London Thoughts – part 1

Well, I made it unscathed. It’s a lot easier getting to London from Bracknell than it is from Manchester, that’s for sure. It’s a sod-load cheaper too!

London still strikes me as a strange place though. I suppose that a lot of it is to do with being a city, and having all types/genres of people in a fairly small space. Seeing homeless people outside the ultra-expensive stores like Liberty and Aquascutum always leaves me fairly sad, particularly after the work I did with the homeless charity in Manchester. But it’s more than that – for a city where everyone always seems to be in a rush (while sat at Waterloo it was quite comical seeing all the people running for trains etc.) the pedestrians on Oxford Street and the like seem to have some of the slowest walking speeds known to man.

Also, people seem to be so security unconscious. Travelling on the tube,I could easily see who was listening to an iPod – and if I were of that mindset, I’d probably aim for iPod users as those who’d be likely to have other gadgets and high-cost small-size items on their person. Disposable income, and all that jazz. But there’s the other things too – seeing people with laptop bags slung over one shoulder, dead easy for someone to run past and snatch it without even stopping. And an amazing number of people with bags slung over shoulders and pocket flaps open etc. – just open targets for pickpockets, particularly in busy and crowded environments like Waterloo. People are strange.