It was very cloudy but a reasonable temperature when we arrived in London at 11.15am on this very memorable day…(not only documented by me – https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jun/26/time-is-now-thousands-march-in-london-for-urgent-climate-action)…my Oyster card needed topping up, then by 11.25am we were on a Bakerloo line train – and it was rather packed and required the usual excellent balancing ability to remain stood upright while it moved (and I managed it without holding on to anything and felt rather proud of myself) (and was writing at the same time). The carriage had unbunged 3 stations further on (Oxford Circus) and we actually managed to sit down (and I quietly said to Mum that I couldn’t remember the last time I sat down on a tube train); a small advert on the wall said ‘PPI DEADLINE – 29TH AUGUST – IT’S PRESSING’, boys (about 11 of them) were doing something I forgot because we got off at Embankment, got on to a District Line train, got off again at 11.40am, and while trying to find our way, passed an enormous, quite fluffy and slobbering dog keeping a musician company on the pavement…

We found this park – where the participants of The Time Is Now march were gathering – and in it were 3 pelicans (1 of whom I thought only had 1 leg – but it was revealed from under his or her stomach feathers several minutes later)…

…lots and lots of geese, pigeons, ducks, and a couple of seagulls. A lot of the ducks were flat with their heads turned round and stuck under a wing, people part of this march were holding tree shaped signs with various things written on them (including ‘trees eat CO2 for breakfast’ and ‘Stand up for trees’)…

…a woman had some twigs poking out of her backpack, lots of these people had white t-shirts on saying ‘plant trees’ and ‘to net zero’, and then another woman started talking about what they were doing, why they were doing it, and a lot about what trees do, she said there were going to be 15000 people today, another girl had a shirt on saying ‘don’t be a fossil fool’ on it, we were told to set phone alarms for 2pm, something I forgot was said, and everyone began moving at 12.40pm…

The buildings of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers and the Institute of Civil Engineers were passed, I saw a group of school kids all with fluorescent orange t-shirts on, some metropolitan police officers in blue jackets, a French tour guide was telling her group about Skyfall being filmed in London, another woman had a foldable chair strapped to her back, a man behind me was ranting to a companion about woodburning stoves, there were banners all over the parliament buildings saying ‘STOP THE BREXIT MESS’, the Victoria Palace gardens had people dressed as Fair Trade bananas in it, and a sign saying that the flying of drones was prohibited in the park. There was a person in a giant beaver costume, people with various interesting signs, someone’s sign said to ‘put your alarm for 2pm’, there were quite a lot of police officers in fluorescent jackets and I heard some sirens, several people were eating Ben and Jerry’s ice-cream, another woman’s sign said ‘meat is heat’ and someone else’s said ‘if our environment was a bank we’d have already saved it’, and we reached our ‘Warwick and Leamington’ group at 1.15pm. I tried to film some of the scene, noticed a woman with rather long dreadlocks, lots of people were holding signs with pandas on, I saw several people with masks on that I think were supposed to look like giraffes, a group of school boys (10 years old ish) walked past with signs saying (with a small symbol and ‘Jesuit’ in 1 corner) ‘more action less talk’, someone else was dressed as a banana, a woman’s t-shirt said ‘Catholic Agency For Overseas Development’ on it, a helicopter was flying above everything, a man (late 50’s) dressed entirely in black (including a black sock hat) was stood on the grass eating strawberries, another small sign placed in a bush said ‘UK WAKE UP TO CLIMATE CHANGE’ on it – with a couple of stickers on – 1 said ‘Donald, we want to talk to you about the weather… ‘, and another 1 saying ‘fossil fool’; a woman talking to Mum asked if I was reporting – and she said it was for my own records, another woman asked me (I said the same thing), a cardboard sign had a bit of a ridiculous picture of Boris Johnson and ‘Protect our Habitats – they can’t all live on his head’ on, a man had a plastic horse head on, a London ambulance with sirens on at very high volumes went past, I noticed another sign saying ‘DOWN WITH DECIMATION’, a small toddler in dungarees who’d just been fed a cracker was given a tiny picture book to look at, and then at 2pm – all the alarms went off, the goal of creating a deafening noise was definitely achieved, and Mum went off to a portable toilet.

A woman’s t-shirt said ‘Endangered Primate Rescue Centre’ on it, there were a few helium balloons, a big red bus that drove past said ‘extra politician’ on the back, and then the MPs appeared – and Matt Western (the Warwickshire 1) was questioned by people from Warwickshire; Mum re-emerged with a plastic cup of strawberries, another sign was ‘the panda made me do it’, I couldn’t hear much of what was being said – but solar panels seemed to be a big topic, 1 woman was filming him on her phone, another man (late 60’s) told the MP that we’ve got to get our teeth into this and massively raise taxes (and said something about not being able to do something I forgot because its grade 2 listed), the MP said that cycling should be made safer and that changing our behaviour can be difficult, and then another woman asked me who he was and I forgot the rest of what he said. 64000 electric bikes in England (and in Germany – 95000) were sold last year apparently, another man mentioned international offsetting and the MP said the city of Munich would be something I forgot by 2022, a few other things I forgot were said (and the sun was out and it felt like 1 side of my neck was burning) – and some more police officers in florescent jackets walked past; someone had got out a loud speaker and a guitar and started playing by then, the MP went away again, Mum had got some sort of cake-y things from somewhere, and a man had a badger head on (his t-shirt said ‘Wildlife Trust’) on it. A woman had a bag that said ‘Save the black crested gibbon’ on it, another lady was carrying a duck shaped sign, a red bus I saw said ‘hybrid’ on the side, some peoples t-shirts said ‘Catholic agency for overseas development’ on them, and after eating the gooey cake stuff and free strawberries while sat on the grass, we got up (I was trying to write while I was walking and not bump into people at the same time), headed over the bridge, a small ice-cream stall made Mum suggest we had 1, we discovered they were free, and there were loud ambulance sirens nearby. We ate it, walked back over the bridge, passed a big wooden animal with wings being flown around by someone, and then we headed down into the tube station and were on a train home again by 3.30pm.