Suspended

Apologies for blipping the Emirates Air Line twice in a year! It's the best way to see London, if by London one means North Woolwich and the docks.

I did not happen to mention my London trip earlier, for fear of jinxing my health. But, ages ago, my old friend Rosie mentioned that she occasionally comes to London on a short break...so we booked the train tickets, and arranged to meet at Paddington station, beside the statue of Paddington bear, behind the glass doors.

What could possibly go wrong with such an arrangement? Only that the statue of PB had been moved and was no longer behind the glass doors in the lounge, but on Platform 1! Hmmmmm.

We headed off to South Kensington, to the V&A, where we saw the shortlisted and winning entrants for the women's hour craft prize. The most moving one was, oddly, from a woman who mends old sweaters for other people and photographs them in their repaired jumper, having taken the time to talk to them first and find out about their lives, and their jumpers, and to map out the repair pattern in advance before proceeding, with approval. Gentle companionship, with jumpers.

Next stop was a French cafe. Rosie showed me the unbelievably grand mansion block she had once lived in, and I failed to find the language school I'd worked in. The dinosaur exhibition at the Natural history museum was too busy for our liking, so we took the tube to Embankment and got on a Thames clipper (boat) to North Greenwich. I was still trying to fill Rosie in on recent family developments, all the while. She seemed to want to know, having known me for 30 years.

Then we took the Emirates Air Line cable car in late afternoon sunlight, because Rosie had never been on it, and I don't need an excuse to do it twice. I've seen a lot of James Bond films, but no axe-wielding villains crawled up the wires and into our car. Nor did we require a ski pass!

Back to Tower hill on the Docklands light railway, where we had tea and remarkably good puddings in a Wetherspoon's bar, and yet more catching up. We almost didn't get to Paddington because we spent so long chatting on a westbound platform at Tower Hill, where no trains ever arrived! Eventually we went East, and changed on to the Bakerloo line. More (mint) tea at Paddington before I boarded my train. Rosie lives in Northumberland, and I don't see her often, so our time together is precious.

And now, I'm using up my data on the train, so I must sign off. Goodnight from Reading station.