Zoom Zoom... Really

This is the next post of our Japan trip.  It took place in September but I only managed to write these notes a couple of months later.  For contemporaneous reports, take a look at Track My Tour -- a brilliant app that I used to ... well, track our tour.  Here is the link.

We were due to spend 4 days in Kyoto, the old capital of Japan, but on the way was the biggest and best castle in Japan at Himeji so we had to break our journey there.

Cat's itinerary for the days says:

Hiroshima to Himeji

52 mins past the hour, 57 minute journey

Aim for 9.52 am.

Fat chance of that!  We ultimately made the 10.52 and had our first bullet train, no sorry the Shinkansen, experience.  What an experience!

Each train apparently is designed differently so has different names like shark, snake and so on and when you see one, you know why!

The Snake!

The layout is like airline business class seating with a low purr as the train smoothly glides along on its own track.  Unlike regular trains with shorter rail lengths, the Shinkansen doesn't seem to have the same issue.  Maybe its one long rail?  When you watch one pass through a station at top speed without stopping it has an ethereal air to it with what seems like a sort of halo around it.  Difficult to explain but you have to experience it.

Whoooosh!

So all too quickly we ended up in Himeji, just the 57 minutes away and the castle was a brief 15 minute walk away from the station.  Very impressive it was too and at this point I shall digress about some Japanese history.

A charming older man stopped us in the gardens outside the castle to ask us where we were from.  We had a nice chat.  He said it had rained for 5 days straight which was why so many people were outside!  He wanted to practice his English which was very good.  Far better than my Japanese which at this point only extended to 'Konichi-wa" -- Hello.

Of course everyone is familiar with the TV series called Shogun from 20+ years ago with Richard Chamberlain as the ship wrecked westerner who unluckily fell into the hands of the Japanese.  Happily for him, he was smart enough to get on and that is what the story is about.  Good one too.  However it was set in the 1600's around the time Himeji Castle was first built and was the home and bastion of the then shogun Tokugawa.

Shoguns are basically war lords.  Actually he not they are rather the big boss warlord.  Some 1,000 years ago the Emperor was side lined by the war lords because the line became weak and the Emperors the equivalent of prancing ponies.  So they became figure heads and were used as political pawns in the never ending struggle of the big war lords around the country.  As a result the seat of power (as Himeji was for a time) followed the fortunes of the Shogun as opposed to the Emperor who was given a stipend and studiously ignored.  The last one was Tojo who fell in 1945.

The Shogunate was enforced by their soldiers, the samurai.  Essentially anyone not a war lord or samurai was the equivalent of a serf and were treated like dirt.  Japan sounds a nasty place to live if you didn't have money, position and power back then.

Foreigners were treated even worse.  Certainly there are stories of Portuguese missions and the occasional one like that I mentioned earlier, but the routine treatment of anyone unlucky enough to land in Japan either by chance (e.g. ship wreck) or design was to be executed immediately.  The Americans in particular got sick of this by the mid-19th century when their whalers who fished in Arctic waters hereabouts got into trouble and had their heads chopped off as opposed to being offered safe haven.  So Admiral Perry in his iron dreadnoughts sailed into Tokyo Bay and ... well opened the place up by the virtue of his big guns.

But the castle itself was a whopper.  The biggest in Japan and a World Heritage Site.  It has just been reopened after a lengthy renovation so was in very good condition indeed.  Those of you who have been paying attention will expect this by now but as the castle itself was first built 500+ years ago, the current one is version #24.  The earliest bit of the castle was from the 1950's.  Being in the middle of nowhere really, the castle was untouched in WWII.

We tramped up all 6 or 7 stories, depending how you count them, and even though the blurb says that it was built to the highest tech of the time, I did think that the Normans who basically built every standing castle in England out of stone in the 11th and 12th century would have sneered at the wood and mud hill construction.  However they weren't here then (and of course would have been executed had they been) so the castle was probably pretty much impregnable.

Call that a castle?

The gardens were of course lovely too and the whole visit was a most enjoyable segue into our arrival in Kyoto just in time for dinner

... and of course more sake!

