London on Monday

Having flown round the world I was excited to by the prospect of heating the organ at Westminster. But the combination of an overzealous immigration officer that took 20 minutes and a phone card salesman that took another 20 and a gammy knee that slowed walking I got to St Margaret's Church known as Westminster Abbey 20 minutes late and missed the recital. Bugger. So I went to the Red Lion in Whitehall to get a beer no one knew what a "mild" was but they had little English so I finally got a Porter a dark beer and had a chat to a Welshman and an Aussie both celebrating a woman's Birthday. Then I found a wine bar cavern that had been there for 300 years. So old it had a royal charter and no Licence called Gordons after the original owner. That was fantastic. No English serving people. More English sounding patrons but not more than half. So my visit to Europe is just currently located in what was England. Well the Queen is English but of course her husband is European. So today I may get on the Jubilee line and go have breakfast at the Borough Market with some Europeans. Tonight is an Opera at the Royal Opera House called Nabucco written and performed by Europeans. That will be most exciting I hope. A grey day at 6 am but maybe not raining. I got rained on yesterday so today a coat and a brolly. And let's see if I can find a bit of old England.