Tuesday 13th January....Leaders

I apologise, I never introduced myself. My name is Ri Chin-Hwa; Ri is my surname, it is often called Rhee or Lee in the South of my country of birth. Here in your United Kingdom Chin-Hwa is an awkward first name, so they call me Charlie, or Chaz, or sometimes “Chink”.

Karen my guide - she translates my entries; for which I thank and acknowledge her, she is a good friend. She tells me that “Chink” might be racist, but I actually quite like the nickname.

When I arrived here in UK, I was surprised to not have to pay my respects to your leader. I learned what I could; I thought there would be a giant statue of your great leader Winston Churchill, in bronze or gold and that I should pay my respects. I eventually found a statue of him in your Parliament Square, nobody directed me there; I had to find it myself.

I had to leave a tribute so I tried to buy flowers but my English is not good, eventually I succeeded in buying a small bunch of yellow flowers called Carnations. I laid them at the statues base and bowed deeply, then took 3 steps back and bowed deeply again.

I couldn’t believe I was the only one doing this - many people walked by without stopping to pay their respects, I wonder why.

Some young people shouted something at the statue: “'oi! W-a-n-k-e-r”. I thought it was a salutation to the dear great leader Mr Churchill and was pleased that they at least were paying their respects, so I raised myself from my bow and raised my arms as they did and in my best English repeated “'oi! Wanker”. I repeated the phrase as I walked backwards with head bowed across the square.

Karen has since told me that “wanker” is an insult, and that they were probably shouting it at me and not Mr Churchill. I am glad they were not directing it at your great leader, but I don’t understand why they would call me such names.

I have not seen any pictures or statues of your dear leader Mr Gordon Brown yet, I tried to buy framed picture of him to hang on my wall, but nobody is selling them, I thought maybe they are sold out? Instead I bought poster of Cristiano Ronaldo as he seems popular, I have since found out he is not even English! It is very different here, and confusing, I have much to learn I think.