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I had to get up at 6.45 yesterday to make it up to London. I'd actually forgotten what it was like to wake up early. Anyhow, I had a packed day ahead and had timed everything to perfection so could not afford to oversleep. The trains worked fine and I arrived at the Imperial War Museum for 10am.

The Imperial War Museum

I was given a badge and walked up to the reading room in the very top of the building. I was there to look at some papers of my grandfather's. He was a Commander in the Second World War and was given a DSC for doing his bit on the Maltese Convoy. Malta was our stepping stone into North Africa. If we lost Malta then the knock on effect would be vast. Malta was under siege and very nearly out of ammunition and fuel. Every convoy sent to relieve her had been destroyed - until Churchill ordered the largest convoy ever known to be sent. My grandfather was the naval liason officer on the tanker Ohio. They were bombed and torpedoed all the way. The kerosene in the hold caught fire and they abandoned ship twice. Eventually, whilst most of the other merchant ships were sunk, the Ohio somehow was patched up and kept afloat. It was lashed between two destroyers and dragged into port, thus Malta was saved.

The Imperial War Museum have two letters of his - the first is a very Boys Own account of what happened with bits such as:

There was one cheering thing that happened that night, we saw some big fires and lots of tracer going up - right away to the north and couldn't think what it was until we realised it was the RAF giving them a really good pasting!

The second letter was to the wife of his recently married brother - she was my great aunt who died last month. In it he talks about the surrender of the Japanese which he witnessed - only he calls them nips.

Yesterday was Armistice Day and I was there for the two minute silence. However as I was in the reading room it was quiet anyway - and I found myself taking a break from reading about the war so I could reflect on the war. It was slightly odd. I was given copies of the letters and I left at 11.30 for Twickenham to meet my sister. I managed to get tickets last week for England Vs Argentina. I've never been to a big rugby game - in fact the only biggish game I've been to was a year ago to see Bristol beat Northampton.

I really love giant stadiums - Twickenham holds around 84,000 and the atmosphere was incredible. We had excellent seats right by the pitch on the 22-line. There were also a load of soldiers in front of us who Imogen and I perved on slightly.

I was quite pleased with this action shot.

England lost 25-18. The manager has some serious pressure on him now. It is a shame to see a World Cup winning team disappear into nothingness, but two World Cups on the trot would just be greedy.

After the game I went to Waterloo to meet up with Roly and Oli. on the way I saw this:

We went to a couple of bars and then for an indian meal - it was good catching up on the gossip.

Oli and myself being caught in flagrante

Roly and myself

I caught the 9.30 'train' back. In fact it was a coach for most of the way. It is annoying when they give you a coach cos if I wanted to go by coach I'd have booked a coach ticket for considerably less money. Anyhow, I was home by 12.30.

Today is slightly less busy. I just came seventh and last in an online poker tournament tied in with my free poker league and now I'm putting my feet up for a few hours before I am off to lasercowboy and Nigel's for film night.