divisions

Yesterday's slight preparation paid off as we were able to transition around London without the level of trouble depicted on the television.

We started South of the River around lunch time, at the Mason's Arms, which no longer contains the Rubic cube replica of Battersea Power Station. Six of us enjoyed a raucous and boozy lunch before dividing our separate ways at Battersea Park train station which gave some of the gang a clever way back to the east.

We carried on back over Chelsea Bridge towards the centre. We'd met some of the marchers from the peaceful protest against the cuts and the general impression seemed to be of a pleasant and well natured crowd.

In our case we were heading eventually for the Two Brewers just off of St Martins Lane where we had planned further rendezvous before heading on to a theatre.

We used a pretty circuitous route to get the the area, with various thoroughfares closed and part of the central area effectively cut in two. Unfortunately one of our friends was already caught up in the London bottlenecks and there were hurried text messages before she had to make a sensible retreat.

The Two Brewers was surprisingly busy and it was obvious that about half of the occupants had been on the march. All somewhat incredulous at the television reportage which bore little comparison to the peaceful events of the day.

The last of our group arrived and after a second round of drinks it was time to head for the theatre. A three minute walk punctuated by the drone of several helicopters overhead.

The show was the entertaining 'Our Style is Legendary' by Daniel Hoffman-Gill at the Tristan Bates.

More of that in a separate blogpost.

After the show we hung around to say a brief 'hi' to Daniel, before heading to a conveniently close Thai restaurant for a late evening supper. A pleasant round table near the window, which meant we could all see the escalating number of blue flashing lights passing on their way to Trafalgar Square. Suffice to say they were going left so when we left the restaurant we decided it prudent to turn right.

Then back across to the west. Along parts of Oxford Street and Piccadilly which looked about typical for early hours and also by chance along the edge of Fortnum's still standing largely as normal despite the earlier 'occupation'.

And eventually homeward, with a strange blend of meetings with friends, pubs, Nottingham storyline and a rather strange and divided view of the London scenes from earlier in the day mixing together in our heads.