diverting from diversions: The capital city

Determined to maintain my tourist tendencies, meeting my old Korean language buddy, Anne-Sophie - fleetingly in London from her studies in France as her boyfriend attended a Warhammer event last weekend ("Nobody's perfect," she admitted) - was an opportune excuse to take a day's wander around our historic capital city.

Simon and I set the tone for the day walking along the South Bank and taking in the iconic views of the London Eye and Westminster. Joined by Anne-Sophie and Simon's college friend Tom, we snuck in a traditional pub lunch near Leicester Square (sausage and mash, and gammon and eggs were among the choices made) before groaning with anticipation as the Covent Garden clown endured the drunken heckling of onlooking football fans and furthered the career of a precocious young trouper who'd enthusiastically volunteered himself as the assistant, as the crowd awaited the dubiously impressive unicycle demonstration. "Christian", the keen crowd-gathering accomplice, did manage to swindle some paper money from the raucous football fans, definitely enhancing the otherwise tedious routine.

We followed the display up with a pleasant walk along Embankment towards St Paul's, taking the much recognised photograph across the Millenium Bridge towards London's famous cathedral - but powerfully enhanced by my favourite "dramatic sky" - before heading in to the Tate Modern for a cultural experience of a more thought-provoking kind. The War-Of-The-Worlds-esque exhibit was certainly that, if only to raise a few eyebrows at the uninspiring inspiration of the piece. The permanent collection is always worth a gander however, and London's free-museum policy is always gladly received.

All the fresh air was rather taking a toll on my attention span rendering the prospect of coffee and cake particularly welcoming, by which point more old friends on all sides of the party had joined us for some post-gallery relaxation (as did the expected London rains). The animated chit-chat across the table gave us all the courage to brave the rains and go on our separate ways.

So what was anticipated as a quiet get together between two friends re-acquainting on the other side of the world, resulted in an excellent whistle stop tour of the river and its delights, accompanied by an extended catch-up between old friends all meandering in on different paths, satisfying their thirst for others' news bulletins, before heading out again on their respective walks. Here are the photos.