Chinatown seemed empty as I wandered through it tonight.

I’d been in Soho earlier where the music in the pub was interrupted by a pub quiz and the drinkers interrupted by Chinese men peddling cigarettes and incomprehensible Chinese magazines.

London tonight was warm after a clear blue Spring day. The Charlotte Street Hotel was full of media types, those who managed to get in early enough before they spilled down the street to the Marquis. The really late comers were left on the steet corner outside the Marquis holding whatever they managed to purchase from the scrum at the bar.

Leaving behind the directors and runners and the talk of who was working on what film I walked down to Chinatown to eat at the Tokyo Diner (full of young Japanese girls talking about their first job in IT and a table full of people discussing new cycles and the best width for a set of handlebars) before heading to De Hem for a beer or two. There was a very diffrent crowd in here. The bar upstairs full of young Dutch people watching the football from their country, laughing and drinking. The masseuse was doing a good trade at the sofas and the tables were full of glasses of Fruli, the cranberry flavoured beer.

De Hem always has a welcoming feel to it. You can see why George R Sims wrote :

When oysters to september yield
And grace the grottoed Macclesfield
I will be there my dear De Hem
To wish you well and sample them.