Wet and windy

The title describes the weather conditions today. It’s unpleasant but only to be expected in November.

Last night we dined in a South Indian restaurant and were disappointed by the food. This morning we thought we owed it to ourselves to make up for it with a full cooked breakfast in a local cafe. A bit so-so, if I’m honest.

To avoid the weather, we took to the DLR (Docklands Light Railway). This is a network of driverless trains serving, as its name suggests, the area of Docklands.

Trains do carry a human agent who can intervene in emergences or when the volume of passengers necessitates human control of the doors.

And this is where we came – to Stratford. No, not that Stratford, the one on the River Avon associated with Shakespeare, but Stratford in London.

This is perhaps the chief attraction of Stratford, the Westfield Stratford City shopping centre or mall.

This is not my ideal environment but it is at least somewhere to go on a day of bad weather. You can tour the shops, stop for coffee and even have lunch if the spirit moved you to do so.

The only disadvantage is that everywhere tends to be crowded, as this photo taken in Costa Coffee shows.

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This post suffers a discontinuity at this point. On leaving the shopping centre and progressing to the bus station, I tripped and fell, damaging my right hand and hitting by forehead on the ground.

British Transport Police officers came to my aid and took me to their office. They carried out first aid while we waited for paramedics to arrive and, subsequently, an ambulance crew.

The damage was considered serious enough to require hospital treatment and I was transferred by ambulance to Newham University Hospital.

There, I was X-rayed, CT-scanned, blood and blood-pressure tested and bandaged up.

It was around 6:30 pm when I was released. We returned via Stratford, where we had a meal, and then took the DLR back to Crossharbour.

My use of my right hand is limited at present and this will impinge on my ability to post to the blog but I will do my best to keep up with events.

From the window

I took this photo from the lounge window this morning at about 6:20. Sunrise is at 6:54 so the sky, just visible, has begun to grow light. The camera is turned to the right as there is another building directly in front.

You can see part of the dock with lights reflecting in the water.