Don't Mention the War...

This is the next post of our Japan trip.  It took place in September but I only managed to write these notes a couple of months later.  For contemporaneous reports, take a look at Track My Tour -- a brilliant app that I used to ... well, track our tour.  Here is the link.

We only planned to be in Hiroshima for a day, the main reason... actually sole reason being to watch a baseball match between the local Carps and the Dragons.

A month before had been the 70-year anniversary of the dropping of the first A-bomb in 1945 but none of us really wanted to visit anything that reminded us of something as ghastly as that.  Personally I think it was the right decision based on how many people died in Okinawa with the main island the next stop for landings.  Could have taken years and killed millions more.  So horrible as undoubtedly it was, it brought things to a dramatic crashing halt.  

Missed in all the talk of the horros of atomic weapons is the fact that as our holiday went along we realised more and more that every building was at most 60 or so years old.  Dating from the end of the war and the occupation in fact.  Everything else had been destroyed.  Remember I said that the O-torii Gate in Miyajima was wooden and therefore on version #38?  Well everything pre-war in Japan was also built in wood and with the night bombing focussing on incendiaries, you don't need to think too deeply to wonder why very few old buildings in Japanese cities survive.  We discovered in fact that the wonderful Horoshima Castle was in fact 20 or so years old as the old one was incinerated.

The only building that survived the A-bomb in 1945 is today in the Peace Park with a memorial to that awful occasion.

However the replacement architecture for the most part didn't harken back to the old days, rather it took the post-war London G-plan type build to extremes.  Actually pretty ugly with of course exceptions.  Hiroshima of course was flattened but being a major port had been bombed solidly before as well so all the buildings were of the newer... er, uglier type.  Except the train station.

We were staying at the railway hotel run by Sheraton which was really new, updated and absolutely splendid.  The station, as many country wide so we discovered, was under renovation, construction, whatever.  It was huge with a multi-storey department store inside and another across the street.  In Japan railway stations are THE central point of any city... because everyone uses the trains.  And boy are they clean, efficient and affordable.

Hiroshima

Stepping back from the bullet train (which comes tomorrow), transport in Japan seems great.  Indy told me it had got better (i.e. signs in English now) as a result of the football World Cup, before which no signs were in English.  But with a week rail pass and able to use everything from bullet train to local subway was a breeze.  The great thing is that the trains go everywhere, everyone uses them and did I say this already, they are very affordable.  It makes you wonder looking elsewhere when trains (in the UK for example) are so expensive and infrequent that if you build a lot, make them on time and clean, provide lots and lots of them AND make them affordable then people will use them.  Strange concept that others don't get.  They cut the service and put up the price so when people don't use them, they cut them again.  Makes no sense.  Anyway I am a HUGE fan of the Japanese train system and don't care who knows it!  If East Japan Railways needs an endorsement, sign me up.  As an aside I used to buy their Eurobonds in the past as they were AAA rated and always paid a little more coupon than some of their counterparts.

We traveled everywhere in Hiroshima on the smorgasbord of train offerings and found all of them excellent... even though it rained pretty solidly and had done so pretty much since we arrived in Japan... and tonight was the big game!

Zoom Zoom

Hiroshima is home of Mazda (zoom zoom) cars so the stadium is called Mazda Zoom Zoom Stadium!  Fortunately it was just a few minutes away from the hotel.  Cat had got tickets for Viv and I (who decided to attend late) apart from the rest of the party and provided us with home team ponchos to stay dry.  This turned out to be a bit of a problem as the tickets were in the opposing team, the Dragons, enclave and as soon as we arrived in bright red, one lady in particular came up to us saying we couldn't come in dressed like that.  She even went to get a policeman who confirmed this but really kindly when we pointed out that it was tipping down with rain gave us a couple of blue Dragons' ponchos including her own to wear.

However the rain lifted a few innings in ... and yes in Japan they play in all weather conditions ... and the night became clear and we settled in to enjoy the game which has a few local rules that I think enhance the event rather than anything else.

