IN LONDON

I can hardly believe I've made it. I decide to take things easy so once I've booked in I have a cool shower and change then set off out for the evening. I take the tube across the river to my favourite pub in this district, the Prospect of Whitby.  

I stay for a couple of beers but cannot bring myself to order food as I'm just not very hungry. It's important to remember that if I do so it's the equivalent of eating at 3am. So I just saunter back to Whitechapel thinking of a portion of chips but this is unavailable in this area or at least I am not sure of the food hygiene locally. I therefore eventually go back to my digs and doze off for the night: it's fitful but I hope enough. At least, at last I am back in England. I message Phantom to let her know I am safe and call Sarah, which I have been longing to do. We have a cheerful chat and she's glad to know I'm OK. My accommodation as I say is student lodgings which is now free for the summer, so I have a relatively cheap if basic place to stay for 3 nights.

The next morning the first thing I do is to walk out for some breakfast. I'm not normally a breakfast person but this time I feel I could use it. I can recall a cafe nearby where I can get a good English breakfast but cannot seem to remember where it is. I come across it eventually, and have a full English with coffee. Most restaurants, cafes and shops around here cater for Indian and middle Eastern customers so I'm glad I found this. On getting back to my digs I take the tube to King's Cross to collect my rail ticket to Newark, the last stage of my journey. In doing so I map out the number of times I will have to use stairs and while it is not ideal I think I can cope if my back holds out. Anyway in the worst case scenario I will have to take a taxi. However once I have picked up my ticket a discouraging thing happens: suddenly there is a signal failure on the Hammersmith line and I can't use it to get back; fortunately I can plan an alternative route fairly easily as I know the tube network so I take the Picadilly and Jubilee lines to Canada Water, the tube station I passed through on my very first solo trip out to China (in 2015, ) where I stop at the riverside pub and have a beer while I call my father at home, whilst looking out over the river. It's the same scene I recorded 2 years ago on my first voyage out to China.

I can't decide what to have for lunch so I take the tube to the Prospect where I order a chicken platter, which is a sharing starter. It proves too much for me so I can't eat it all and I then go back to the accommodation and write up some further notes. I'm planning to go out to the Prospect for dinner but I feel so tired I decide to have a nap. However I wake up at 9.10 pm and decide this is too late for bars and dinners so roll over and go back to sleep. I wake at 3pm and am unable to sleep again after that, try as I might. So at 5.30 I give up and sit doing a bit of writing. By now I've had about 10 hours of sleep, slightly interrupted. I know I'll get there eventually. Later that morning I get up.

This morning I continue writing as it's so early, shower, then walk out in search of breakfast. I do feel very hungry and am beginning to feel that going without dinner 2 nights in a row may be unwise. I walk to the breakfast bar I went to yesterday but it doesn't open until 8 am, and it's 7.30. So I find another little breakfast bar close by that happens to be open and give their English breakfast a try: it's not half bad and a bit cheaper!  

After breakfast I decide to do a bit more writing. I'm unsure what to do today anyway as I'd prefer to avoid too much tube travel. I decide to do a bit of shopping and find there is a market nearby, called Petticoat Lane Market. It so happens that this is in the middle of the district haunted by Jack the Ripper in the 1880's “Autumn of Terror”. Also I'm in the middle of Victorian London, but close by are the modern architecture of the Gherkin and other recent creations. It's a sharp contrast of old and new.  

I buy a couple of T-shirts as I'm running out of clean ones, then explore the area a little, and it isn't long before I manage to find the “Ten Bells,” famous as the haunt of the Ripper's victims. No doubt of it's status as a tourist attraction as the beer is quite expensive even for London. However I stay for a couple of beers then make my way back towards my accommodation in search of lunch. 

One pub only does Thai food, there is an American diner but it only does chicken hot dogs (which seems odd to me) so I settle for a Japanese restaurant where I have sashimi and miso with hot sake. Following this I continue writing in my room and have an afternoon nap, setting my alarm for 5.40.  

I notice while I'm here that there is a marked fashion difference in London. Most of the men seem to wear jackets and sport designer stubble with bouffant haircuts. Ladies of course wear a variety of fashions but I tend to notice lots of Eastern influence. There is something very European about London at least in this area. I can see why they are all so keen to remain in the EU: London isn't really a part of Britain anyway, it's an extension of Europe. I don't actually hear many indigenous British voices. 

My alarm wakes me and I take the tube to Wapping for one last meal in the Prospect before leaving tomorrow, so as it's Friday and I haven't had it yet, I plump for this jumbo fish and chips, which I eat quite slowly in order that I can polish it off!  

I have a couple of beers and look out over the river at the docklands and Canary Wharf: it's a tranquil and pleasant scene, and helps dissipate my travel anxiety about the next day. I head back to my digs quite early as I'm looking for a fairly early start tomorrow and I'm tired again.