When I arrived at Pinner Station at 10:25 Bernard greeted me. He turned up 20 minutes early for our 10:30 rendezvous-vous.
I had booked tickets for The Lookout at 8 Bishopsgate a week before for midday. It’s a straightforward journey directly to Liverpool Street where we alighted. I wanted a coffee so we hung around while we indulged in a caffeine hit and then set off.
Google suggested the walk would take 8 minutes, but with all these people around Bernard felt nervous. He didn’t say anything but he remained more hesitant than usual.
We arrived at the entrance a few minutes before our ticket timing and the security guards greeted us in a very jolly tone. As we passed through the metallic screening process one of the guards asked Bernard how old he was. When he told them he had reached the ripe old age of 101 we had wonderful treatment.
The head of security happened to be standing in the foyer. He held the lift open for us and then accompanied us to the viewing platform on the 50th floor. He chatted to Bernard all the way, asking him questions and telling him about the building.
When we arrived the view stretched out in front of spread out for miles. Luckily we arrived on a clear day. Bernard wanted to sit down and someone stood up for him. I think the effort of walking from the station had tired him. I continued chatting with our head of security guide.
After a few minutes Bernard came over to the window where I stood and joined in our chat. However, he didn’t stay long. He looked down and began to loose his balance. He quickly walked back to his seat. At the same time my guide showed me other sites and chatted away.
We left the lookout and sincerely thanked our security escort and the guard on duty and headed towards the Eaterly complex where I had decided we could have a nice Italian lunch.
Eaterly sits adjacent to the main entrance of Liverpool St station on Bishopsgate. We made our way slowly but arrived without too much difficulty. We enjoyed a bowl of pasta a beer and a bottle of water. We both finished off with a cup of coffee.
The meal pleasant enough. Bernard told me stories about himself that he had told before. I didn’t interrupt him and tell him I’d heard that one. However he does like to talk about himself over and above all else.
We travelled back on the metropolitan line and I jumped out at Pinner. In the evening I played bridge with Pat and we came first as East/West. Pat smiled a lot when we scored highly when playing Salem and partner.