The plan I had agreed with Garry began with our meeting at Pinner station from where we would travel to Lambeth North and pick up Jon and go to the Imperial War Museum.
The plan worked out beautifully. I walked to Pinner with Maggi, because she had organised a day out with Barbara and Sue is London. They jumped on the train at 10:05 and I waved them off. A few minutes later Garry’s train came along. Garry sat in his seat and I sat next to him. As I sat down he held out his hand for me to shake it, something I had not expected.
It’s strange how some people you shake hands with, some people you hug and some people want nothing when you greet them. The way you greet or the intensity of the contact doesn’t seem to depend on the closeness or fondness between you. The type of connection depends more on predilection the other person has to close personal contact (outside the time of a Covid Pandemic).
We arrived at Lambeth North station, which needs a complete refurbishment. The plaster falls down as you pass while the walls ouse damp. The place is filthy and a disgrace compared to some of the stations on the tube. Mind you the actual Bakerloo Line train must be one of the oldest trains still in use, so I guess it matches the station.
Garry and I ascended via the lift and emerged into the light. The rain had stopped. All night and much of the morning the rain had pounded down. So, seeing no rain I sighed, “What a relief”. I followed Garry as we crossed the road and entered Costa Coffee where to my surprise Jon sat. I have never known Jon to be early for any arrangement we have ever made.
We spent 30-40 minutes in the cafe consuming our coffee and listening to Jon’s anecdotes about life, his friends in France, the installation of his kitchen and other matters. Jon has a talent for entertaining, sometimes I think he feels obliged to fulfil this role. But I am only guessing.
We walked a few hundred metres to The Imperial War Museum. The last time I toured the museum I came away thinking that the place tended to glorify war too much. On this visit I went to the basement and wandered around the First World War exhibition which I thoroughly enjoyed. The story began with a movie description about what Britain was like at the outbreak of war. For example the average death rate, the death rate for poor and middle class (30 and 58), Children could leave school at 12, my father born in 1916 left school at 14. Plus many other interesting insights into Edwardian living conditions.
Plenty of other aspects of the war had movies to illustrate the topic, people being carried on stretchers, the awful thick mud of the trenches and plenty more. After I had completed the FWW section I climbed the stairs to the 3rd floor for their exhibition entitled ‘Spies Lies and Deception’. Again the show fascinated me and I read loads of the details on each object or picture. They had many things that contained your usual spying kit, brief cases (radio) hidden daggers, invisible ink writing equipment in the form of matches and stuff like that. Most of the show described British successes in the spy world and I thought where is the story of Philly, Burgess, Maclean and Blunt. These traitors appeared in the final room of the exhibition entitled ‘Deceived’. Unfortunately we had arranged to meet in the hallway at 1:15 and I had run out of time.
We decided we would find a pub for a bit of lunch and a couple of drinks. On the journey back towards the tube station we saw The Three Stags, we looked inside and saw a full pub of people sitting down and eating. This appeared a good sign so we took a chance and ordered drinks and sat down for a bit to eat. The three of stayed in the pub for at least two hours, three drinks and a meal chatting and laughing about nothing important.
We made our way back to Lambeth North and then home via our wonderful London Transport system