London Saturday 6th June

Raining and a bit cold so plans to go up the Thames to Kew gardens were shelved and spent some of the morning in McDonalds ( more bad coffee) uploading blog material, then on Tube to check out St Pancras station where A&K will catch the Eurostar to Paris when we return to the south. An amazing building and the Eurostar just rolled in from Paris exactly on time to the minute.
In the morning in one of the tunnels in the Tube at Paddington a woman in the crowd who was rushing to catch a train tripped and fell face down right in front of us and smacked her chin, lip and nose on the floor –blood everywhere and a very officious little man stopped and kept saying “I am trained First Aider with certificates! ” until I had to tell him to shut up. It was just like the old CPR videos they showed us in nursing school where some one steps forward and says “Stand back, stand back I know CPR!” What was most interesting was how fast the station manager was on the scene, I guess the commotion was picked up on the CCTV which is everywhere.
H persuaded the team to walk from St Pancras via Hunter Street down to St Pauls –bells ringing for evensong-across the Millenium Bridge which doesn’t sway any more and to the Tate Modern where Lyndsay was especially taken with a Marc Chagall painting and we were all fascinated by an installation called 30 Pieces of Silver by Cornelia Parker. She had collected hundreds of items of silverware ranging from candlesticks to trumpets and flutes to trays and vases, had them all run over by a steam roller and then suspended in 30 groups about 20 cm above the floor –mind blowing stuff. Then just to finish off the day we headed for Oxford St and a shop called Primark-thousands of people in this cut price clothing store. A&K bargain hunted and H&L were overwhelmed and had to go outside. Dinner at an asian fast food restaurant –had promise like the fish and chip shop but again unfulfilled. Observations of Oxford St on a Saturday night –as many people in one place as in Hong Kong, and every other language than English.
Other random thoughts-shelves and shelves full of pre prepared food-no wonder people don’t cook ( H would be in her element here)-Tesco makes superb croissants and Sainsbury has great baguettes –crisp on out side and soft inside-you can tell this is a self catering trip!