The afternooon advances. We work our way back towards Bond Street with the idea of hopping out for pasteries at this little place I know between Queensway and Bayswater.

First off, a quick hop out at Holland Park.


Arriving at Queensway, it's still raining, which makes it dark and hard to get a non-blurry shot...I sit on the pile of free newspapers that are destined to become tube litter:




walking down towards the patisserie I realised that the last time I was here was during the summer between my first and second year at University when I temped here for three months which was, oh the horror, nearly fourteen years ago now. Chances are that the patisserie is not here any more. Almost incidentally, we knock off Baywater...


and lo, we find fears confirmed...no mille feuille for us today...I shake my fist and rail at the injustice. My little place of solace has shut up shop, packed up the china and turned off the lights.


Across the street is a noodle bar, so to avoid the wind and rain, we duck in there for over-priced stodge. Depressingly the hoarding and for sale sign on the patisserie looks clean and new. We speculate that maybe they shut at Christmas, hopefully retiring to somewhere warm where someone else will serve them toasted brioche rolls. Even more depressing than the food and lack of cream cakes are the loos. There are no lights in the cubicles so I leave the door open a fraction so I can see what I'm doing. Discover there's also no paper in the big metal dispenser, but someone has thoughtfully provided a newspaper so I tear off a corner and use that.

Refuelled, we walk back to Queenway for more exciting fascias at Marble Arch...

I take out my notebook and tippex out the stations achieved so far. G is amused at my anality, but it getting into the swing of taking out stations.