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Barking

Well an interesting day. Usual early start on crowded southwestern trains at some exhorbitant cost. Then having dropped off the little actress off to Barking. there is a first time for everything and by definition a last time. This is not a holiday destination place. The town itself looked like it had looted itself and the only claim to fame can surely be the number of fried chicken restaurants that they have there. Roughly 1 to 1 with all other shops. A pub next to the station, a Wetherspoons  or similar, was packed full of people drinking at 10.30 am. On my mile walk to the health centre I was visiting, I passed a number of front doors, derelict looking with signs saying ” criminal defence solicitor”. I presume they were not describing defence solicitors who were so bad  that they self termed themselves ” criminal”. These being the only sorts of solicitors gave me some indication what sort of area and problems may exist.

Barking station is also maybe the most complicated un-coordinated place in the universe. there are all sorts of trains there going to places that I had never heard of like Gospel Oak? There are underground trains and it was a mystery to work out which of the plethora of platforms they actually left from. Something called C2C trains that went almost directly to Fenchurch Station, wherever that is, I did not even know it existed outside of monopoly. Then London overground, another odd line going to places that I had never heard of. Anyway,I survived.