London was stifling, humid, hot, and polluted, with no respite anywhere from the sticky heat and frayed tempers. We breakfasted at Benji’s, then checked out the price of one-way flights to Tehran at the London Flight Centre.
Collecting our packs from the hotel, we joined the throng of people at Earl’s Court waiting for 9.30 AM when the cheap one-day travel cards would be used. We caught the tube over to Kennington and walked around to Lucy’s flat, and settled in there once again. We stayed there for a couple of hours chatting, then set off over to the Iranian consulate to get our passports.
But once again, a barrier had been thrown in our way. Although our visas were ready — the man showed them to me — one more form and photograph were needed before they could be handed over. I met Linda at New Zealand House, and she had also been given a runaround from an embassy: the Chinese.
We caught a bus from Regent Street to Oxford Street, then down Oxford Street to Jessop’s, where we bought a selection of film, a tripod, and a camera cleaning kit. From there, we walked back up Oxford Street, then down through Soho, pausing for a quick lunch at a sandwich bar, before carrying on down to Piccadilly Circus, where we caught a bus back over to Kennington.
In the evening, with intermittent heat showers doing nothing to cool the city air, we caught a bus down to Streatham to go to the movies. The bus took us through the littered and graffitied suburb of Brixton, and on down to Streatham, which hardly seemed any different. We booked seats for the 8.45 session of Four Weddings and a Funeral, then had a quick curry at a place called The Spice Cottage.
CurseOfTheTraveller 