For some reason I hadn't slept; and at the last moment decided to travel to Westminster London and attend the 'Climate Change March'. The demo' will highlight the meeting held today by the United Nations in Bali, and will also be staged in 50 other countries around the world.
Unfortunately, I wasn't prepared enough to sort a proper camera to take. Instead I made do with my mobile phone camera :/ I left at ten to five in the morning to catch the bus to Sheringham. The bus driver despite being up so early on such a cold dark morning cheerily greeted me after having bought his paper from the newsagents, " Ah, somebody else up at this ridiculous time!!." He was wearing one of those warm military hats with a Soviet star on the front. On the way he talked about his Portuguese wife, and the Portuguese community in Dereham. I tried to steer the conversation towards guns and the police in Portugal but he just wanted to talk more about his wife :)
The short ride was soon over, I now had time to kill in Sheringham before the next bus to Norwich. I spent the time walking along the sea front and switching off TVs in shop windows.
The morning awoke with a beautiful red sky, which usually unsurprisingly means rain's on its way!! A fellow passenger I overheard confirmed that rain was forecast for today.
In Norwich I walked straight to the Railway station; purchased my day return ticket which including London underground for £43.
There wasn't many people on the train, the few there searched for their allocated seats, does it really matter? There was no real reservations. They obviously hadn't noticed that British Rail and their workers just don't give a fuck any longer. During the journey it was nice to see families on day trips to London, joking about visiting the Queen. I made use of the time by reading a book.
Strangely enough I've never travelled the underground by myself before. As soon as I arrived at Liverpool Street I got hold of an Underground map, then a coffee, in that order. In the coffee shop, people were crammed onto tables. I sat with a guy who was quietly listening to his Ipod. Shortly we were joined by a lady with two large shopping bags, her husband in tow. The woman was very friendly, though when she left to go somewhere her husband seemed indifferent almost pleased; I had to chuckle in sympathy, he's seen everything there is to see I guess.
Arriving at Westminster Tube Station I was greeted almost immediately by people selling 'Socialist Worker' and a protester dressed as Death :) Following some familiar land marks I easily found the assembly point for the demo, near to parliament square. Waiting around in the rain for things to get going I was given a placard which I managed to dump after awhile mainly because it has the Socialist Worker across the top, and it was destroyed by the rain anyhow. The police came and told me and others to move off of the pavement, which was OK accept I got a funny look when I didn't respond within the first few seconds... no problem really. Some guy made me laugh shouting," hurry-up!!! I've got a flight to catch!!!" :)
I stood near the 'Surfers against sewage' lot, they were dressed in there usual wetsuits and looked frozen. Other people were dressed-up too and as usual there was the samba band. The march in the rain was made worse by people and their umbrellas stabbing everyone in the head. Everything happened as usual, Japanese tourists taking photos, Police heavily guarding the Porsche car show room, people with whistles, student talking to girls about Sufism. I'm not sure but after a TV in a shop window was switched off using tv-bgone lots of people started cheering and whistling, may have been unrelated...v.strange :) At the end of the march, some of us followed the band right to the barrier, set by police to guard the US embassy. Standing on a railing not much was happening, just a token attempt to break through the barrier. The police responded by re-enforcing with more officers. " what's happening?" Looking down I saw a women standing with her pram and baby. I never understand why people bring their children on demos. Is it safe for them ? :/
I spent the rest of my time in London walking around Leicester Square, Covent garden and China Town.
http://www.campaigncc.org
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