Discovering the natural hypocrite within

There I was blaming racial bigots for Britain’s coming Brexit suicide as I listened to author Michael Morpurgo’s anti-Brexiteer broadcast on Sunday, yet within an hour or so caught myself thinking just like an anti-common marketeer. Yikes!

Even worse, within the space of an hour, my natural reactions – if I might try to excuse myself that way – proved that a would be Brexiteer lay under this very skin.

Admittedly it happened after a long walk beside the Thames in thirty degrees-plus on the way to meet up for coffee with an admired computer wizard, Zsolt.

He had suggested Park Café which he claimed lay opposite the famous Ham House.

Magic footpath

Easy to find, I assumed, even though Google Maps doubted the place’s existence.

I trod the magic footpath beside the river to the Teddington Lock footbridge, crossed the ancient river, expecting to see Park Café right there. It wasn’t. It can’t be hard to find, I assumed. A voice within prompted that if this ocean navigator found faraway Cape Horn with no more than a sextant, what sort of a challenge could a land-born venue be?

However, locals seemed not to know of it, though they suggested a ship-load of other anchorages nearby. Eventually, rather hot and bothered, your mystified navigator emerged onto a busy street as two buses roared passed at speed.

Both carried adverts for higher learning addresses, and both ads seemed to promise London’s bright young souls the chance to really succeed.

Talk about a double take…  Continues on the blogs for my ocean travel book, Sailing to Purgatory, at SailingToPurgatory.com