Wednesday, 21 July 2021

Around the World with Bradley: London Thames

Central London

Grey stone buildings. Narrow cobblestone streets. Exterior of buildings. Bleak boring dull. Disguises the interiors.

Few signs, little lighting, no advertising,

Street of grey bare trees; no flowers in flower boxes. Trees sleep without their leaves below a grey overcast sky.

People in thick jackets; grey, brown, dark blue or black hats. No tropical colours.

South African  shop. Black cat peanut butter; ouma rusks; aromat; biltong; pronutra; scattering of curios and postcards. Refuge for the homesick.

Enter a pub. I order a coffee. The smell of smoke causes others to leave. I follow the others before my coffee arrives.

Cagney Restaurant. Depressingly dour. Service is so slow I never saw it so cannot comment on it.

 

Catamaran Cruises

We travel on the Thames. The boat is not a catamaran.

Thames is wide, brown flowing rapidly under all the famous bridges.

Crew: I am just a crew of this boat. Not a trained guide. Put your headphones on and listen.

If you enjoyed the commentary, please make donation in the box as you exit. It would be greatly appreciated.

London stretches everywhere. Bisected by the Thames. Large tides. Low tide now. Can see the retaining wall.

 

National Maritime Museum

Royal Observatory: The search for longitude. Grandfather clocks. Pendulum clocks. Fascinating. Tick tick tick. chronometers

Jimmy grabs a moment to smoke and tells me: Jenny fussing and panicking and thinks I’m still smoking. What’s the big deal. I’ve gone from 60/day to 3/day.

The clocks work beautifully. Aesthetic. Art meets science.

 

Lunch in Greenwich

Disgusting, terrible traditional fish and chips.

Me: Is this traditional fish and chips?

Jimmy: I was just going to say something about that.

Me: So, this is a mistake?

Jimmy: Not the way it’s meant to be.

Rhonan rings every half an hour to get the latest cricket score. South Africa and Sri Lanka. SA is winning by more than needed.

Return trip. Gets dark at 4:30 pm. Buildings come alive. Some are floodlit. Some internally lit.

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