Charing Cross Road... Again!

Have been back in Charing Cross Road today, shopping for books again! Today's heavenly little book-spree took place mainly in Blackwells - though I did pick up a copy of '84 Charing Cross Road' in Any Amount of Books. It's amazing actually how many little (how do you spell the plural of oasis?!) oasees(?) there are in the centre of London. From the racket of the street, I stepped into Blackwells and was transported to another (obviously quieter, but safe-havenish too) little world. I was amused though that I followed in a rather arty looking bloke who could have been auditioning for the ministry of silly walks - he was the sort you only find in London - or perhaps Cambridge (we lived there for a while) - young/straggly/arty/academic looking sort, trying to encapsulate all of that into the way he propelled himself along. Wish I'd been quick enough and brave enough to take a picture! That's one thing I want to get a bit braver about (I've already put something like this in the comments on the London Underground Blog - the entry on Tube ads - because I wasn't brave enough to take a photo of one on the tube platform at Holborn!). Now doesn't that sound pathetic!! It doesn't bother me in places where you get lots of snapping tourists - like Trafalgar Square, but I wimp out when it's a less obvious photography spot. Maybe this is just an irrational phobia - like my friend's: she is a most confident and assertive person, until she gets anywhere near a shop assistant and then she turns into a squirming paranoid wreck!
My one attempt at taking a photo of the characters and hustle and bustle of CCR today resulted in a pathetic blurry street sign half blocked by a traffic light because I tried to take it in under a second while pretending to be invisible! Hmmm!
Anyway, I'll have to work on that a bit, here though are my couple of piccies from Trafalgar Square:














St. Martin-in-the-Fields Church- where you can get a decent and reasonably priced cup of tea (Chelley's Teapot has been somewhat deprived lately of mentions of tea breaks!) as well as refreshment of a more lasting kind.














The 'new' statue by and of Alison Lapper - I'm not that keen - not due to the 'controversial' nature of the piece, just personal preference - I don't generally go for the shiny, modern pieces. I love, for example, the Tudor Rooms of the National Portrait Gallery (which I also managed a quick wander round today) more than the contemporary stuff - medieval is much more my cup of tea (purely accidental mention of tea there!) .