First Night in London

Last night I walked into Waterloo for dinner. I found a nice Italian restaurant called La Barca. I ordered spatchcock with roasted vegetables and a glass of white wine (which quickly turned into two). The restaurant had obviously been there for decades as the walls were littered with signed photographs of celebrity diners such as Judy Garland, Laurence Olivier, Marc Bolan and Richard Dreyfuss. Unfortunately, there were also a dozen or so snaps of present day 'celebrities', the current crop talentless air-heads and wannabes, famous for doing and being nothing.

Got into conversation with two lovely elderly ladies at the next table. They said they were sorry to hear that what appeared to be a village idiot was now prime minister of Australia. They shared some of their pre-dinner grissini with me as we awaited our dinner to arrive.

A BBC presenter came in with his wife. Showing off, he attempted to order their dinner very loudly in Italian. To his obvious embarrassment the waiter pretended not to understand him and made him say it in English instead. As he turned from the table the waiter caught my eye and made a pantomime grimace, which was so wonderful.


(I do not own this photograph)

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