Dear Nessi

You know that thing where if you turn down a different street the entire course of your life could be changed? No, that didn't happen to me today, but it was odd to think that because of something that happened in a city several thousand miles away from here, 17 months ago, my route home was altered.

This morning I went to the art shop in K Town. I stopped by the health food shop to see Vodkaman, who talked me into some very yummy plantain and coconut soup. Gave fliers for my gig on Sunday to Vodkaman and Steven, as I won't be going out the next two nights I have no where else to distribute them. No wonder no one comes to see us (well, we'll see about that - you and Vimco will be there for the gossip factor anyway, hee. Buddy romance between band members? We'll see….).

Then I went to the green grocer. Police sirens screamed along Twelve Nuns Road. Pretty normal really. I wondered if the "Hooky", as he is known in the tabloids, would be holding his weekly punch up at the local mosque. Ever since it was shut down, the radical cleric has been having services in the street outside. This attracts the attention of both police and media. A few weeks ago someone hit a journalist and it was on the news.

So I pedalled down Twelve Nuns road. Traffic was heavy. An ambulance with is siren on sped past. Either there was an accident, trouble at the mosque, or just normal traffic. We are outside the congestion zone; I have noticed no change in traffic since the introduction of congestion charging on Monday.

I went under the bridge, past the tube station, and turned right onto the pavement, against a one way street, as usual. But, as I predicted, the little cycle road, and the surrounding pavement, were covered in men praying. About 50 of them. I got off my bike and walked past, outside the barriers. A handful of police surrounded the group, seeming to guard them. A man with a beard was shouting to the congregation, just out of earshot. And that nasty man with one eye and a hook in place of a hand that he lost in Afghanistan was standing silently on the guy's left. Some men standing around had their faces covered with scarves.

I went down another route, getting slightly lost. Wondering, if these guys really were members of Al Quaeda, and if they were, why the police weren't arresting them. And if they weren't, then why does their place of worship need to be closed? Had 9-11 never happened, even if the mosque had had dodgy dealings going on, no doubt it could have been quietly investigated, not shut down. And my route home today would not have been blocked by men praying on the pavement.

Petra

*for American readers, if we still have any: "pavement" = sidewalk