It was nice to have a day in the office yesterday, which meant I could trawl through a week’s worth of e-mails, do our regular planning for the weeks ahead and prepare for the various interviews I’m doing this week. One was today on the good old pesticides issue that is keeping us so busy at the moment. that was for BBC Breakfast and will air on Saturday. I’ve also been invited to take part in a programme that Jamie Oliver is making about bacon, so have been reading up on food labelling, geographical indications and animal welfare. The One World Broadcasting Trust event last night was very nice, and it was so interesting to talk to the Fijian. I thnik we sometimes take for granted having a press that can pretty much say what it wants – there are many places around the world where just reporting the facts, without any comment, can result in threats and intimidation. And yet it seems difficult to find people to stick up for freedom of speech in those circumstances (though they seem to manage it for Holocaust-revisionists…)
As I was already in Soho, I decided to treat myself to a Korean meal, and I found a pretty good place called Gama – their kimchi was certainly tasty. After dinner I walked down along Charing Cross Road, through Covent Garden and across Waterloo Bridge. That really is my favourite view in London and on a crisp cold night like last night, it was magical. The lights on Hungerford bridge created an effect of raindrops on a spider’s web, it was lovely. I decided to get a bus home, but got off it way too early, so was a little block of ice when I got home (having lost one of my gloves walking to work that morning).
Last night did instil a feeling of, well not quite nostalgia, I’m not sure what to call it. I was walking through parts of London where I used to spend a lot of time, and rarely go any more. That’s what’s so great about London, I suppose – it’s one thing to you as a 20-year-old student, and something else entirely as a 37-year-old with a 9-to-5 job. Wonder what I’ll think of it at 70…?