Saturday 26 September 2009: Streatham

The incident with the prostitute at 3am in the evening had meant I had seven shades of no sleep again when I tried to get a live internet radio feed for the AFL Grand Final. The Age reported it was half time and the Saints were winning. My friend Tanvi saw I was online, and she put her laptop in front of her TV in Australia, set up a Skype video conference so I could watch the second half. The Saints lost in the time added on during the fourth quarter. Crud.

We taxied to Da Tung in the Wing Yip centre on Croydon’s Purley Way. It had been our place to get yum cha while living in the UK. And next door’s Tai Pan bakery sold the best dan mark goon and cha siu bao I’d ever known. There we met Adeline and Ben Chan, and Martyn and Nikki – with whose son was a cause of concern due to domestic concerns prior to his going to the London School of Economics. Yum cha was still good. It still sells some of those old fashioned Cantonese dishes like dza lai wong bao (deep fried coconut custard buns) that you can’t get anywhere else – including Hong Kong.

The five mile journey from Croydon to Streatham straight up the A23 Brighton Road was one I had driven – and when training for the marathon, had run – innumerable times. Martyn and Nikki kindly offered to drive us up. I took one hour. I was a total reminder of London and its traffic. It was horrific. The needless constriction in the road near Waddon station, the maddening junction by Trinity Way. Oh, yes, the memories came straight back. Turning off onto Streatham’s side streets, more memories: the thin roads with parked cars aligning each side leaving space for only one car to drive through. Spotting a car coming the opposite way leading to the duck and weave, the stop and start. Surely, driving through Baghdad is easier. God, I’m glad I got away from this.

We met friends, RJ, Ollie, & Lucy (now 7 months pregnant) for a nice evening meal. Having met them all in Australia within the past two years gave a feeling of great continuity with them all.