First are the bands.  Yes bands.  Each team has its own bands, its own songs and chants and its own band leaders.  Everyone sings, claps and howls along.  By the 8th innings, we were joining in.  However rather politely they take it in turns only playing when their side is batting so there really isn't much competition for who makes the most noise.  I thought the Dragons had the better songs, chants and moves for yes it also includes a form of in seat dancing with everyone moving in synchronicity.  You have to see it!

Instead of a 7th innings stretch there is a loosing of thousands of balloons, tonight red for the Carps and blue for the Dragons.  At the end of a particular song, everyone cheers and lets loose.  

However with all this mayhem going on, the game itself was a close run affair ending in a very polite draw at the end of the 12th innings.  Local rules say the bands must stop at 10 pm because of the noise to allow people to sleep ahead of work on the morrow, and the game stops at the end of the 12th innings so nobody gets home too late!

So it wasn't that late an affair leaving us plenty of time to find an Okonami restaurant, the local dish of choice which is a pancake with very Japanese toppings washed down with local beer and of course sake!  

When they ask what you'd like, you say "Everything"

What a night!

"I see you know your sake, Bond San"

This is the next post of our Japan trip.  It took place in September but I only managed to write these notes a couple of months later.  For contemporaneous reports, take a look at Track My Tour -- a brilliant app that I used to ... well, track our tour.  Here is the link.

If Tokyo rocked (which it did), the next part of the trip promised even more for we to stay in a Ryokan (a traditional Japanese Inn) on Miyajima Island off Hiroshima, a place where tourists and pilgrums alike visit all the time for not only is it scenic, it is also home to various shrines, temples and the famous O-torii Gate.

The O-torii Gate

By this time we knew the ropes for shrines/temples as they were pretty much the same.  Japan is flat and hilly/mountainy.  Not many people live in the mountains which is where the shrines/temples are.  Rather they cluster together in the flat bits in vast numbers.  Japan's population is 125 million give or take and they all seem to live on top of one another.  An unfortunate observation but that is what it seemed to me as the place either teemed with people or was empty.  Mind you when it was empty it was hilly and as most shrines/temples are built in the mountains, there are hundreds if not thousands of steps to climb each time you visit!

Miyajima though was very pretty and the little olde worlde village next to the shrine just about managed to avoid being too touristy.

Now who wouldn't want some local oysters grilled with garlic and oil?  Wonderful!

However the big thing was the inn, the robes and the rooms!  I felt like James Bond in "You Only Live Twice" when he wore those robes and a really bad wig pretending to be a Japanese pearl fisherman and responded to Tiger's comment about sake (the leader of Japan's secret service) with the wonderful comment: "No, but I know my women".  They don't make them like that any more!

"I see you know your sake, Bond-san..."

The rooms were lovely with sitting areas that converted to futons when unseen hands turned down the rooms for the night.  Very comfortable they were too!

We'd also asked for a traditional dinner which turned out to be a million course fish dinner of exquisitely designed and presented small pieces of fishy substances.  Fortunately I like all that sort of thing so was able to really tuck in.  Not so some of my dining partners who drew the line at certain odder bits of once living creatures both fishy and non-fishy, so I had seconds on many occasions!

The following morning saw us tramp up and up and up a hill/mountain to a series of shrines/temples atop Mount Misen, one of the three most scenic spots in Japan apparently.  Fortunately a cable car took us part of the way but the rest was all up and down on foot.

Mind you the scenic stuff did come through!

The Seto Sea from the top of Mount Misen

We were also able to see the O-torii Gate at low tide with no water lapping about it.  Edifices such as these are all painted red and made out of wood so they look striking from a distance but a little shabby when you get really close.  One thing to remember is that as they are made of wood, even though the blurb says things like this are 1,000 years old, they all rot and have to be replaced every 50 or so years.  The O-torii Gate today is version 38!

Just one more picture of the O-torii Gate

Sadly that was it as our next stop was to be Hiroshima where we'd flown into only yesterday morning to see a baseball game.  Really!

