9 April

I very reluctantly got up, with too little sleep but too much to do, so I was down by 7:30 for breakfast and then checked my email, etc. afterwards. Then after finishing everything else, I was off down to Lancing by 8:30. I put the car into the garage (when you see the picture, you will understand there wasn’t much room each side (and the mirrors didn’t fold back)) and then popped in to see Peggy.
After a chat and a cup of tea (the postcard I sent from Vancouver before I left on the train finally reached Peggy today in the mail), I headed off to the railway station in Lancing (on foot) and purchased a ticket which would get me to London and back and also around on the Underground (and the buses), so I could move around as I liked. At 10:10 I was off.
After a pleasant train trip through the English countryside (and between the towns and cities it is countryside, with rolling fields, animals and agricultural industry in full swing) I got off at Gatwick. After a quick look, I found that there was a direct train from Gatwick to St Pancras, slower than the Gatwick Express to Victoria, but requiring no changes (and therefore no hassle with luggage). I boarded the next one of those and an hour later was in St Pancras. It’s an impressive station, and leaves what has been done to Spencer Street in Melbourne as an entry in the “also-ran” stakes. After a quick exploratory look around, I went to the EuroStar ticket area and got my ticket for tomorrow from the self-serve machines (it identifies the user from the credit card used to buy the ticket originally), then checked about luggage, etc. After that I went for a little walk around London and had a look at Piccadilly Circus and the areas around there. I saw some quirky” sights, which I photographed, and then went down to Southwark, where dad was born. I walked up Blackfriars, along the Thames, over the river on the Millennium Bridge, saw St Paul’s Cathedral and then went along to the Tower of London (but only to look as I walked past, as I was there with mum and dad twenty-eight years ago, and in its time-scale, that is nothing). While looking at Tower Bridge, I took a photograph for a couple and found out the man had been a student at Wycheproof when I had been teaching there – what a coincidence! After that I caught the train back to Victoria and then, after a short time, caught the train back to Lancing (it was a twelve car train, but we had to be in the last four cars as they were the only ones which went to Lancing – the others split off before there). After a brisk walk (although walking was paling after doing so much in London) I was back at Peggy’s and ready for a debrief and another cup of tea.
I finally said my goodbyes, collected the car and returned the garage key, then drove back to Worthing. I was able to get a parking spot not too far from my B&B, so I parked, went up and did all my computer work, then tried to get an early night so I would catch up from last night and be refreshed enough to enjoy the train trip tomorrow (and be bright enough to be able to ask about my ticket from Gard de Nord to Aeroport Roissy in French after).
And so I disappeared into the depths of sleep (well, that was the plan when I wrote this – reality has a nasty way of being different).