with Alice

I watched the changing of the guard at Buckingham Place, with Alice - at least there probably was an Alice or two among the 100's of spectators.

I went back up to London today to go the the Victoria and Albert Museum to see the quilt exhibition. The Brighton train arrives at Victoria Station which is quite close to Buckingham Place so I wandered over and watched the new guard assembling in the forecourt of Wellington Barracks. The band played a medley of numbers including the star wars theme. The then marched across to the palace - swapped with the old guards, didn't see much of this, too many people and then the old ones marched back. I then walked up theGreen Park side of the palace to go to the V&A. About 1/2 way up a group of horse guards (well guards on horses) came trotting by - cool.

It was quite a walk up to the museum - but a pleasant day so enjoyable. I spent a couple of hours looking around the quilts. Some were 300 years old, others were made for the exhibition. Then wandered back towards the station.

Stopping on the way for afternoon tea at Harrods. Went up the Egyptian escalators - what is at the top? A 2m high brass head of Mohamed al-Fayed, owner of Harrods and father of Dodi (as in Dinah an Dodi). How sad is that?





The rest of my return trip was through the well-heeled squares of South Kensington, where you can buy a town house for a cool 3-7 mill.

Last work day in Brighton tomorrow - off to Berlin on Saturday.