Sayonara Miyojima!

The Radio Ham

Apologies for the delay in posting.  The trip took place in September but I only managed to write these notes a couple of months later.  For contemporaneous reports, take a look at Track My Tour -- a brilliant app that I used to ... well, track our tour.  Here is the link.

In the 1960's there was a wonderful radio programme called Hancock's Half Hour with Tony Hancock wherein he got himself into various situations and they humourously worked themselves out over the next 30 minutes.  The most famous was probably the "Blood Donor" episode but my favourite was the "Radio Ham".  It all took place in Hancock's flat where he connected to various hams all over the world including one from Japan whose English was poor but who had a stock phrase that he used: "It is not raining in Tokyo".

Classic Stuff!

When we landed there last week in the modst of a deluge, that immortal phrase immediately sprang to mind.

"It is not raining in Tokyo".... much!

Our arrival did coincide with a typhoon on the east coast of Japan and with Tokyo being "the Eastern capital", it felt some but thankfully not all of the weather impact.  Traveling 16,000 miles to land in the middle of a hurricane/typhoon would not have been good!

We'd taken Japan Airlines (JAL) from JFK, a 15 hour trip during which I made the decision to stay awake as our arrival time in Tokyo was 4 pm and watched 6 movies on their in flight entertainment.  I think this decision meant I'd be jet lagged and therefore find it difficult to sleep fior the next 3-4 days.  So not a wise decision.  But I did manage my first Japanese beer/sake combination of the trip.  This was to be repeated during the remainder of the trip!

For the first couple of nights while the rest of the party arrived, we'd be staying at the Tokyo Hilton which is near the main train station in Shinjuku and which also happens to be the business district of Tokyo.

The first day of course was a mess with all jet lagged but as we arrived at 4 pm, 11 pm and 12.30 am, the team of Indy and Cat, Gordon and Thelma, and Viv and I were able to move on out exploring  reasonably early the morning after looking for that first bowl of noodles.

Near the station (which is immense incidentally) are hundreds if not thousands of small places to eat, some so small that you cannot reasonably call them restaurants.  In Japanese they are called Izakaya's.  Very small with room for maybe a dozen people seated at the counter.  And of course at any time of the day or night, the drink of choice for most patrons is beer and sake.

A classic Izakaya in Food Street

Very nice indeed were the noodles once you got the hang of making your selection at a machine on the wall, paying at that time and being issued a ticket which you gave to the people behind the counter.  No chance of making special requests here!

One thing to remember about Japan is that all government closes on Monday and as our first tourist stop was the National Museum through the park, by the time we arrived to find it closed, we were all thoroughly soaked by the same storm/cyclone that ripped into the east coast a few hundred miles away.

This was true of all the shrines we subsequently chose to visit as well!

The first shrines of the day in Ueno district

However our next stop in Akihabara was not affected.  This district is known for its cartoons, anime and electronics.  One city block in particular was a high tech supermarket on 10+ floors that caused immediate sensory overload if you weren't a geek.

Akihabara, outside the massive tech supermarket

However after visiting, Cat had organised a ridiculous adventure whereby 20-something girls dressed in French maids outfits served you tea and cakes and generally giggled like schoolgirls calling you "master" and all that... this isn't a joke.  It's for real.  To call this weird is simple understatement.  It is not something Viv and I would have gone to ourselves, but having gone through it, I also wouldn't have missed it either!

Some of the other patrons are just plain weird.  It did seem that some may go there simply because it would be their only female contact.  For a few yen extra, the girls would play cards or other simple games with you!

Our night time extravaganza was at a really nice restaurant in a nearby building where we'd eat what is locally known as shabu-shabu, a hot pot dish where you have a bubbling vat of broth (this was clear) into which you successively put in this case Wagyu beef and crab (the house specialty) and then a bunch of veggies and noodles.  I'd eaten this before but in those cases we'd done the cooking ourselves.  In this case, it was the various staff who did it for you.

Great stuff.  The beef was spectacular.

