My tour guide/travel companion/life companion/lovely better third arranged for us a hotel in the central city, a cheap one I was reliably informed, as tubing and training at 4am was apparently too much to consider.
Spoiler alert - I don't think it was cheap, and tubing apprently wasn't too much to consider for some thousands of other people. But more on that later. Monday 24th we dropped the rental Pug back to the rental car people at a depot near Croydon, the chap seemed impressed we had put close to 1000 miles on it in 9 or so days... which is not that much really when you think about it. Tramming back to the train station we made our way into the Mayfair/Oxford St area... Yes, I know... And there did some shopping, or attempted shopping, at some department stores. Buying female gloves in Spring is apparently just impossible. Especially in sizes like mine. Haaaa... Jokes. Once that was done we dropped bag off at 'cheap hotel'... How a hotel made up of only eight fully equipped apartments can afford to employ two full time front desk staff I am not sure but... I guess cheap labour from Europe, etc. They could only afford very old furniture.
From there we wandered...
Paid our respects at Bomber Command Memorial in our travels
I can confirm there are more Rolls Royces in those square blocks than you will find anywhere else in the known world. Apart from at a dealership. Which was also in those square blocks. We sat at a lovely and rather fancy (funnily) pub on a corner opposite James Purdy And Sons Ltd and amused ourselves watching various professional drivers trying to navigate the narrow lanes in new and huge and customised Rollers mixed among and vs large building contractor trucks and the local poor in massive new Mercedes and Range Rovers.
Genius
We looked down our noses at the aspirational middle classes in their new Bentleys. Some of which they drove themselves. A shame. Sad the way they struggle.
Purdey: Also handily stock all your essential falconry accessories
For those who will ask, no I did not go in to Purdey, maybe another time when I am more suitably dressed for it. For those who don't know, Purdey make guns. They have been making guns a while. Not a lot, but they seem good at the ones they do. They don't really have many in stock, you have to go in for a fitting, or several. Then they make you one. Specifically hand tailored. Some are upwards of £150,000. And that's just the new ones. If you like you can also order a new Range Rover custom fitted by Purdey to carry your guns. You get the gist.
I soon tired of more clothes searching and high priced over crowded department stores that think they are restaurants and night clubs. I did succeed in demonstrating to Dearest why suits pose a problem for me, in any price range. Literally nothing fitted in all the stores we went to, cheap or posh. Only a couple of jackets even fitted over my shoulders. Pretentious and overly groomed fitting assistants one after another rolled their eyes and walked away with "No we don't stock those sizes". One suggested I stop exercising altogether until something fits. Helpful. To cheer myself I headed to Grays Antique Centre nearby and found a mind blowing selection of amazing things that I could afford none of, but wanted many of. Not the boring stuff obviously, mostly the military stuff and a few nice booze-holding vessels. And silverware. The endless jewellery stores greatly impressed my companion when she turned up, still gloveless, and chilly and also sick of the crowds, being a non-shopper too. But with a new bag. And some other stuff. She was glad to find no ring anywhere like hers. So was I, lest it turn out cheaper than her one. I walked from there empty handed also. Probably a good thing.
For dinner we found a Byrons, in need of a "cheap" simple feed... Spoiler alert, I will at some point be singing the praises of Byrons Burgers and their Korean Kimcheese burger and their hard shakes. We went three times in London. But only ate there twice. Long story. And drive. But then you realise a burger dinner that costs £45 is not actually a cheap meal. It's not even a cheap pair of shoes. We stopped for a beer at The Shepherd's on the chilly walk home, as it didn't have a dress code like some of the local pubs (no, really, in this part of London, the pubs have dress codes). And we didn't expect the doormen at the many, many nameless signless Private Members Clubs (the old rich kind, not the nude lady kind) we passed to let us in. I really didn't need a beer with a belly stuffed with burger, but it seemed the thing to do.
Sleep was short lived, a shame as I needed some for a change. We layered up. Rain was predicted. It was not warm. Miss had on three pairs to tights and pants. Six layers on top. Not happy. But we got outside at around 0430hrs to clear skies and were most grateful. We wandered over to the NZ And Australia memorial area and the words "I don't really think the crowd will be huge, how many people can the be?" from my companion the previous day rang in our ears. It was packed. A lot of the queue didn't make it into the fenced enclosure due to security checks. Not something you would ever complain about. Unless you area simple minded cretin. We stood up the back, which was fine.
The ceremony was nice, I will say... the Duke of York turned up. An Australian senator blathered on in not really great English (serious, I have no idea where the guy was from) mostly about Australians. It was well attended, unfortunately there were a lot of Brits who seemed to find the whole thing a bit of a curiosity. Good on them for coming though I suppose. But a lot of Antipodeans also came which was good. There were a couple of nice readings written by WW1 soldiers, mention of the centenary of Passchendaele this year. The Coldstream Guards band played some fine tunes. On the whole I guess it was nice to see a lot of people and some time honoured tradition but it felt a bit.. I dunno.. Just different I guess. There didn't seem to be the feeling to it you get at some commemoration ceremonies. Maybe it was just me. The fact half the crowd couldn't see much probably didn't help. Moral of story: turn up earlier.
We retired to the hotel at six, sadly unable to find beer or rum coffee as is the required tradition. It well cold. About zero or thereabouts. It took a fair while to warm up. End of part one.
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