Good Friday

I'm off to London for the weekend. Gilbert & George, Hogarth, Jack The Ripper, possibly a trip to the cinema or theatre. First off though I have to visit the office to see whether or not the computer has backed-up properly. Two and a half hours after arriving at the office I am getting back into the car for the trip up the M3. Boy am I pissed off. I leave a note for Angela who I know is coming in on Monday. I don't usually complain but sometimes you have to say 'enough is enough'.

The roads heading away from the coast are fairly clear and it takes me less than ninety minutes to reach Richmond. I decide that rather than head along Chelsea Embankment I'll go straight through the centre, everything goes okay until the section of Knightsbridge just west of Harrods where two lanes become one. Too many drivers ignore the road signs and markings and manage to get themselves in the 'right turn only' lane when they actually want to go straight on!

Ignorant drivers really piss me off.

I arrive at the hotel at just after 2:30 having taken a brief trip around the East End. When I check-in the young lady on reception tells me I have been upgraded at no extra charge so that I can have more room. I'm impressed, I'd booked directly with the hotel this time rather than go through one of the online agencies and it's paying off already. She gives me my room swipe card and tells me my room number.

Now, having stayed at this hotel before I'm familiar with it's geographical position in relation to the Thames, the Tower of London and St.Kaths Dock. Last year I had a slightly underwhelming view of the basin rather than the dock. When I step out of the lift and follow the room signs my heart sinks, a right turn means the basin again. Things get better however and soon I've turned left, left, right and left. I find my room swipe the door entry system and enter the twin bedded room to be met by this view:



Booking direct definitely has its advantages!

Having unpacked I have about four hours to go before the start of the evening's entertainment so I decide to go for a walk around Wapping and Shadwell - as you do when you're a tourist whose bedroom overlooks the most photographed building in Europe!

I arrive back at the hotel at half past five having spent the best part of three hours traipsing round an area that would no longer be familiar to my ancestors who lived there in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

When I get back to my room something happens that will affect the rest of my stay in London and unfortunately not for the better. The previous Friday I had visited a clients and having been seated for half an hour or so I stood and felt the tissues in the lower part of my back slowly ease themselves apart, now as I decided to stand, having been sat on the bed for twenty minutes, I aggravate the injury. The best cure for this type of damage is an ice pack and exercise - I don't have any ice but boy am I going to do some exercise!

The Jack The Ripper Haunts walk organised by London Walks leaves Tower Hill tube station every night (except Christmas Eve and Christmas Day) at 6:30 p.m and lasts for about two and a half hours. The tour is conducted by alternately two people, one is Donald Rumbleow who is one of the world's leading Ripperologists and the second person is either a guide or an actor. I'm not sure how many people I expected to attend on Good Friday but by the scheduled departure time close on one hundred people have paid their £6 and been split into two groups. I choose to go with Molly, a middle aged lady who is a qualified blue badge holder and is somebody who leads groups around the British Museum. The walk takes just over two and a half hours and we walk through Aldgate, Whitechapel and Spitalfields visiting the sites of the famous 1888 murders and learning a lot about the history of the area.

I'm back at the hotel by ten and do something I wouldn't dream of doing if I were at home - I visit the Carvery. Now there's one thing I must say about the hotel, despite its unbeatable location, excellent room facilities, good service and value for money the quality of the food they serve is dreadful.