On the 2nd December, I visited London 🇬🇧 🚇after years. I never really loved London, I preferred Manchester. However, I think that changed over the years because I have a friend who is from London and I grew to love the city without knowing it, just because it’s where they came from.
Anyway, I went to London with one of my best friends, and we planned to go for ages. London kind of did us dirty, twice. Originally, my train to London was cancelled in advance so we got a later train. There were no issues there as we got on the train fine but a little later lots of people got on due to the earlier cancellation.
We grabbed some artisan doughnuts from DumDum Doughnutterie from Market Halls, Oxford Street. Then we went to a place called Maitre Choux in Soho but it seems to be completely closed down… Why? The website is still up! I really wanted the chouxettes, I have been dreaming of them for years and years.
We stopped for food at German Döner and Fries in Soho as we didn’t want to be late for the Pro-Pali Rally. I had a Halloumi and Falafel Salad which was delicious 😋 and Coco had a Chicken Döner Wrap. She also loved hers.
We then went to The Atriam in Tower Hamlets. It started a little later than planned as we were waiting for the protestors to arrive. These were Pro-Pali protesters from various boroughs. Honestly when I first arrived there were no more than 30 people. Then I blinked and all the seats were full. The turnout and diversity was excellent.
The first speaker was Andrew Murray and he was excellent. He was very passionate and critical of the British Government and rightly so! He said ‘their policy is endless war our policy is end the war’! He was correct.
We then had the Labour MP for Tower Hamlets Apsana Begum. Then the next speaker was Barnaby Raine a Jewish Historian at Columbia University. He was funny, making a joke about Jeremy Corbyn’s Christmas 🎄 jumper. However, he was honest about Palestine and his speech should be commended (you can find most of it on my @TikTok).
We then had an ex Labour Councillor Mary Mason and Salma Yaqoob, a British political activist and psychotherapist who served as the Leader of the Respect Party from 2005 until 2012. Next we had Kate Hudson, not the actress but the General Secretary of the campaign for Nuclear Disarm. Plus a Palestinian professor called Kamel Hawwash who is also chair of the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign. Up next was Lindsey German, a founding member of the British anti-war organisation Stop the War Coalition. After, we had a fellow writer. Mr Tariq Ali, who spoke about Kissenger and his death. He also spoke about imperialism but he did something different, he read a poem by Ghassan Kanafani, a Palestinian poet and politician who was assassinated. Ghassan was expelled from Palestine at the age of 12 during the first Nakba in 1948. Jeremy Corbyn was the final speaker, he reminds me of my grandad 🧓🏼so I’ve always had a soft spot for him. However before Jeremy Corbyn, someone else came on. This person was absolutely brilliant and her speech was so powerful that she got a standing ovation before it ended and also after it ended. Her name is Lara Elborno but you probably know her by her Instagram name. Lara is @gazangirl. You need to listen to her speech (also available on my @TikTok). Honestly, the sense of community was strong and I felt so grateful that I went to my first ever rally.
We finally finished the day by eating at Rasa Sayang, a halal Malaysian restaurant in Soho. I hadn’t been to Soho before but I enjoyed it and the food was delicious although the whiff of urine from the alley sporadically hit us 🤮 while we waited to be seated. The queue was huge! I had noodles 🍜 and a lovely pineapple 🍍 mojito (non alcoholic) of course. Plus egg fried rice 🍚 and firecracker chicken 🐔. All the food was halal. We had to wait ages for a seat because honestly, the place was very busy. And it was a testament to how good they are, as they had East Asians queuing up too! Unfortunately, London did us dirty for the second time as the underground was closed. Coco is lovely and helped a non English family try to navigate a way back to their hotel, as we were trying to make our way to London Marylebone the gates opened, we got on the tube and made it to Marylebone but barely made the train! As I had to drop everything, find my ticket, pick everything up and run for the train! Me, running? 🏃🏽♀️ Man I need to get some exercise. I was very hot and bothered, quite unwell and a drunk guy who was friendly but annoying gave me a headache. Even on the train there were issues as another train broke down and we were delayed! A lovely guy gave me his seat as he could see I wasn’t well, and I arrived home much later than I was expecting. I’m really glad I went to London though and I loved my company. My dates with Coco are the best! Poor Coco should have got in my taxi 🚖 with me, but she didn’t and ended up delayed further as there was a car stuck on the tram 🚋 tracks. She got in at almost half 12. I got in an hour before her!
