Developments

Enjoyed a good few hours rambling around central London yesterday, ending up walking along the south bank of the river, from the National Theatre to Tower Bridge. We found a nicely varied set of stalls setting street food near the bridge and the kids set about their various soups with gusto - chicken noodle, beef noodle and fishball. Strange to be so keenly reminded of home at such a distance. Noi and I found ourselves reminiscing about the first time we walked together on the south side of the river and how completely run-down it was in those days. Several cheers for urban renewal.

And I'm almost won over to the charms of the smart phone given just how useful Fifi's turned out to be in getting us safely back to our apartment in the evening. We're based a fair way out of the city in Leyton, where it's comfortable and cheap and excellent for halal food, but rather distant. The bus journey into the centre was direct enough, and didn't take too long, but getting the return bus would have involved retracing our journey across the city to Oxford Street and at one point we found ourselves on a tube line with a train going out to Leyton. We decided to take this, though we didn't really have much idea of any bus that might take us from the Leyton tube station to our abode.

This is where the phone proved of inestimable value. Fifi found an app with details of the local buses and little maps of the area. It wasn't exactly easy finding our way home but I strongly suspect it would have been impossible without the technical assistance provided. I'm now wondering how I ever found my way around the city in the old days, though, of course, somehow I did.