"Wagyu, Wagyu very much..."

What a start.  Cat had written up detailed itineraries for most days of the trip and this was a crackerjack opening!  Here is the first day's itinerary in full (but largely not done):

1.  Breakfast in Shinjuku (Yes)
2.  Go up to Tokyo government building, wander round, Disk Union for vinyls (No)
3.  Train to Ueno Park.  Ameya-Yokocho market under train tracks, National Museum, Lake, Temples (Yes)
4.  Yanaka -- picturesque, street food, temples (Yes)
5.  Train to Akihabara.  Maid Cafe at Homecafe in Don Quixote (Yes)
6.  H line to Ueno then west on E line to Shinjuku. Stop off at Iidabashi to view Koishikaw Okra Kuen Garden (Partly)
7.  Pre-dinner drink at Peak Bar in Park Hyatt (Yes)
8.  Dinner at Seryna Hon An (in Sumitro 1 Building) (definitely yes)
9.  Omoide Yokocho (piss alley) if energy... which unsurprisingly was found wanting! (No)

Cotswold Country

After cricket in Nottingham, I'd arranged to stay with one of my tennis playing friends at his home in Cheltenham.  It was a short couple of hours journey away and I was amazed that so many of the big towns in the Midlands were so close to one another.  Having not been around England that much, I thought they were all miles apart but it turns out that some of the big towns were less than 20 miles away... and I drove through some of them: Leicester, Derby, Birmingham (my GPS failed miserably at avoiding it) before hitting the open country and the Cotswolds.

I'd never been this way before despite the fact that lots of people say that the Cotswolds is really what the shires of England are all about.  I don't agree.  I think a lot of bits of England look like the countryside that is the Cotswolds.  It's the towns and villages that set this part of the country apart.

My best man, Chris, years ago had a thing about Cheltenham.  He hated the notion of it and when we were thinking about and trying to raise a punk band in the 1970's, he wanted to write a song about Cheltenham that included the line: "I went to Cheltenham on Thursday.  It was closed." Sadly incompetence and lack of musical ability prevented this gem reaching the pop charts.  But I've remembered it ever since!

Cheltenham was really nice actually.  A very stylish and smart town.  I liked it a lot.  It's the stone that makes it.  4,000 years ago the Belas Knap, a stone barrow, was created but the Romans used it a lot for their roads and other building projects so the region was much populated.  Cirencester was a major Roman market town.

Cheltenham

Later, the Cotswolds became a major wool producing area before the time of enclosures when all the fields were divided up amongst the gentry.  This resulted strangely in a mass of new building using local stone as more expensive materials could not be afforded.  The lovely towns and villages of today bear testament to this.

Kay, Wilf and I went out to a lovely art deco restaurant for dinner the first night after an amazing tennis game at Wilf's local club -- I got to play on some really nice grass courts too.  After all these years, I was utterly hopeless on them.  And to think I grew up playing almost exclusively on grass courts too!  Anyway we did win, although wasn't really the point (yes it was) but the night was glorious.

Excuse the hair, it was breezy!

The following day as Kay and Wilf were doing house stuff (they were opening the place up after 10 years so had loads to do) so I headed off in the car on a long bimble around the Cotswolds' small villages starting at Bourton on the Water (really beautiful even with 20+ coaches and hundreds of tourist cars).  The guide book equates it to Venice because of the small stream that flows through it.  Very picturesque though.

Next was Stow on the Wold -- I just loved the name!  This is another old market town with lots of lovely old homes, pubs and curious stores.  Lots of craft type stuff. Industry these days seems all tourist related to me.

Next up was Moreton-in-Marsh, yet another beautiful little town with stone houses, pubs and craft stores.  Just lovely again.

Finally was the Broadway Tower, a folly built just outside Broadway which either was just in Worcestershire or just in Gloucestershire, not sure.  This tower was built in the 1600's and was a favourite hang out of pre-Raphaelite artists but more recently was a watch tower during the Battle of Britain and something secret during the Cold War.  Wonderful views over supposedly 9 different counties.

