Better night as the clocks changed from BST and then we used our Explorer tickets to go by tube to the Camden Lock craft fair and market and then the Guinness Book of Records Museum before taking a sight-seeing bus around the centre as Prince Charles joins the inner-city poverty campaign and as journalists are targeted by South African Authorities and immigrants by Britain as signs of authoritarianism mushrooming out of control
We slept reasonably last night, but not as well as at home. It was a while to wait for our 7.00am drinks as, with the time change from British Summer Time to Greenwich Mean Time, it was really 8.00am as far as our body clocks were concerned. Then there was no chocolate for Daniel and so I did not tip the room waiter. In turns to use the bathroom, with me last and then down to breakfast in the restaurant. We like the Holiday Inn breakfast buffet routine, as the children can get what they like straight away. But if I were eating on my own I would prefer to have a waitress service. As it was the bacon was cold, the eggs congealed, but that is how Diana seems to like it! After getting ready we set off for our day trip around London. First to the underground station, where we get our London Explorer tickets with our Holiday Inn vouchers and then set off for Camden Town station where Diana wanted to visit the Camden Lock markets. A very wide choice of goods on sale and we walk through many of the areas. There are several separate open and covered market areas, also speciality shops in the vicinity and Camden Lock seems to have developed as a special Sunday shopping area.
Di was not happy, however, as she had to stop Debbie touching things and Daniella kept making a fuss. She did see the specialist pine furniture shops, however, before we left by tube for Piccadilly Circus. Lunch at the Wimpy and then across to the Trocadero Centre, where Daniel wanted to visit the Museum of the Guinness Book of Records. We enjoyed the exhibits; world’s tallest shalept, broadest people etc and then we all got aboard the official sightseeing bus for a tour around London. The trip started all right, but ended with the baby screaming for a change. The guides had taken a back turning to try to get us a better view of the Old Bailey domed roof and we got stuck in some narrow one-way streets and had to reverse out! From Piccadilly again, back to the hotel by tube and then, on arrival, we changed Della’s disposable nappy and all set off for the pool. We all swam and enjoyed it. Dressed, and then to the hotel coffee shop for tea. An expensive meal and rather annoying as Deborah insisted on ordering an omelette from the a la carte menu and then declined to eat it, which was a waste of £6. After, the children and I went to the pool-side bar to play table tennis. A long wait and then a somewhat fretful game and, to end it all, somebody pinched my Sunday paper whilst we were playing billiards! Back to the room. Debbie and Della slept, whilst Diana and Daniel watched the TV and I updated today’s journal. News tonight was of the mounting pressure brought on the government by Prince Charles’s initiatives on inner-city deprivation and the oppression of racial minorities. A Conservative MP accused activists of using Prince Charles to give voice to their views, but I have no doubt that he is genuinely moved by the plight of many of our people. More violence in South Africa and threats of reprisals against journalists that are only reporting the riots. A new row is brewing over the Cyprus spy trial, as criticism mounts about £4M being spent on an abortive exercise and also as rumours circulate about interrogation methods used to extract their ‘confessions’ that were later retracted and their innocence upheld. Further evidence of mounting crisis at Heathrow Immigration Services as a 13 year old Palestinian girl is held for 6 hours questioning and a businessman is held for a week in a shared and small cell. The picture I get is of an increasingly oppressive streak of authoritarian government and pathological preoccupation with security.