Build it up with wood and clay....

This is my photo of 'London Bridge' (it is actuallyTower Bridge, but this is the one most people associate with the name), taken from a riverboat on Thursday.  My mood was buoyant, the sun was shining.  I'd had a wonderful three days holiday with a good friend whom I don't see all that often, due to geography and our busy lives.  We stayed in a newish hotel, part of a Spanish chain, comfortable and beautifully designed, but surprisingly poor at communicating with guests.  Or maybe just British guests, as most staff and visitors were Spanish.  Breakfast was a lavish buffet, with everything from Spanish omelettes to chocolate gateau.  We found a lively pub to eat in on our first evening, lots of young, hip Londoners having fun.  Our waitress assessed us quickly (two old dears?) and ushered us to a 'nice quiet table' in the corner, next to the fire exit!

We explored the South Bank on foot on Tuesday, dodging heavy rain in the Tate Modern, enjoying a fast-paced and funny Merry Wives at the Globe, eating our packed lunch of breakfast leftovers at Gabriel's Wharf, with its makeshift buildings and hand-crafted clothes shops.   The Oxo Tower was a major disappointment - closed shops and NO TOILETS!  On Wednesday we headed across the river and got on an old Routemaster bus (with a cheery West Indian conductor) through the city (at walking pace due to the traffic) to the Natural History Museum.   We'd both read Remarkable Creatures, Tracy Chevalier's novel based on the life of Mary Anning, who discovered the first dinosaurs in Britain at Lyme Regis, and wanted to see the crocs and icthys on display.  We got the tube to Covent Garden and found the Dominion Theatre where we saw the Queen Musical We Will Rock You.  This was brilliant - funny and loud with all the great Queen numbers.  We ended up hoarse from cheering and singing, hands sore from clapping.  Back out in the night, baffled by barriers and roadworks (everywhere - in preparation for the Olympics) we headed in the wrong direction, having done really well up till then, thanks to my friend's London 'Apps' on her iPod.  But we found the right stop and got our bus back to the hotel.  On Thursday we just had time for the river cruise before we got our delayed train home.  

Since then, I've been dealing with some difficult stuff.  The friend I wrote about in my last post has lost her husband.  He died last night.   A respite stay for my father went badly wrong, with him enduring unnecessary indignities and indifference from staff.   Someone close to me who seemed to be well and ready to return to an independent life has had to be re-admitted to an acute psychiatric ward.  Hence the nursery rhyme, running through my head
London Bridge is falling down. falling down, falling down....
Build it up with wood and clay, wood and clay, wood and clay....
Wood and clay will wash away.........
As a metaphor, it is perhaps not very helpful, except that the rhyme's next verse is more positive:
Build it up with stone so strong, stone so strong, stone so strong.....
Stone will last for ages long...
Like Sisyphus, who had to keep rolling his stone back up the hill, we just have to keep starting over, looking for the solid stones to rebuild the fabric of our lives.  I suppose for me, these are family, friendship, work and the practical things I occupy myself with.  This week:  digging potatoes, finishing a small knitting project, starting a bigger one, practising Maple Leaf Rag for my lesson on Wednesday.
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