Two days wasn't enough to get to grips with this little piece of heaven.

The village of Broadway is much used in TV shows these days.  You can see why.

Take the last train to... Nottingham

The Monkees had Clarksville, I had Nottingham a couple of weeks ago when I was joining my Bermuda cricket team for first an all day 40-over cricket match and a day, the 3rd day, at Trent Bridge for the 4th Ashes Test against Australia.  However, the East Midlands Railway did me proud and whizzed me there in style and on time.

One thing to note though is how impressive St. Pancras station is these days.  Admittedly I haven't lived in England since 1985, that's 30 years now, but when I left London was poor and a real dump.  The stations in particular were more like cess pits than places where you want to hang out.  30 years on, London is hopping and the stations have been marvellously renovated so it was with a certain reluctance I took my leave.

Nottingham is a nice place.  It has of course been around for centuries and was a big market town in the 13th century when Robin Hood was around and about.  During the Industrial Revolution, it had many of those dark satanic mills that were made famous or rather infamous by the wonderful hymn "Jerusalem".  These days they are all gone... or rather repurposed for rather nice looking apartments.

A Dark Satanic Mill

The city itself is old.  I sadly didn't make it to the castle as I'd hoped, the place where King Charles I's battle against Cromwell finally came to an end, and a nice place to stroll around taking in the sun.  However I had team meetings, dinner and general rowdy behaviour to make so I had to curtail things that first day and make up for missing Stuart Broad's bowling out Australia whilst I was on the train... before lunch on the first day for 60, taking 8 for 15 in the process.

The next day was the cricket match at a small village a mile or so away where our captain, Damion, used to play.  It had been years since most of us have played an all day game.  Our usual format is 20 overs after work.  However they had done the right thing by playing a sociable team and agreed to bat first (just in case we collapsed like Australia had done the day before).

The Associates at Plumtree

I managed to bowl 3 overs, being slogged for 14 in my first and last overs by thugs who didn't appreciate my style of swing and skill.  But then again most of the guys who were interested in bowling had a bowl and Plumtree ended up on 247 after their 40 overs.  Had Cookie not gone for 3 big sixes in that last over, or Broaders being a little more lissom in the field, or Damion taking that sitter...

One moment though stands above all of these wonders and it involved the immaculate Bally.  One batsman played a firm defensive shot all along the ground straight to him whereupon Bally adopted the "long barrier" position so approved by the MCC.  In this he knelt down and with his other leg stretched it out so that there would be an immovable and unpassable barrier to stop the ball.  Standing sideways on, it was impossible to see what happened but usually you'd see the ball suddenly deviate if it were to get past the fielder, but in this case the ball kept steadily on. Not too fast, not too slow.  As it passed Bally, he stayed there unmoving and quite probably unbelieving whilst the ball continued its merry way to the boundary.

When our turn came, I jumped at the chance at opening the batting (you never say "No" with this lot!) and probably didn't touch a thing for the first over or so but somehow managed to scratch through a few overs to get 20-something.  However we lost a few wickets and some momentum until our token Aussie Travis joined Damion at the wicket and kick started the chase by smashing the ball to all parts.  Sadly he got out an over or so too early and even with the skip's heroics taking him to 92*, we ended the chase 29 short.

Check out the Associates Cricket page on Facebook for the full sight screen to sight screen race!

Mind you we all had new top to tail kit with great hats so we all felt like children at Christmas!

The Plumtree guys were very hospitable and we did the same with our Dark n' Stormies from Bermuda which was a very pleasant prelude to dinner and a riotous finale that sensibly I didn't join opting instead for an early-ish night.

The main event was in full Bermuda attire, yellow shorts, blazer, blue knee socks and a sporty new Associates tie.  Sadly the Aussies had folded late in the day the night before losing 3 quick wickets so had only 3 left for us to watch from our box.  They didn't help much lasting only 39 minutes in all allowing England to win by an innings and plenty.

