The day the markets breathed again

On a day when Gordon Brown appeared to have saved the financial world from doom with his bold move to invest heavily in the banks of Britain, I invested heavily on a rail ticket from Maidstone East to London Bridge. Greeted by a surly ticket seller I was told the fare was 26 pounds return.

I'm not sure of the exact moment when I realised what he had just said but guess it was when I could only see 20 pounds in my wallet. I was beginning to realise I didn’t have the cash to pay for the fare. Scrounging through my backpack I was able to muster up the fare and with 20p left I headed to the platform in shock to catch the 853am London Bridge.

First stop was a cafe in Borough for a latte and a traditional English breakfast. Fuelled on eggs I headed across into the City and to the British Museum where I had a look at the Hadrian, Empire and Conflict Exhibition. I studied Ancient History at school yet I had no real appreciation of the size of the Roman Empire, particularly at the time of Hadrian. Perhaps our lessons were too Rome-centric or perhaps I didn’t pay attention to the big picture in any case the exhibition was extremely interesting. For someone to rule a territory that stretched from Britain to North Africa and across to the Middle East especially during time of turmoil is quite incredible.

Enough of the history lesson and onto the next museum! I took the tube over to the Victoria and Albert Museum at South Kensington to see the Cold War Modern Design exhibition, a great take on the influences of the Cold War and the space race on the design of many things from clothes, television and motor vehicles.

At this point I must apologise for the lack of photos. I have lost my usb cable and am in search of a replacement. As soon as I find one I'll be putting photos on the site.

Tuesday night and it was dinner at home with Michael and Sally (and the dogs Daisy and Basil). An early night was planned. I was off to Paris in the morning......

---

---