The Thames and the sea...

...and yesterday began on London Bridge. The final day of filming for a new TV history series about London and the Church. From London Bridge there is a fine view of Tower Bridge -  useful for TV  as an icon of London - and then in the opposite direction the river makes a wide curve and heads off to Westminster.  I stood there, talking about Romans and Saxons and Normans and the Middle Ages and Tudors and Stuarts and on to modern times... and people hurried past, and the river rolled along beneath, with those big new wide fat tourist box-boats creating great surges and the wake rushing up along the shore...

Wonderful TV crew and producer, all Polish, all delightful. Much of the filming has been in churches where the whole team genuflected, spoke in very low voices, walked very quietly and behaved with great reverence while doing a superb and professional job. Whenever things have been difficult with cold wet weather there has been good cheer and laughter and everyone working to get on despite the hassles. And there was a cheery evening when we finished  with a quick visit to  Polish restaurant with glasses of vodka (I wimped out: talking into a microphone all day makes one terribly thirsty and I had apple juice.)

It's been a wonderful time. Saying goodbye was quite gulpy - hugs and hand-kissing and thank-yous. Then I hurried  off towards the Monument to catch the Tube to Victoria and the seaside, where I was due to meet members of LOGS (annual trip to Whistable - more on that in a moment). Work done, I was free,...and then I realised I wasn't: one of the crew came hurrying up behind me "Meecrow! Your meecrow!" We'd forgotten: I was still wearing the micro clipped to my lapel, the heavy   receiver-unit clipped to my waistband, the line trailing up under my coat. We sorted it out, the traffic and the crowds and the wind and  rain and our laughter all mingling to make a final absurd memory of a week's filming.