I managed to step onto the ground after most of the people left as the box stayed open for most of the day and also had a selfie with Ricky Ponting, the ex-Aussie captain, who said not one word for the entire time.  He looked OK in the picture though.

The Punter with the fixed grin

We also had a chicken suit and wolf suit that rotated through the team during the day (we'd had a memorable race off between the chicken and wolf the day before at Plumtree!) which accompanied the team on the big night after.  Bermuda shorts and animal suits certainly are really good at breaking the ice in bars and clubs although one of our guys had to convince a doubtful bouncer on two occasions that Bermuda attire is not fancy dress ("It is in Nottingham!") crossing his palm with silver on both occasions.

A chicken suit and blue Bermuda blazer certainly caused a stir!

The boys made it back at varying hours contributing in no small part to a very quiet and laid back final day in Nottingham as the guys trickled away, bit by bit.

Great time though!

The Layover... London

Anthony Bourdain's second show (I think) was called 'The Layover'.  It followed the first series called 'No Reservations' which seemed to be a travelogue in which he ate and drank his head off around the world.  Being good with the chatter, it made for entertaining viewing and certainly gave Viv and I ideas for further and slightly off beat travel.  The Layover series was based around the premise that you had 24 or 36 hours in some major city and you needed to cram the entire week's eating and drinking into that compressed time frame.  Hence the title of this post!

I was going to the 4th Ashes Test Match in Nottingham on the Saturday with 11 members of my cricket team, The Associates, but was a day earlier than most of the others so planned to spend it in London.  The London underground had decided to go on strike that evening from 6.30 pm so the mood in London was grisly as everyone knew what a royal pain it would be to get home so most companies decided to let people off early.

When in London I like to stay at the East India Club and here I'll give a little plug to the University Club of Toronto where I am a member and with whom the EIC has a delightful reciprocal arrangement with members in good standing.  Fortunately I'd paid the UCT bill so I was able to stay at the EIC for a very reasonable rate and enjoy their facilities but particularly their breakfast and proximity to Piccadilly, less than 100 yards away.

As the Bermuda flight gets into Gatwick around 7 am it was a stroke of luck that the room I'd booked was available so I was able to get some sleep before stepping out on the town.  The weather was decent too so it would be a day of walking.

I started out with lunch at one of my favourite pubs just off Bond Street called The Guinea, a Youngs pub still happily which used to make the best steak pies in the country.  Certainly they were the best I've ever eaten but as their heyday was in the 1990's when they ruled the roost, the current incarnation whilst it tried hard simply didn't measure up.  Mark on report card: Must try harder.  Actually it should be go back to the old recipe and method.  Back then (in the late 1970's/early 1980's -- gulp!) they made one tray of steak pies that were in round dough balls crammed with steak.  They only made 24 each day so you had to be there early.  These days, there are pies a-plenty probably at all times of the day.  Nice for sure but it does make me wonder about changes that happen today.  At times like this, syrely there was no need to change.  Sometimes I think we make changes largely because we can.  There's some new technology available that we can use to make things quicker and -- here comes the dreaded word -- more efficiently.  So we use it.  It may be not as good but making it is sure more efficient than it was in the past.  Are we really happy to have sacrificed quality for efficiency?

I love walking in London so whilst I had a fully charged Oyster Card I also had plenty of time before I was due to meet my brother Jan and his daughter/my neice Gabs in Shoreditch.  So no need to rush over there so I bumbled.  One of my favourite hobbies.  Up Bond Street past all those designer and fine art shops, some of which I used to audit back in the 1970's/1980's.  They are still there too!  I am sure their prices are higher as whilst the street was jammed it looked like the only buyers were dressed in burkas trailing endless children.

