I’m sitting in a pub on Portobello Road having a gin and tonic — it’s midday. It’s also cold and windy (so I bought a scarf) and a bit rainy as well — but I’m enjoying myself immensely.

Life here is so different, full of many things I dislike — busy, grey and grumpy with more than a healthy concentration of shopping and things commercial. Yet there is also a great deal of energy and vitality here. A pulse that seems to resonate even in the London underground on a cold and rainy day.

Maybe it’s to do with with the large amounts of people, or maybe it’s just the buzz of London. Whatever it is it’s fun and tiring and for me also way too superficial.

My god were are all the Brits. All I seem to have heard today are Eastern European languages. It seems almost every other person I hear talk is talking with some Slavic tongue.

My second G&T was better than the first, the day has brightened and I’m ready to walk that extra mile and see if I can find a bus to take me to Chelsea and the Kings Road.

Sloane Rangers here I come!

There is a lot of speculation about the USA having covert CIA prisons for al-Qaeda captives in Eastern Europe.

Human Rights Watch has cited flight records of aircraft allegedly linked to the CIA to suggest that premises in Poland and Romania are being used. Poland, which is an EU member, and Romania, a candidate for admission, have denied the charges.

When is torture acceptable? When it’s not being done to you or your people.