Silver London


I arrived at Chancery Lane tube station with an hour to spare. I was to meet for the first time my dear FB friend N. F. at 2pm. I thought I would have a walk around the streets first. When I got up to street-level it was raining - the first proper, drenching rain I've really seen since I've been here. It was lovely. London looks all silvery in a downpour. I walked along Chancery Lane for a while, getting slowly soaked and it really felt great to be out in Nature, with water dripping off my nose and soaking into my left sock through the newly-appeared hole in my sole: it really made me feel alive to the experience.

Went into Marks & Spencer for a big bag of mandarins. Then I stood under its eaves while I peeled and ate a couple, watching the passing parade of solicitors' secretaries, shoppers and businessmen-and-women scurrying by with their umbrellas, and listening to scraps of their conversation as they passed. It was a magic forty minutes, and I could easily have stood there all day, but my meeting with N. F. was calling.

The rain showed no signs of easing so I went into another shop and bought an umbrella. Then I walked back to the tube station and down the stairs to the ticket area, where my friend was waiting.

As it was with my meeting of the other Facebook friends for the first time last week, my meeting with N. F. was as if I had known him for years. What a great fellow! We entered into conversation as easily as if we had seen each other last week. We had such a great rapport.

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