning – 6AM or so and got through quickly. Not so today. Today it was 11.45. Lunchtime. Not as many inspectors available. Once you are through however it’s all happening. We still had our Oyster Cards from last time so it’s straight onto the Piccadilly Line. Changed to the Central at Holborn and off at Oxford Circus. More steps that I would have liked at both stations. It’s not exactly convenient with cases and bags. People asked if they could help but I had visions of them running off with the bags so we said no. Found Great Titchfield Street and walked 300 metres to our flat. Gained entry without too much trouble. Lots of stairs. But quite warm. Everything we need except the TV does not work. Internet and Wi Fi OK. We walked to Marks and Spencers in Oxford Street and bought our tea from the Food Hall. Lots of people in the street. Lots of street eateries. Tried to turn the heating off before going to bed at 8PM. The English love over heating every building. So different to 50 years ago.
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