A pied

Went for a walk on Sunday, to clear the cobwebs out of my head. Burnt some serious crepe sole pounding the streets from the South to the East. It was a sodden day.. the heavens opened halfway up the Walworth road, and would have drenched me utterly had I not been under the aegis of a tatty USMC gore-tex.

From Elephant I walked up to London Bridge, and thence crossed to Monument, where I went up the, um, monument, built to comemmorate the great fire. The inside consists of a very narrow spiral staircase. There are 311 steps, and it narrows towards the top, and peering over the railing into the central space, I was gripped by vertigo. I was wearing Clarks Wallabees, which after having been worn for a while, I've found to be utterly treacherous in the rain. On the wet stairs, they provided all the traction of cartoon banana skins, and my descent was much slower as I gripped the bannister like a zimmerframe. The view from the top is good, but like a forest of buildings.

From here I wandered up to Liverpool Street, and then Brick Lane to check out the markets. I think my favourite bit of the market is the assorted chancers who congregate round the Shoreditch end, trying to sell whatever miscellaneous tat they can off blankets. I don't think they've got licences or anything, and I got some distrusful looks as I snapped away with my camera, especially off a girls selling fake DVDs off a blanket. Also passed the 24 hour bagel shops which have proven the answer to post club munchies on quite a few ocassions

From here I walked up to Shoreditch, and up Old street, heading up past the tube to Farringdon, and then Soho, where I wound up at Oxford circus and caught a 12 back to Camberwell.

A round walk of around 20K I think.