Saturday, September 7

We have both been surprised by how cheap the Tesco Everyday Value brand is. I have been drinking a two litre bottle of sparkling water that cost 22p. Yesterday Auo suggested that we should buy a jar of Everday Value lemon curd for 30p and take it to breakfast, which is what we did. It made the toast worthwhile.

By 10:30 we were at Tottenham Court Road station beginning our walk down Oxford Street. Auo bought some clothes at Primark and then we marched, with numerous detours, almost all the way to Marble Arch. Auo had located Forever 21 on the web and she was determined to get there. Eventually we did, and she found something else to buy. She was very adult about her purchasing: trying everything on and taking a long time to decide. She also dealt with all this herself and, slightly to my surprise, the shop assistants all dealt with her as though she was English.

After this we walked down through Bond Street to find the Dining Plaice where we ate last year. Auo had cod and chips with mushy peas, and I had haddock. The portions were as big as we remembered – and as delicious.

Now we have walked down through China Town and we are looking at a new kind of bus that I have never seen before: a kind of retro faux-Routemaster with a genuine conductor hanging off the open rear. Soon we will walk over the bridge to the South Bank where we will wander around, have a look at an artisan food market, and then end up at Waterloo Station.

We will spend most of the evening watching the Last Night of the Proms on television – all three hours of it.