Friday
August 13, 1982 – London #2/#3
It was a
lovely morning when I woke up at about 06.30 and I went for a run along the
Embankment since my leg felt much better. No repercussions there so at least I
will be able to keep a bit fitter.
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| Tower of London - Tower Bridge behind |
After
breakfast, which I cooked – scrambled eggs, bacon, toast and yoghurt – we set
off in summer rig for the Tower
of London, intending to
go from there to St Katherine’s Dock and the London Dungeons.
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| Rab and some Beefeaters |
The weather
had turned foul while we were absorbing all the historical information and Rab
in particular was freezing, so we caught a cab – just double the Tube fare of
£1.00 – and dashed for home. We got held up on the way by some NUPE protesters
who were striking for higher pay. (This
was quite an experience for us because strikes were illegal in South Africa
and protests like this one would attract armed police and tear gas. Here the
police just stood by and watched the show.) After a sandwich lunch in the
flat we set off, more suitably attired, for Madame Tussauds in some occasional
showers. Matt and I loved the waxworks despite Rab’s constant mutterings that
it had changed since she was last there twenty years previously- and not for
the better.
Having seen
all there was to see we went on to the Planetarium where we saw a show about
the stars which I found very informative while Rab had a little snooze.
We came home
via Marks & Spencers in The Strand to collect a few bits and pieces as Jan
was coming to supper. We gave her quite a good scrap meal with sausages, erbsen
puree, cauliflower au gratin and stuffed potatoes – marvellous what you can buy
ready prepared in the supermarkets here.
It was a
very pleasant evening and Jan seems happy in her new job. She even outtalked
Rab for a (brief) spell.
Saturday
August 14, 1982 – London
Matt and I
nipped off to town as soon as we had breakfast and had sorted out the goods we
are taking on our trip tomorrow. The main object of our city excursion was to
get our films into Boots as their developing and printing is so cheap. Having
done that we diverted to Hamleys – or at least Matt did while I dashed off to M
& S in Oxford Street
to get some comestibles for lunch.
We got back
to the flat just after 12.00 and watched telly while waiting for Jan to arrive.
She finally made it by about 14.00 so by the time we had eaten and were ready
to go it was after 15.00. Jan’s driving was a little hesitant at times – not
the speedster that Rab had recalled from years back.
First call
was the Covent Garden Market which was very colourful and interesting. All
sorts of arts and crafts – and some pretty unusual (for us at least) people.
Rab didn’t enjoy herself all that much as she teamed up with Jan, who was
looking for clothes and since the fashions were “way out” it was a bit of a
waste of time.
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| St Katherine's Dock |
Next port of
call was St Katherine’s Dock. There was a number of historical ships there,
including Cook’s Discovery but felt that the entrance charge of £1.75 a head
was more than we wanted to pay. So we just had a coffee at the Dickens Inn and
had a look at the shops before setting off for the London Dungeon. When we got
there Jan said she was not too keen on going in and as the entrance fee was
£2.80 each we decided to give it a miss, which was fine by me. Not sure that
anyone would have enjoyed the scenes of violence and torture.
 |
| Tower Bridge |
The rest of
the afternoon was spent driving around seeing the sights, including to Matt’s
delight, Buckingham
Palace. Back to the flat
for supper and spent most of the evening watching television. Some of it was
very good, but there was also a lot of rubbish.(Although we could see the Zimbabwean television in colour because we
had imported a colour set, not generally available in Zimbabwe, the broadcasts were
pretty poor quality.) I tried some Californian wine which I got at
Littlewoods – quite pleasant.
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