Monday 17th May 2010 (part 1)

That's one day of the week down already. And there I was battling the forces of incompetence and laziness, and not really winning. But getting things to change is like a game of chess, lay down the traps and wait for the prey to make the mistake. Or am I thinking about spiders? Anyway, in tow days time I will be in La Belle France meeting those I may end up dropping in the kaka, or rather they will drop themselves in it. And already they have.

But more of that another night. The weekend is over, the sun is shining and the garden is growing, growing. We have garlic, sunflowers, tomatoes, beans strawberries, sweet peppers and flowers, flowers everywhere, all growing. And we had fun with our two days off. On Friday we went for cocktails at a local bar, to celebrate the nuptials of one of Jools' bosses. We got a drink out of it, and then went outside to chat with a few of the other wallflowers whilst the bright young things dazzled in the spotlight.

We then went off to a local Indian place for the traditional English dinner of curry, rice and naan bread. And beer. Or I did. It was all very nice, and the restaurant was empty when we walked in, and just four more people joined us, and all in for about twenty knicker; not bad.

Saturday, we were up with the larks, and cats, and out driving down to Dover Priory after picking up Jools' Dad's wife, step-mother-in-law? Anyway, she had never really looked round London, and we offered to take her to a few of our favourite places.

So, we arrived at the station to find that I had messed up the train times, and the high speed service did not run at a quarter to eight, and that we would catch the 'classic' service instead. Quite how much slower it took that the high speed, or how much slower than the same journey had taken back in December before the timetable change. We cruised through the admittedly beautiful Kentish countryside, pausing for what seemed like ages at stations. It seemed to take forever, which was nearer two hours. But, in time, we did arrive at London Bridge and we got off, and London Town was all ours.



In truth it is some time since we passed through London Bridge, and beside it Europe's tallest building, The Shard is being built; so we paused whilst I snap it, and then we move on to Borough Market.



Borough Market is claimed to be Britain's leading artisan market, and is full of lovely fruit, veg, meat and fish, and is a riot of smells and is just a pleasure to wander through, sampling what was on offer, and marvelling at the taste. We buy buffalo Mozzarella, Italian tomatoes, spicy smoked sausage and other things so wondrous we spent our wallets empty in a few minutes.



We stop for a wonderful bacon sandwich and a cup of tea; we sit watching the first of many Portsmouth fans we were to see that day, having a huge fry up washed down with the first beers of the day.



And then out over New London Bridge, to the City and my location of choice, 30 St Mary Axe, of as it's better known, The Gherkin.