On Portobello Road.

​
I'm staying in an Airb&b in Notting Hill. I'm done with hotels. The big places are full of Saudi princes and their retinues.

While I’m in London I decide to visit some old haunts and see what’s happened to them…Portobello market? It’s totally buggered up. I mean really. Nothing but tourists looking for bargains. And getting ripped off in the process.

The area has been tarted up but I spot a few familiar places. There’s Colville Terrace. It  reminds me of the time I was working for Rachman. I was a trainee rent collector. Westbourne Park Road where Hawkwind used to play, Powis Square where they filmed ‘Performance’, tripping with Syd Barrett in All Saints Hall. Finches. Electric Cinema. I Was Lord Kitchener's Valet. Lots of memories. 

It’s all a bit strange what times does. Makes me wonder how different things might have been if I’d taken a different tack. I’m not saying it would have been better but think of all the different lives we could have had if we’d made this choice rather than that one. I could be one of those antique dealers on Portobello Road flogging fake Chippendale to Yanks. Or perhaps I would be running a little pub somewhere waiting to get bought out by a big brewery or I could be playing hide and seek with grandchildren in an English country garden.
​
​

​Not that I’m complaining. It’s been a good life and I’m not done yet. I miss Millie though. She’s been good to me.
​
Talking of grandchildren maybe I should look Simon up while I’m here. He must have grandchildren galore by now. Some of them could technically be mine. 

Wonder if he ever met Arthur in Bangkok?