Woke up at 6.15AM Blood Pressure 105/69 Pulse 99 Listened to the radio. The number of hate crimes in South Africa. Where will we go today? Spent 1 hour looking up addresses and directions to various museums. In the end I decided to go to Barking. We took the Metropolitan and Hammersmith and City lines to Barking. Its on the opposite side of town to Chesham and its about 180 degrees different. Chesham is comfortably English whereas as Barking is comfortably mixed. You do not hear English Spoken that much on the trains or in the street. Very mixed race place. We went into an ASDA Supermarket to buy some Ceylonese Teabags. Yes Ceylonese is on the Packet. Cannot yet again note that English Supermarkets are laid out better than Australian and have a better range of goods. When I was here 45 years ago there wasn't one real supermarket in London. Earls Court had a shop that was trying to be a supermarket. But it was very small. But it was self serve. There were no supermarkets in London - you have to believe me. None. Melbourne had lots. Real Supermarkets. Now London's Supermarkets are better than Australia's. How did this happen? This photo of a Travel Agency gives an indicatio of the ethnic mix that is prominemt in Barking. One odd thing I have noticed in London is the number of people who smoke E Cigarettes. Plastic looking half pipes. They walk around occasionally taking a giant suck and smoke is produced by the electronic cigarette. And they gulp it down. Both men and women. But I would say more women. Its odd to see. We went into a womans clothing shop and Jenny bought some trousers. Light beige. We walked up and down Barkings main street and had lunch in an African Eatery franchise called Tasty African Food. I think they may have been Nigerian but might have been from The Congo. I had curried fish and rice. It was good basic food. Jenny had a pie which she felt had too much pastry in it. She also had a sweet ball made similar to a doughnut. The clientele were all African except for us and one English girl who came in for take away. One man ate with his right hand. He wasn't Pakistani so they must eat the same way in parts of Africa. We had to take 3 buses to get back to Charing Cross. I sat next to a young girl who was scratching her scratch cards. She didn't win anything. I told her we were from Australia and we were taking buses around London. She said she was from Portugal and had been here since 97. Very nice girl. She must have come from Portugal's overseas territories. I found her hard to understand but jenny didn't. Its not odd to speak to people here and find they do not speak English. It happened twice to me today. I said how are you to an Indian Man who looked me in the eye and he took me at my word and proceeded to tell me about his bad back is and how his spine is injured. He didn't speak English too well. I spoke to another elderly gentleman wearing what approximated to the National Clothes of Pakistan at the bus stop but he indicated with embarrassment that he did not speak English. We walked past a Pub that advertised English Beer and said it had a beer garden. We went in for a look. There were about 5 blokes my age in there. All white. Jenny reckoned that they would meet here every day. She felt the place had a skinhead feel about it. We didn't stay for a drink. Actually not many of the pubs look inviting. They must all be having a hard time because there are not a lot of people in them. At least not when we pass them. Much like pubs in Benalla. Pretty well empty. We came back to Preston Road and had our phones turned on. Ten pound for one month. The phone bloke very helpful. Comes from Afghanistan. Said he has been here for 20 years. His family was one of the first to leave. He has been back twice but the last time he could only stand it for one day and he is never going to go back. He says there are about 40,000 Afghans in London and 20,000 live in this area. I believe him. He is very proud that Afghans blend in quickly. Not much to watch on TV. Watched a bit of the Jimmy Saville show. Why do all these victims still speak in euphemisms. Why don't they say exactly what happened. I very quickly resort to type and lose interest. And did any of them say no. Maybe not. One woman who must be 50 now still cannot speak. Her situation was exaggerated because her mother was such a fawning fan of Jimmy and was so enamored of him. She was so proud that her daughter had met Jimmy Saville and had been invited to look inside his tour bus.. Jimmy Saville was a star when I was here. His image was that he was a healthy heterosexual who loved beautiful girls. He was always giving the nudge nudge wink wink look option to women. On his radio show he was always interviewing giggly young girls in cupboards or darkened rooms - on trains - in the street - in lifts - all indicating a healthy interest in sex between the girl and him. I did think he did have a fixation about his mother - the Duchess. He spoke of her in much the same was as Liberace spoke of his mother. He was always referring to her(the Duchess) and what she thought. If he was ever pretending to be in danger he would always say goodbye duchess - if something happens there is money for you in my bedside drawer. Or back pocket etc.
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