Claustrophobia

i went to London to photograph the Diwali event in Trafalgar Square but the oppressive crush of people was like The Battle of the Bastards from Game of Thrones. Okay a slight exaggeration. But I had to give up. Took the lift to the rooftop bar at The Trafalgar and looked down on the teeming hoards with a glass of wine in my hand and watched the sun go down. You get a good view of Nelson there, looking a bit pissed off on his column. 

As you do when eating and drinking on your own, I eavesdropped. The vistas offered by the Trafalgar’s rooftop bar suggest a sophisticated clientele and the starchy waiters and exorbitant prices reinforce this. But it’s really just a place people go for one drink and the tourist views. So when I heard this I knew I was in everyday company:

"So my cousin right had thousands of t shirts made for a fiver and was selling them for a tenner but they weren’t shifting. So he spent a couple of quid putting them in fancy packaging with faux designer labels and sold the lot for thirty quid a piece in no time. See, people think that if they’re paying more they’re getting more."

This summed up our world for me. You don’t get what you pay for, you pay the price for what you think you’re getting. Most of those t shirts will probably end up in landfill, which is humanity’s probable destination.

Anyway - I took a few other shots on Hungerford bridge, including this shot of a crowded cabin on the London Eye, then came home.

Shots from the day can be found here.

Waterloo by the way was teeming with Gooners and skimpily dressed women in stocking and suspenders or short shorts as if the station concourse had turned into a cross between The Emirates and The Kit Kat Club. Very odd.

TSM had a good day in Sussex with old mates. One of them turned up an hour early due to getting the end of British Summer Time wrong. Classic.

I had a day of healthy eating. Fry up vegan full English breakfast. Greggs vegan sausage rolls for lunch. Vegan burger and chips for supper.

Started reading Booker shortlisted Held by Anne Michaels.  Halfway through already. Very, very good. Beautiful in fact.