Loafing in London

Tomorrow I have a day in London. We are going up for a morning meeting, which with any luck will leave the afternoon free for a bit of loafing around.

I love wandering around the middle of London, it fascinates me. The masses of people rushing around, the shops, the manic traffic zooming everywhere at ridiculous speeds, suddenly stopping for a red light and then zooming off again. The way the price of a bar of chocolate or a can of coke can double if you walk to another shop half a mile away.

If I have time, tomorrow I intend to:

Walk past Buckingham Palace. There is something wonderful about this place, the guards, the machine gun toting Police, the constant flow of tourists with their cameras. It is truly British.

Stroll across Green Park with its trees, and families and couples having picnics or lounging in the sun.

Wander along Piccadilly with its theatres, checking out what the shows are. A current big hit is "Menopause the Musical" - slated by the critics as unPC and terrible, it is a smash with its predominantly older female audience. While here it is best to stick to the main road, as deviation can quickly find you surrounded by Soho's strip clubs and sex shops (which, I guess, could lead to further deviation!). I know this from a long time ago when I tried to find a guitar shop in Soho Square...

I should now be near a great little shop that sells toy soldiers, so I might pop in and have a look around - maybe they will have a Roman catapult for me. I certainly need one.

Then it is about face time, heading back towards Hyde Park Corner and the many artists who try to sell you paintings. This can be well worth a visit, some of the people here are pure genius, while others have less talent than a hedgehog in a bag.

Finally, across Hyde Park, back past Buckingham Palace and onto the train for home.

Well, that is the plan. Watch this space.