I don’t feel great this morning but I am preparing to travel up-town for what could be the biggest ever demonstration in Central London for the chance of a second referendum. My back pain is across my back although not as bad as Monday and my stomach is hurting but I truly believe this is totally psychosomatic - I felt fine last Saturday! I have given the Park Run a miss this morning but plan to be back next week.
Update - I’m back and this looks like the biggest ever demonstration in London with at least one million and some estimates towards 2 million. I was a march ‘virgin’ but am no longer! It was an amazing atmosphere, starting at Teddington station being photographed by a German press man. The trains were packed almost fully with people heading to the march. I met friends at Raynes Park and together we headed to Waterloo. I had a run in with a Scottish man who started having a go asking why we wished to overturn democracy and claiming he fully understood what he voted for. After standing too close and almost spitting in my face he walked off, I shouted an expletive loudly which was not ‘big or clever’ but strangely satisfying.
The march was not as crushed as I expected despite the numbers and it was a great atmosphere with children, babies in arms and prams and even a selection of ‘second vote’ dogs! We joined the march at Green Park and walked down St James, along Pall Mall to Trafalgar Square and then down Whitehall towards Parliament Square where the march finished. However, as there were so many people we couldn’t make it further than half way down Whitehall. I blew my bear whistle as loudly as I could and swore in unison with thousands of people. The police were great and had warned people about the upcoming crush so, as we had walked three quarters of the route, we called it a day and peeled off past the MOD building and back to the South Bank via the Hungerford footbridge.
We were pretty tired and managed to find a place to sit on the carpet in the National Theatre where I enjoyed a large hot chocolate and shortbread. We eventually headed home and I felt rather bereft without a million other like minded people as I picked up dinner in M&S!
