Rainy morning, but we have umbrellas. Coming back from coffee cum internet at Pret A Manger J leans over someone dossed down in a sleeping bag on wet pavement. Rough sleepers in this part of the city is a pretty recent phenomenon, though the tunnels leading to Charing Cross Station have always had an unhappy blend of homeless sleepers bedded on newspapers with the smell of piss. New also are notices posted on many shop windows stating that begging is illegal, that asking for money is punishable by fine. No doubt a nuisance for shop owners and a deterrent to their customers. It hasn’t prevented people from sitting on the pavement with collecting cups and signs announcing their hunger or need, the distinction perhaps being that it is illegal to solicit donations but not to accept them from generous passers by.
To West Harrow in the afternoon to visit Jean and share a bottle of wine and samosas. Jean is waiting for back surgery, probably after Christmas, for a congenital problem, but seems pretty cheerful about it.
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