Thursday 23rd May 2024

Woke about 0815...feeling very weary. Rolled out of bed before 0900 and cooked pancakes for breakfast. Took a North London line train from Finsbury Park to Moorgate. Walked through Finsbury Circus, which is being completely re-landscaped post-Crossrail works. A lot of new office blocks going up in the vicinity. We met Aki's financial adviser, Stuart Johnstone, at his office in a huge co-working edifice, and then wandered the streets looking for a table in a cafe where we could sit and have a coffee. Ended up in a pub in Broadgate Circle. Stuart took Aki through her plan, and he seemed content that everything was on track. We left him at about 1230 and walked to the Barbican, and then up White Cross Street, to Old Street, seeking out a ramen noodle bar that had been recommended to us by a Japanese chum of Helen and Martin, who we had met at Helen and Martin's Burns' Night in January...she works there, but wasn't due in until the evening shift. We ate tonkotsu noodles in pork broth...tasty enough, but I can't say I liked the bar's interior...I won't be rushing back. Hopped on a No.55 bus into Bloomsbury, then killed some time window shopping in Covent Garden, before heading for the Garden Cinema. We had £5 tickets for the 1510 showing of Italian movie, "La Chimera", a magical piece by writer/director Alice Rohrwacher...we had very much enjoyed her earlier film, "Happy As Lazzaro", which we stumbled upon during Lockdown, and her short "La Pupille". Caught a Piccadilly Line train back to Holloway Road station, and walked home from there. Aki made a mango salad to go with the remaining chicken thighs I'd cooked at the weekend. Talked to Kath about dad's up-coming hospital appointment...he's to be tested for signs of bone cancer a week tomorrow, having produced an unusually high PSA reading. Kath can't drive him in to the Freeman as she's working, and Jim's away, so I said I'd go up on the train next Wednesday, and stick around until the weekend. Aki needed to be up early tomorrow morning for a work meeting in Camden Town, so early bath and bed...