Those were the days - pre-COVID-London LNYDP19

I had the day off today (well, most of it anyway) and spent a few hours playing around with this photo.  I've been wanting to touch it up for years actually.  Another version of it was the first photo I uploaded to Flickr - very slap dash and called, appropriately "Look mummy!".

Given I spent so long on it today I reckon it qualifies as my blip for today.

It was taken on our last overseas trip in Dec 2018 - Jan 2019.  Probably also our last one for some years to come, the way things are going.  I lived in London for a few years during Maggie's reign and had not been back since, so was very much looking forward to it - spent hours (days) planning and managed to find an AirBnB literally on Trafalgar Square (on the first floor above "The Admiralty")!  Stretched the budget a little but a once in a lifetime opportunity, so I took it (and no regrets).

I knew nothing about ""London New Year's Day Parade" (LNYDP) when I booked it as it didn't exist when I lived in London so it was an added bonus - beautiful weather and enough room for a few friends to join us but still bitterly cold sitting in the shade on the balcony.
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I look at photos like this now, and watch the news, and feel a mixture of relief and guilt that I am in Australia now.  About half the people I work with at the moment live in India and another quarter live in Australia but are of Indian descent - they are an amazingly resilient people but there is only so much...