Standstill

We're heading to my brother's house for an evening of television and wraps, but I fear it's going to be rather a long time before we get there. We are currently stranded south of the river, somewhere in the vicinity of Tower Bridge. Rotherhithe Tunnel and Blackwall Tunnel are both closed, the traffic is at a standstill, Nathan is desperate for a wee and it's raining cats and dogs. I'm feeling exceedingly ratty. The radio is annoying me. Every time I turn it on there's another auto-tuned harpie screeching through her nostrils. Even my iPod is annoying me. It took us an hour to drive down to a friend's birthday in Wandsworth, and we've now been sitting in traffic for a further hour and a half. This may well be the last time I ever go south of the river. It's just not worth it when the infrastructure breaks down like this!

The lack of talking continues to drive me to the point of distraction. Part of me feels that it's better when I'm on my own. At least then I'm not expected to talk, and don't have to put up with people either signing back at me, or talking very slowly and clearly like I'm deaf as well as mute! 

350 years ago, Pepys went to Lambeth to drink his morning draft with Captain Ferrers, at the Three Mariners, "a place noted for their ale." Perhaps unsurprisingly, because the lunatic Ferrers was present, they had a great deal of fun. On the way home they bummed a lift across the river with Captain Bun who had a boat. What a cool name! Captain Bun the boatsman. I swear that the card game Happy Families was based on Pepys' Diary.