London

I had a nice (albeit brief) stay in London, during which I caught up with a long-standing friend and former colleague at lunchtime.

After that, I enjoyed a cup of tea in the Waldorf Hotel with another friend who I know from Wellington, then we took the Thames Clipper river service to the Docklands area to have another cup of tea at her flat there.

In the evening, I had dinner with another friend of more than ten years' standing in the Kensington area. That's where I was staying for the night in a hotel. I have never seen so many police officers patrolling the streets in my life. In Kensington, many of them were armed. Just down the road was (the Royal) Kensington Palace and a street full of embassies, including the Israeli embassy.