Next was Oxford Street, Oxford Circus, Regent Street -- with enforced stop at the jammed Apple store -- Carnaby Street -- yes, its back and still as tacky looking as ever, but the record store I used to buy bootlegs from has gone of course -- Soho, China Town, Leicester Square -- no movies at the time I was there -- Charing Cross Road -- I couldn't find Foyle's Bookstore but understand that it has moved to Shaftesbury Avenue round the corner; shame it moved, there's no more book shops left on Charing Cross Road -- Covent Garden -- and another necessary pitstop at the amazingly redeveloped Apple Store there -- Holborn Kingsway -- past another hotel that I used to audit with cellars probably 200 feet down which went on for hundreds of yards containing wines back to the Napoleonic era when I was doing the audit -- down to the Strand, turn left at the Aldwych and head toward the Temple Bar announcing the start of the City and of Fleet Street.

I worked on Fleet Street in the middle 1970's with our office next to the Daily Express building when newspapers were actually printed on and around Fleet Street.  Our audit room was on the same level as the editor's office and when one of our new guys told everyone that his dad would likely be in the daily meetings, we of course looked out for him and waved like crazy.  After the first time when his dad called to tear a strip off him, we carried on anyway but they turned out to have worked us out and waved back... so of course that was no fun, so we stopped doing it and got on with our work!  Both buildings are still there happily as is my favourite pub of the time -- the Olde Cheshire Cheese -- which served lovely Marston's Pedigree.

Up Ludgate Hill across Ludgate Circus -- no more Ludgate Cellars regrettably -- past the Old Bailey to St. Paul's Cathedral.  It looked lovely as always.  There is this magnificent photo of London in the blitz with everywhere burning in the middle of which is the dome of St. Paul's.  Still gives me a lump in the throat when I see it.

My office in Paternoster Square -- an ugly building now happily gone and replaced with a vibrant new Churchyard -- was right next to St. Paul's when they were cleaning it probably for the first time in a century.  The method:  hoses.  For a year.  Before it was black and foreboding.  After it was all gleaming stone and magnificence.  Still is.

My office was in the rubble to the left of  St. Paul's from this angle, going up Ludgate Hill.  Not much left after the Luftwaffe had had their say that and many other nights.

I was sad to find that the City Pipe, another favourite haunt of mine, had been redeveloped but it was only a short stroll along Cheapside until you reach the Bank of England, Mansion House and the Royal Exchange.  Always bustling, I just love the City and about this time I started to fantasize about getting a job in the City to wind out my working days. I think I'll get over that though!

Next stop was to move along Broad Street until you reach Bishopsgate and then turn leftish towards Liverpool Street Station.  Years ago, this was much smaller.  These days it seems a monstrous sea of glass and impressive red brick.  Where did that red brick come from?  Also the usual hordes of bars and restaurants.  I am amazed about the number there are. How can they all survive?  There used to be the Great Eastern and across the street Dirty Dicks -- a real underground dive cum hovel if ever there was.  Very trendy nowadays, you can even have office functions there.  In my day, you'd never admit you frequented Dirty Dicks! -- but that was about it.

From the station, it was just a short further walk up Bishopsgate to Shoreditch.  Under the railway, first right, first left and there you are at #7 Boundary Street, the home of Dishoom, a Bombay Cafe and venue for tonight's knees up with Jan and Gabs.

Very nice place too with a lovely verandah area (summer only of course) that just begged to be sat in with cool drinks and interesting nibbles coming along to join in.  Whilst waiting, I just had to have a Limca Tom Collins -- Limca is an Indian lemonade that contains no lemon apparently yet tastes like it and is quite possibly the sweetest beverage you will ever consume.

One of the world's most sugary beverages

Then came the crowds, and the lines and more crowds and more lines.  Quite amazing but not hard to understand why as the food was terrific and when one swapped to alternative cocktails, so were they.  The atmosphere was jumping and in all we had a simply lovely evening.

The basic premise with Dishoom is that of a Bombay Cafe run by Iranians (or Farsi's in India).  The menu was just like it sounded when my mum and dad told me of the clubs they'd go to for lunch and dinner with all the little accompaniments to curries that make it such an enjoyable eating experience.

And drinking too for who wouldn't want to go to a prohibition busting bar?  Called the Permit Room because of the prohibition that exists (then and now) in Bombay meaning you had to go to a special room for those pre-independence cocktails that you love.  It's their bar.

Great time and great layover!