Spanish lessons (again)...

I now realise how important it is to practice a language, and practice, again and again. It’s been three years since I completed my 12 months’ evening classes course and I am so, so rusty!  So I’ve had to go back to basics and have pulled out my Access Spanish produced by María Utrero Cajudo. But thankfully with the help of my trusty MacBook, I’ve downloaded it all and I’m able to take it with me and plug in discreetly wherever I am – currently in Pret a Manger having a coffee just across the road from Marble Arch in London while Mark is attending the first session of a two-day Philosophy Seminar in Peckham.  I’m just spending a while listening to the audio examples to refresh my memory and quite a lot of it is sounding familiar.

Looking over to Hyde Park I am witnessing a huge police presence as preparations are under way for a TUC Rally and March “…against the government cuts” which is due to take place later. I’ll try to make my escape before that officially gets under way but I thought I should add another chapter or two here while I have the opportunity. 

I can’t believe the numbers of policemen everywhere.

A quick break for lunch so I made a dash to the Edgware Road where I found a very nice Lebanese Restaurant and enjoyed a meal of falafel in a wrap with a delicious tomato and onion salad.

Reports are beginning to emerge that violence has erupted in some sections of the TUC march, where a break-away group appears to be causing havoc, with attacks on Top Shop, an attempted take-over of Fortnum and Mason, and damage caused to a branch of HSBC. The story appears to be that this small group is attacking those businesses which are allegedly taking part in tax avoidance schemes.  I spotted a TV report showing broken windows, and pictures of masked participants throwing paint and smoke bombs and, more alarmingly, electric light bulbs containing ammonia.  Regretfully not much more Spanish to be done today with so many distractions and I am becoming alarmed at the prospect of having to extricate my car from the underground carpark at Hyde Park and to negotiate all the thousands of people to get away, so I mustn’t leave it too late as I have to collect Mark from his Seminar at about 5.30pm.

Half an hour later, and with advice from a friendly traffic cop, I was on my way but having to follow the route suggested rather than that according to the Satnav to avoid crowds and traffic congestion.  I actually discovered that following the route on the iPhone was better but there was a constant battle with the Satnav, and I arrived rather late.  We finished the evening at a Turkish Restaurant, which appeared to be family-run, with an excellent meal served by very friendly and helpful staff (unlike our experience the evening before at an Indian Restaurant where, despite the excellent food, we felt obliged to complete the customer satisfaction response card with “Staff could be more friendly and less hurried”).