Framedlight

I just happened to be in London yesterday and had not realised that there was a demonstration planned for the evening, an anti-austerity march called the Million Mask March. I was visiting the National Gallery and came out around 6.00pm to find Trafalgar Square full of people. It all seemed fairly peaceful although there was a very high police presence. The police were handing out pamphlets and there was a laser message being beamed on the walls of the National Gallery with threats of imprisonment if you broke Public Order Act restrictions. The Independent has called this Orwellian and I was surprised the National Gallery allowed it, but perhaps they had no choice. We met Hugh in Gerrard Street for something to eat, and when we came out onto Leicester Square there were at least hundred police on the sides of the road who suddenly charged off at full pelt towards Covent garden. When we went back the action seemed to have moved on from Trafalgar Square and there were only a few proteste...

The PS stands for paddle steamer and the Waverley is the last sea going paddle steamer left in the world! She was built in 1946 and is now in the tender care of a preservation society. Her home town is Glasgow and she was used by the ferry company Calmac until 1973 when it was decided that she was too expensive to maintain. The Waverley Steam Navigation Company now look after her and raise revenue by running trips around the country, starting in the Clyde and moving down finally to London, from where she returns to the Clyde for the winter. Alan, who is a demi - Glaswegian, remembers childhood holidays in the frozen north where a trip on the Waverley was always the highlight. And it happened last October that the conjunction of the stars was in perfect alignment for a visit from Alan's sister from Florida and a Waverley excursion on the Thames. It was a complete family day out with as many relatives as we could muster for the evening sail. We set off from Tower Bridge Pier, ...