Tue April 5

Another late start (damn addictive book), but at least the sun is out. I jump on the Tube to Tower Hill to spend the afternoon at the Tower of London. Take lots of pictures as its quite pretty but most of the exhibitions are re-creations and any sense of history has been washed away by the floods of tourists. I make my way around as best I can with the map in German I accidentally picked up (I really am clueless) and finally get the chance to answer the question I fondly asked often as a kid (how many jewels in the Queen's crown? A - Too bloody many to count. No wonder I never got a sufficient answer). A little bit of the history is lost on me and I should have got an audio tour but the £14.50 to enter seemed quite enough to go frivolously spending any more. The most interesting things are the armour (fattest, tallest and a variety of children's armour as well as the very fancy horse armour.) About the most impressive thing I see is the chopping block where Simon Fraser was beheaded (as featured in Diana Gabaldon novels) and graffiti as written around the 1500s. Afterwards I walk over the Tower Bridge and hoorah back again headed for home.

Have a great dinner as made by ME - I swear the vegetables here, particularly the pumpkin and potato taste much better.

Then netcafe for my own interest's sake for a change rather than the endless job searching (research on toy shops and libraries). And THEN on the way home some guy stops me in the street for a chat and asks me to go to the pub. Luckily I have to go and let Shane in the house so he gives me his card and asks me to call him tomorrow. I swear when accosted by strangers the nagging cynical voice in my head shuts down and I become little miss friendly. Anyway, afterwards when miss cynical kicks in again I decide to throw out the card and imagine him walking off and continuing the procedure with every lone female walking along minding their own business. Chances are, a few days from now he'll spot me somewhere and demand to know why I never called and hence why I have avoided the netcafe for a few days.