Travelling England (6)

Tuesday, July 20, 2010:

London

A surprisingly nice day, yesterday, but now it's cloudy again. Under the clouds one aeroplane after the other, since we're in a flightpath to Heathrow. They are not much of a nuisance, still flying reasonably high, but the helicopters are. Gigantic, angry horseflies. I arrived in London around four o' clock and took a taxi from Euston station to Fulham. The Eastbourne trains run from Victoria, which has a direct connection with Parson's Green, so tomorrow I'll take the underground. Taxi's are expensive in London. Even more than in Holland. Had a nice walk with Debby and Saskia in the gardens of Fulham Palace, but when we went for a drink at the cafe, around five thirty, it had already closed, just like the one at the other end of the park. They know how to make money. We went to The White Horse on the Green instead. We sat outdoors so I could smoke my pipe. I noticed the people around looked a fair bit less rough than in Chester. It's either imagination, the effect of the weather or I went to the wrong places up north. They served quite a collection of Belgian beers but alas all of them triples whereas I only drink dubbel. We had dinner in the garden at Debby's, after which we had a long talk about John and Stella. She had a lot of support from John's friends after he died, and still has, just like my friends did a lot to drag me through the aftermath of Stella's illness and death.

No news about a new government or not in Holland. It's five hours sailing to the east, but it seems non-existent in the news. We tend to think that Holland, particularly Amsterdam, is the centre of the world. Compared to London and even Thessaloniki it's a provincial backwater. Never mind Dordrecht. Just a dormitory suburb of Rotterdam, but when I'm having a drink on a nice summer day at the river side, it is the centre of the world again.

Wednesday, July 21, 2010:

London

The house is still asleep, but I did already pack my suitcase for the trip to Eastbourne. We slept early last night after I took Debby and Saskia out for dinner at a local Italian restaurant. Willem is staying with a friend. Fairly good pizza's but not as good as those of Costa d' Oro in Dordrecht. A nice place run by nice people, but unfortunately it was too cold to eat outside.

Yesterday I took it easy. I went to Victoria station to get my ticket for Eastbourne and had a look around the local W.H. Smith where I bought Annette Carson's Richard III. The Maligned King. It was too early for a pint but we were to have lunch at around one, so I had some time to kill. I remembered that nice place, The Troubadour, in Old Brompton Road where I met with Moniza Alvi last year, so I took the tube to Earl's Court from where it is a short walk. It has a nice secluded garden where I had a cappuccino and smoked my pipe. I did a bit of quiet reading as well before returning to Fulham. After lunch I sat in Debby's garden and finished reading The Return of Captain John Emmett, a fascinating historical novel and very well written.

I seem to have left Chester just in time, because in the northwest they had days of heavy weather whereas it was quite nice down here.

Talking at lunch Debby and I were wondering how people can still believe in the humbug of christianity. There's one activity at the Annual Conference I will definitely give a miss and that's going to church on Sunday.