Capital

Yesterday was fun and certainly unusual. My dear son and I travelled to London Town by charabanc and were treated to a wonderful personal tour of both chambers of the Houses of Parliament by Stuart and Chris who work for our M.P.. I’m really interested in history and politics and all that malarkey and it was rather exciting to stand at the dispatch box where countless Prime Ministers have addressed the House. Later on we met Gloucester’s member, Parmjit and had a drink on the terrace of the Commons overlooking the Thames before watching half an hour of Jack Straw answering Foreign Office questions in the main chamber. It was certainly a day to remember.

The rest of the day was spent shopping. I ventured into the London Bridge and Chess Centre and bought some chess pens and postcards, a quaint and somewhat charming Russian chess puzzle book and a demonstration board that I’ve wanted for school for ages. We then strolled purposefully to Hamleys where T bought a magic set and helped…ahem…Mr Magic, Hamleys’ magic department fellow do a couple of tricks. There were lots of onlookers. Outside I spotted my only celebrity of the day if you discount Parliament: Ade Adepitan who plays wheelchair basketball for Great Britain wheeled past. I had to look up his name on the net but he was instantly recognisable.

It was somewhat eerie travelling on the London Underground after the awful events of the 7th but I’m glad we did it. I certainly felt a touch nervous when the doors slid shut for the first time of the day at Victoria but that feeling soon disappeared and it swiftly became second nature again.