No whale steaks for dinner

I got a free cruise up the Thames on a sunny Saturday, thanks to the Sunday Times, which sent me out on a launch with a photographer to cover the attempted rescue of a whale that swam 40 miles up the Thames. That's me on the boat on the right, and here's the story we ran. Unfortunately I wasn't able to fulfil my promise to Georgie to bring home a couple of whale steaks for dinner.

Today we went for a wander across Tower Bridge and round the Tower of London, near Fortress Wapping where I have been working for the Sunday Times. We traipsed up to Spitalfields market, then enjoyed a balti in Brick Lane, the first deliberately touristy stuff we've done for a while. I stayed for a couple of weeks in Brick Lane in 1999, but it's a little more upmarket now, and a lot busier.