From Cairo to the Connemara: A Sojournal

 Pt3 - 11: LONDON the SECOND Chiswick is a bustling hub of art and culture. Art of the culinary kind in Andy’s Kebab House and the curries of Sundarban, and culture of the drinking kind at The Tabard on the corner and All Bar One on the high street. Everything is within too easy a stroll of Rod and Rosie’s, ten minutes to get there and forty to stagger home. Connecting us to everywhere in the city in a matter of minutes, Turnham Green station is down the end of the street and round the corner; the four lines pass right by R & R’s back fence, each with its own distinctive note and rhythm as the trains rattle through. You might remember me saying rail offers the idle traveller a chance to peer fleetingly into the backyards of local life. Anyone peering into the local life of R & R’s small back yard would’ve seen yours truly installed in the garden with a beer on the table and Rod’s guitar, enhancing the rich cultural life of Chiswick. Ok, I’m being flippant, but Chiswick ...

Pt3 - 8:  ENGLAND 19 th July – 29 th August LONDON the FIRST Day 150: Le Shuttle terminal at Calais is a spaceport. We joined the queue of cars under overcast skies at 12:40pm, were directed down the ramp onto the long train, all polished steel and gleaming glass, and at 12:52 descended soundlessly into the Chunnel. Thirty-five minutes later we emerged into bright sunshine at Folkestone and were funnelled smoothly onto the M20 to London. The immediate challenge was to focus on the novelty of driving a left-hand drive vehicle on the left side of the road, but we managed to negotiate the first two hours without mishap. Hungry and needing some Sterling we swerved off the ramp at Ashford, visited a hole in the wall and hit our first English pub. It was both familiar and strange: familiar because the ambience was very similar to a comfy pub back home, only with period décor, strange because for the first time in a long while the menu was in English and so was the conversation....