Up Town

Lovely day today and a bit out of the ordinary. We headed out just before 10:00 and caught the train to London. We selected optimal seats and settled down. The problem was that at the first stop a family got on and sat behind us. Not only were they wearing Arsenal t-shirts, but they were loud, ill-spoken, and allowed their kids to have their tablets to entertain them. No headphones - just tablets on full volume for the whole coach to enjoy. Well, from the moment we saw the t-shirts we should have known what to expect.

Once in London we headed off to Covent Garden where we met with J&T and headed off for something to eat. We had a light lunch and then separated. The Silver Vixen, J&T headed off in one direction to the theatre. The Gorse Fox headed off towards Marble Arch. He set Google navigation to guide him and stuck his headphone in his ears. As he walked through the crowds he received instructions to turn left or right down various streets. He noticed that in addition to the audible commands he was getting vibrations from the phone. Two for left and one for right (or maybe it was the other way round). He though that was clever.

Arriving at Marble Arch he sent a text to his Canadian friend and within short while we had met up. We then set off across Hyde Park (avoiding the vast throng entering the "Proms in Park" concert). Eventually we stopped at the Serpentine and grabbed a coffee. We sat and chatted for a couple of hours, catching up on all our news and the gossip from Starfleet. It was a lovely interval and one that we must repeat on his next visit. (He travels for one week every month).

The Gorse Fox headed back to meet with the Silver Vixen and J&T. Down Oxford Street, fighting through the crowds and walking in the middle of the street when the traffic allowed.  Turning onto Dean Street and then finally onto Old Compton Street. He turned the wrong way that this point and it took him a few minutes to realise, before turning and locating the restaurant that was the rendezvous point. They had obviously had a wonderful time at "Motown The Musical" and were absolutely bubbling. We headed inside and were shown to our table. It was a small family run Italian restaurant and the food was both varied and excellent.

Once dinner was finished we headed back into the evening and walked down Charing Cross Road towards Embankment. We said our goodbyes as J&T carried on to Waterloo and we took the tube to Victoria. We didn't have long to wait for our train and arrived back at Bognor Regis just after ten. It had been a lovely day.