Nationalist Party Protest

Caroline, a mum from my Kentish Town living days, sends me a message on Facebook telling me to come along to a protest at the Gloucester Arms pub against the formation of Jobbik, a Hungarian Nationalist Party setting up a London branch.

She says the party's been quoted as saying all Romanies should be gassed.

I visited Hungary and had a brilliant time, I had a spectacular time hitchhiking in Romania with my brother. I don't know what this is about, but it sounds interesting.

It's local and it's in a pub! I can have a hair of the dog, that'll set me right.

I have a bath, I get dressed, I put on make up. I don't actually look too bad. Lychee Vodka and Bailey's is clearly the way forward on a night out!

I get to the pub around 2, an hour and a half late. The bar is empty save three men but all the activity seems to be going on at the back. I squeeze through a few big men and look to see if I can spot Caroline.

Everyone is sitting around the room, so there's a big empty space in the middle and a man on some kind of podium, talking. Are you there Caroline? Men, men, men, the odd woman, not Caroline, no.

I become aware that the speaker is speaking in Hungarian. Why I assumed it would be in English, I just do not know!

I've convinced myself I want a bloody mary so I go to the bar and text Caroline, to tell her I'm here.

I sense the man next to me, turning around to look at me. Yes, I'm a woman in a bar, on a Sunday afternoon having a drink on my own, I know. I look at him and recognition snaps behind my eyelids. It's the journalist I met ages ago when I wanted to bid for a flat at auction. It is the same journalist I sent my email to the three party leaders but I don't mention that, no!

"Oh hello!" is what I said.

He asks me how I am and I tell him I've had a bit of a heavy night and I'm having a hair of the dog. You'd think he was an old friend the way I was carrying on!

He asks me why I'm here, how I heard about it. There was a protest, but I've missed it.

Two men are having a debate, in English! Journo is listening to this debate. What I can hear of the debate is very good, very exciting, like having front row seats at Question Time. The English guy is very calm, very softly spoken. The Hungarian man he's discussing with is quite the opposite, getting quite hot under the collar as he's grilled on the holocaust, this party's links to the BNP, quite a lot of issues.

If I go to pubs on my own I alway have a pen and paper so I can scribble thoughts and look purposeful and happy in my own company (something I learnt to do in the Czech Republic for one has to taste the beers if one is there, even if one is on her own, for the country is renowned for them). A shame I didn't have anything on me today, for blogging purposes, so I could tell you more.

The journo said he was leaving, was I going to be alright, which was really nice of him. Yes, I said to him, I'm going to finish my drink and go! And that's just what I did!