Monday, 12 June. London

Started the day by walking to Edgeware Rd to find a bank. I had a £20 note made of paper which wasn’t accepted in shops and had been told to take it to a bank. Waited outside with some local ladies and when the doors were opened a bloke let in a big, bruiser with a scooter in front of the ladies. It was really rude but you wouldn’t tackle this guy. Did complain to the bank staff and the bloke who let him in. Then they wouldn’t change my note because I wasn’t a customer. Ended up at the post office back along the road where the guy told me I should take it the Bank of England, but relented and gave me a current £20 note.

Edgeware Rd is an interesting mix of council flats and new apartment towers. The shops along the street are incredibly unappealing, small and mostly immigrant owned but must cater to their community. I cannot imagine the people in the new expensive apartments popping in to these shops and I wonder what the streetscape will be in a few years time. A lot cleaner I hope but you wonder whether the council flats etc will all be gone.

 Back to my room at the hotel to check in for tomorrow’s flight and do a bit of case rearranging before putting on my last clean warm weather top (the nice new one) and heading to Paddington Station once again. I was a quite early so I did a bit of searching and found the proper Paddington Bear statue. Then it was off to Platform 8 and the fast train to Slough.

Kim was waiting at the station to pick me up and drive us to Wokingham for afternoon tea at the Cantley Hotel. I had looked up a list of good places for afternoon tea in the vicinity of Windsor and this looked like a nice choice.  We sat outside the stables restaurant and enjoyed a very pleasant, very filling afternoon tea and a great chat. Kim is such good company and I really enjoyed spending time with her.

She dropped me back at Slough in time for the 5.01 fast train back to Paddington. It only takes 15 minutes. It started to pour just as I was getting on the train but fortunately had stopped by the time we got to London. Definitely no dinner needed tonight so I bought an apple and a bottle of Bundaberg ginger beer and returned to the Norfolk Towers for my last night.