locked legal white



Not much is left of this bike chained to the railings on Waterloo Bridge. Lorenzo da Ponte and I pause for a moment beside its remains on our way from the Bloggers' Retreat to the Kings Arms in Roupell Street.

In the chemist's a Bank of Scotland five pound note is queried by an assistant. "It's legal tender," says the customer, a middle aged woman who proclaims herself Scottish.  "We're still part of your country." Or perhaps not. "What nationality are you?" she tries again. "Russian. "Then you wouldn't know. There are some famous writers on the note. Walter Scott and Robert Burns".

White bluebells are popping up all over the place among the blue this wet spring. I remember them from childhood. They seemed then and still seem a contradiction in terms.