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May 3rd: RL
and I had big plans for today. In the months leading up to this trip we had
discussed the things we could do, sights we could see … and anyone who knows me
probably knows what came next… “you
know, there’s a dance at the Cecil
Sharp House. If we catch the afternoon coach we could be there in time for
a light supper before the dance, then catch the midnight coach home. If it’s
safe to walk home at 3am … what say you?????” Well of course the answer was
yes. Naturally we tried to rope others in on this experience, and cousins Kev,
Lucy and Alex were duly deputised as our accomplices. Coach tickets were
purchased and RL and I set off, sandwiches in hand, for our 3 hour one-way
journey for a 2 hour dance! As the coach got closer to London I began to see
familiar landmarks, not city sights, but childhood haunts; Forest Gate where I
lived as a child, the Whitechapel brewery where my dad worked (next door to the
Blind Beggar pub
and its connections to the founding of the Salvation Army … and the Kray Twins). The coach
continued into London, past Tower
Bridge and the Tower
of London, along the Thames embankment past Cleopatra’s
Needle and the statue of the warrior queen, Boadicea
/ Boudica, fighting the Romans from her chariot. Past the scaffolding clad
Big Ben, past the Houses of Parliament
and on to Victoria Station. It had been a wonderful and unexpected trip down
memory lane, with me chirping on about what each place meant to me and RL
listening good humouredly as if to a little child. We met Kev in Camden Town,
but the others were suspiciously absent, claiming sickness. In the end it was
just RL and I walking to an eagerly anticipated evening of elegance and English
Country Dancing at the home of English folk dance. We were a little surprised
to be greeted by almost 30 Thai dance students, in town for a SOAS event. As dancers they picked up the
beat quickly, and explanations and gestures were often comical. During the
break we wandered over to watch the Irish set dancers and then the students treated
us to a Thai dance demonstration. It was far from the elegance we had anticipated,
but a wonderful evening, filled with joy and laughter, all the same. RL and I
made our way back to the coach station, buying food for the journey home and
boarding the coach with seconds to spare. The journey home was as delightful as
the inbound journey, tracing much of the same route, although nowadays coach
drivers are given great leeway with routes and use Google maps and other apps
to avoid construction and detours. Our coach driver, Malcolm, kindly alerted us
to photo ops that I’d missed on the first journey, and slowed down for me to
take pics. Finally back in Norwich at 3am, we walked home through the sleeping
city, tired but very happy.
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