Recently it was That Time Of The Year once again, when by tradition the Penguins head off to Penguin Ancestral HQ in "Merry Old England" (sic), that mythical (and slightly foggy) place where the classic New Year's Eve film "Dinner for One" was shot. This year's departure date coincided with the anniversary of the Penguin Nuptials - in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea no less - and what better way to commemorate the event (which by chance both I and Mrs. Penguin had actually remembered) than with a day out in London?

Once we'd entrusted the left luggage service at Waterloo Station with our modest baggage for an immodest fee which had my wallet gasping and wheezing in shock'n'awe, it was off to Highgate for a once-in-a-lifetime visit to the grave of top deceased German political philospher Karl Marx, who would no doubt have disapproved of the current levels of left-luggage pricing. Old Karl hangs out at Highgate Cemetery, which is one of those odd bits of London you come across (such as the railway system) where not much has changed since the days of Queen Victoria. Full of Victorian stiffs in overgrown graves, the only signs of life (as it were) are around the monument to Mr. Marx, which seems to be the place to be buried if you're a bit of a lefty and can afford the presumably exorbitant fees to be done so. Former Private Eye journo Paul Foot is there right opposite the Great Man, and round the corner were former leaders of the South African and Iraqi communist parties. While we were there, a youngish guy of obviously foreign extraction sidled up to us and requested that we take his photo together with K.M., which we happily did. Turned out he was Brazilian, and as he put it, "of an extremist political party".


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