UK Trip 2005

Russell Square next stop. Found my favourite marmalade in Tesco Express for less than half what it costs in Australia...import duties, hah! Walked along the side of Tavistock Square and past the hotel which marked the start of the last UK odyssey. Memories came back of bus tours, continental breakfasts, the Ghandi statue in the Square and Chris Tarrant doing breakfast on Capital FM...and of the jobsworths at Hotelink who never got me there. Maybe they should be running a chip shop in N5. Back round the block to Russell Square itself and the University of London. Orwell's inspiration for the 1984 Ministries, the 1930s-constructed Senate Building, is of course exactly the same, perhaps slightly cleaner looking. The square, however, is much greener and spring-like, with at least one huge explosion of cherry blossom in the middle. Very nice. Part-walked, part-Tubed to Covent Garden, with the Piccadilly Line quite a squeeze after a signals failure on the District Line put lots of extra people right where I was. Is our Transport Minister in town showing them how things don't work at home? The Dr Martens store in Covent Garden is boarded up, an ominous sign of their fortunes? Not boarded up at all are the market stalls there, in rude health in fact, crawling with tourists and eccentric string quintets. What has happened to the Our Price shop in Neal Street? Forbidden Planet on Shaftesbury Avenue has the radio-control Daleks!!! The 60 quid pricetag is not the biggest problem. The product box is massive. Can't see that going home with me unless I want deja vu from the extortionists at the Heathrow excess baggage scales. The vegetarian cafe in Neal Street has all my sympathy and ideological support, but they need to be able to produce a takeaway glass of orange juice inside ten minutes. Will see them again when there's time and space there for a sit-down meal. Next Previous

You are watching:

Name:

Andrew L

Email:

ukmay05@yahoo.co.uk