sizzle

This Sunday I woke up here. Another fairly hectic weekend which started innocently enough waiting for a train in a sleepy little train station somewhere called Riddleswick in deepest Surrey.

I'd driven to the train station and was waiting on the platform, expecting Thomas the Tank engine to show up at any moment. In the end a sleek twelve coach mainline service arrived and our larger group then headed back to the car.

We were actually on the way to party, which was kicking off in the afternoon and then keeping going into the night. We'd decided to be there for the first part before heading into town for he evening. Last Sunday our barbecue was under 5cm of snow. This weekend it was possible to fire up a barbecue and start one of the rituals that reminds that spring is properly here.

Then back via the South Circ for an evening in town. We expected to be around Waterloo but somehow ended up in Lambeth drinking dusty Mexicans which kind of leads me to the view from the room. Great last night and amazing in the sunshine this morning, at least until the rain clouds arrived at about eleven o'clock.

I could see past Lambeth Bridge to Westminster Bridge in the distance, where there was a noticable absence of traffic. Sunday heralded the London Marathon and so there were plenty of road closures in the central area.

I could see the planes and helicopters buzzing overhead and realised that the end of the race was only about 15 minutes walk away, so what better than to take a look?

And as I walke dtowards the Mall, I started to spot evidence of the race, streets close, police, medics, venues turned over to after race parties and people walking around with the distinctive flora carrier bags, in some cases wearing their medals or the tee-shirts provided at the end, emblazoned with 'Finisher'. At the time I was around the finish, it was still the faster rnners coming through, maybe at around times of just over three hours, with many being filmed at the line by the Press, the regulation Elvis, Marilyn, gorillas and tu-tus, with just about everyone whooping with joy at the line. More pix here