Freddie, Avis' grandson, appeared at about 10:50. Ken left Avis time to chat. He was working at the Soho Theatre but also does some call centre work in this gap year. He has got into Kings, not Cambridge but Kings is better. See more about Freddie on the Art Scene page. Kings took over Ken's old college. I collected Christine Vorce (an American Delaforce, Ken's Mum's family) from Angel Tube &, after a toss-up between The Culture Revolution (true Chinese, not Americanised) & Gallipoli, Gallipoli won & we went there, Christine’s first ever Turkish meal. There was too much food as usual. Freddie left to join his shift. Avis showed Christine her Studio.

We had a surprise invitation from "Jean" but not saying which Jean, so, to be on the safe side, we bought a box of chocolates & headed off West. We had a bit of difficulty finding the Barnsbury Community Centre but when we did, Jean turned out to be Jean Flynn, who I thought was four years younger than me, not two. She is the Matriarch of a large (and it would seem, largely unmarried) tribe & lives in the Council Flats in our road, built on the site of an old graveyard, so not conforming to the Georgian pattern. It was very noisy because of the disco but there was a lot of food & the vast panoply of Jean’s descendants, she being a Great-grandmother. Neigbours Pauline & Kingsley were there & so was Rowley Harris (but not Betty - probably too snooty but I was not going to embarrass Rowley, who is a good bloke, by asking, especially as he had been on the telephone bank for the Iranian Secular Opposition all day). In the past, Ken has trundled some of the kids to Clissold Park, packed as freight in the back of our van.

We took Mike to lunch at the "Hare & Hounds" (right, their photo), which used to be Ken's walking pub when he lived in Osterley. I dropped Avis at the pub because vans only have two seats, then picked up Mike, who was now walking fitfully with a stick but that is a huge improvement on how he was when Ken last saw him about 16 months ago. He has just been on holiday to Colmar, Freiburg in Breisgau & a couple of days in Köln he was familiar with when the top Civil Servant in a business co-operation unit which also worked with similar outfits on the Mainland. The food was ok but expensive.

Later, Mike managed to make it to the Isleworth Grammar School Xmas reunion lunch on only one stick.

Not our usual scene but Ken's old entertainer shipmate, Suzi Woods, was singing at this venue on November 2nd. (She does "Je ne regrette rien" better than Piaf but did not sing it this time. Find it on Youtube). Underneath the posh Brasserie Zedel off Glasshouse Street near Piccadilly Circus, is this remarkable Art Deco night club. (The boss said she wished all her guests would dress up). There were three other performers, one had a friend, Josephine Rollings, who proved a useful contact for Kayza Rose (see the campaign page).