Sunday, October 22

 

 

This morning I got up and took the tube to Kennington, where I walk for fifteen minutes to Walnut Tree Walk, where Russell and Sara live. On the way I photograph a bus shelter, because it advertises KFC’s new sandwich, which consists of two pieces of chicken, acting the part of bread, with a filling stuffed between them.

Russell and Sara have invited me for breakfast and we will sit chatting over croissants, toast, poached eggs, and tea until Russell announces at midday that he must leave for the airport because he has a plane to Johannesburg in two hours.

The weather seems pleasant enough, although I have a jacket on today, so I decide to walk back to Kennington and get the tube the the South Bank. I will wander through a street market to the South Bank Centre where I will spend an hour and a half just looking.

Weather forecasters all over the world seem to have conspired to name weather phenomena in recent years. Wind Brian has caused mild chaos in Ireland and western England and now moves eastward. Suddenly the second-hand book market on the embarkment will almost blow away as the wind (hello Brian) rises from nothing to something approach a gale. Market traders will chase books down the road as they blow away.

I will walk to Waterloo where I will buy the first volume of Philip Pullman’s The Book of Dust for Naa. It came out this weekend, and she has wanted to read it since she first heard he had finally written it.

When I get back to Balham I will remember that I have not eaten since breakfast. I will opt for a lamb shank in The Moon Under Water, a Weatherspoons pub on Balham High Street. I will find it delightful. I will also find it very large. I will accompany it with two pints of Festival Ale.

I will, of course attempt to do all the puzzles in i Weekend while working my way through my Sunday dinner.