Loyal readers of my blog will realise that I have gone uncharacteristically silent.   This is not because I have gone AWOL, but because I am suffering from the usual post-holiday withdrawal symptoms:  the return to London;  the return to reality;  the feeling that the Mile End Road is not quite as interesting as Route 8.   London looks so crowded by comparison to the US, the cars so small, the streets so densely inhabited.   But this feeling has never been stronger than when we returned from Newfoundland and looked out of the train window in horror at the streets of south London.