Saturday 25th September 2021

And what, as it would turn out, was an exciting and event packed day.

Due to the protests and queues, we decided to go to Tesco before going to London. This meant getting up really early, and even in normal times would have been plenty of time, but these are not normal times, I mean I knew there had been queues for fuel the day before, but really I wasn't prepared for what I saw.

Jools was even more worked up about it that I was, and in order for our day in London to go smoothly, she was awake at four, and went to Tesco at half past as it should have been open, but wasn't. The petrol station there and at the Duke of Yorks were closed and both had "no fuel" signs.

Jools came back, and it was her reversing down the drive that woke me up. I got up; it was ten past five. I checked online and Tesco would be open at six, so we had coffee and went out at five to.

No cars at Shell, but then no fuel either, and when we got to Whitfield I could see the queue of cars leading into Tesco, all for fuel, but there was no getting into the car park, even if I wanted to.

I dropped Jools off, and I said I would check at Shell.

I should point out that the red fuel light had come on at this point, so wasn't merely panic buying, we really needed fuel.

At Shell there were two lines of cars forming, so I joned one of three to a row of pumps, but I saw a tanker was filling the tanks, so there should be fuel.

And as I waited, we all waited, more cars joined at the back and soon they were queued up onto the A2 and across the roundabout. It felt like madness. I got a text for Jools saying there were few in Tesco and all what we needed was in, so I hoped that I could refuel and go to pick her up.

We waited and waited, turned out the pumps could not be reset, and in the end one driver was told to try to refuel and see what happened. What happened was that fuel came out, so we returned to our cars and waited our turn.

Mine came and I filled up, it was all very orderly and British, I even said thanks to the lady on the till as I paid. I drove to Tesco and met Jools on the layby on the through road, so we loaded the car and went home.

We were booked to go on a boat tour of the Thames, and had to be at the Tower of London by half ten, meaning we really had to catch the quarter to eight train, the one an hour later might make it, but it would be tight.

We unloaded the shopping, but the milk and cheese in the fridge, left the rest and I grabbed a camera and we were back in the car hand heading into town. We had twenty minutes.

Thankfully, I found a place to park in Priory Gate, Jools had gone to buy tickets, so by the time we met on the platform, our train was coming in, so we were able to board and sit down, and have ten minutes to wait before departure.

Phew.

The journey to London you know, but even for me, only the second time in three months we have gone by train to London, and that previous trip was the first time in 16 months. But here we were again, zooming through Kent and under the Thames into Essex and then through the long tunnel to Stratford.

We had 90 minutes, enough time for breakfast, so we went to the place I used to use when I travelled to LCY, had a grilled cheese sandwich and coffee, before walking through Westfield to the regional station to catch the DR into central London.

We used to stand here and look on at the Olympic Park being built, not its home to West Ham and lots of housing.

So it goes.

The DR came and we climbed in. Again, not crowded so we felt safe enough. We wore our masks again.

Getting off at Poplar to change for a service to Tower Gateway, we took in the scene of Canary Wharf ahead of us. And for a Saturday morning, there were few other passengers waiting, or on the next train when it pulled in.

Just ten minutes into The City, walking dwon the steps from the station we were confronted by the traffic intersection that separated us from the Tower. In a gap in the traffic, we ran over to the other side, then along the main road to Tower Bridge. I don't want to labour the point, but usually this pavement is rammed with people, I was able to stop and get shots with no trouble.

We had twenty minutes, so we stop for a coffee beside Tower Bridge, before walking inder the road and along the river between the Thames and the Tower. There were tourists, but in fractions of the numbers usually seen here.

We heard the siren going off, and this we knew was the arrival of our boat, The Will, coming to the pier to pick us up. Its an old Thames barge, and the bridge had to be raised to allow the mast to go through.

We all climbed aboard, and found places to sit around the deck, listened to the safety bref before they cast off, and we had to wait for half an hour before Tower Bridge would reopen for us to go through.

There are amny dofferent ways of travelling up, or down, the river. The jet clippers can be used for the price of a few stops on The Tube, there are cruise boats, and jet powered speed boats, that have a loud James Bond soundtrack, apparently. Or there is a gentle chug on a barge. YOu get to see much more detail from each shore, and everyone else seemed to want to wave at us.

We waived back.

The first mate got children on board to trim the sails, pulling on ropes nearly as thick as their arms.

We drifted along, though Wapping and round the Isle of Dogs. Canary Wharf, which sits at the top of the Isle of Dogs, apparently got close, moved round, got further away and came back close again, as the river wound itself round the Isle.

On the other back, Greenwich came and went, the Navl Hospital looking magnificent and the Royal Observatory on the hill with time ball clearly visible from the river.

We cruised on.

We came to the Thames Barrier, flood defence for the city. I can remember seeing this on TV when it opened back in the 80s, and now we were going to sail through it.

Once through the barrier, the captain turned the wheel and so began the slow drift back to Tower Bridge, the only problem being that it wasn't due to open until half three, meaning we would be waiting somewhere.

Saying that, it was announced that lunch was served; bangers, mash, peas, carrots and onion gravy, all of which went down very well. We ate in the state room down below, and very nice it was, and amazing that food for about fifty of us was produced in such a small galley.

We ate well, and I treated myself to a glass of red wine, Jools had a cider, and we went back up to the deck to watch London glide by.

We went back past the Dome, the cable car, Greenwich, Rotherhythe, Isel of Dogs until we reached The Pool of London, where we had to go round in circles for an hour, as we waited for the bridge would open for us, and a sister barge too, letting us approach the dock inbetween jet clippers and other ferries, giving us ten minutes to get off and then get to land.

THe area around the Tower was busy, not anything like it usually is, so we picked our way through camera toting families, up to Tower Hill tube station, and down to the Circle Line platform to wait 5 minutes for a train to whisk us to Kings Cross.

Again, the train wasn't crowded for a weekend, and we got seats and so people watched as the train went through and under the City.

Up in St Pancras, we had twenty minutes before the train to Dover left, Jools went to get supplies from M&S, and I walked up to the platform to wait, my back grumbling about sitting for four hours on a hard hold cover on the barge.

We got seats on the train, opened cans of ginger beer and Italian fruit juice, grazed on honey roast peanuts as the train sped through the tunnel to Essex.

I checked my phone, and Norwich had slumped to another defeat, the sixth straight loss of the season, and things look grim. I paid little attention to other results.

We arrived in Dover at twenty to six, walked to the car and drive back home, getting inside just before six, in time for Craig on the radio.

I put the kettle on, check on the interwebs and then began sorting through shots taken during the day, 800 of them!