Walking around the Embankment

London is more like London today. Drizzling on and off and 62 degrees - much more comfortable for walking around. I was rooting around Marks and Spencer taking photos of the packaged food, but they asked me to stop. I thought it was funny that you can take pictures of the Rembrandts in the National Gallery but M&S won't let you take a photo of their chicken salad packaging. 

I got a few anyway - of the Gastropub fare:

They have a good selection of ethnic foods to go. Ethnic may be considered politically incorrect n London. 

I think a cucumber-gin and tonic sauce sounds great on Seabass. I wonder what a vegetarian suet is?

We'll never know because it's far too noisy for me to eat in this pub.  Fortunately, in most places, the music level is tolerable but the crowds are loud and boisterous. It's a bit of a drag when you have to choose your dining experience based not on the food but the decibels. 

Just as I was feeling sorry for myself bumbling down the uneven stairs somewhere I noticed a woman ahead of me with two blind men holding onto her shoulder. Both men had canes they were tapping and she was giving a running narrative on what was happening and giving them instructions about curbs, veering left and right etc. You have to have guts to attempt a walk with two blind men in Trafalgar Square. I stopped feeling sorry for myself.

And speaking of blind men, I ran into this memorial and had to look up Henry Fawcett. He was blinded in a shooting accident at an early age, but went on to complete an excellent education. He was influential in getting Darwin's theory accepted. He fought for suffrage. As Postmaster General, he established a number of enduring programs including savings stamps and parcel post. All that, and he died at 51.

And then I saw the camel statue. Suddenly camels seem to be everywhere. This one is a memorial to the Imperial Camel Corp members fallen in the first World War.

 And how to end up spiraling down the Google rabbit hole.....from Wikipedia. What a leap in technology from camel mounts to the medi-vac.

"The 2nd Battalion of the ICC (Imperial Camel Corp) together with the Hongkong and Singapore Mountain Battery marched some 30 miles from El Arish, surprising the Turkish forces at Bir el Hassana, who surrendered without resistance. Some local Bedouin fired on the British, who suffered one casualty, a soldier who was shot in the ankle. Because he could no longer ride his camel the British evacuated him by aeroplane, in the first recorded case of aeromedical evacuation."