After this morning’s work video chat, I went on a brisk walk along the south bank of the Thames. Few people were out, just joggers, construction workers, and random blokes. I wore no jacket but the walk kept me warm. I chugged along, white steam puffing out of my mouth like an old locomotive.

After heading east for a while, I turned right and followed a narrow canal linking Surrey Water to an area called Canada Water. As I sat watching the gulls, I got a call from work. I needed to head back to the hotel to complete some tasks on the internet. I reluctantly hoofed it back to my computer in about forty minutes. I was just in time for the internet to be cut off due to the property management company having a dispute with the internet company.

My route.

Yellow doors are for staff only.

The stairs to the river Thames.

Tower Bridge above a view.

Iron walkways between old apartments.

Renovated buildings along the river.

Lifesaver and little fishing boy.

A garden barge for the use of people living in houseboats.

Man walking across the bike parking barge.

SMART car parked on an austere street.

Vacant lot.

A warning that due to vandalism the tree has been coated in grease.

Rusted security camera.

Oliver’s Wharf.

A sad little boat.

Tower Bridge as seen from a vantage point some distance away.

A memorial garden near a smaller residential cathedral.

NO PARKING PLEASE writes the maniac.

Rusty anchor chain.

Double-crested cormorants hanging out on a buoy.

The green cog of an old drawbridge.

Another view of the bridge.

Gates to the locks.

Yellow-eyed spunky duck of Surrey.

Old lady in an electric wheelchair stops to light a cigarette.

Reflections.

Male mallard in liquid metal sent from the future to kill John Connor.

Walkway along a narrow canal.

Dali’s lesser known “Melting Fence.”

The projects.

Doorway.

The loner’s chair in a construction lot.

I ate lunch alone: udon and ginger beer.

The afternoon brought work, which lately has involved sitting in a darkened room drinking fancy water and looking at colorful things on a variety of screens.