Londinium

So, we took some time off work to visit London yesterday. This was a necessary thing because:

a) it sucks to be a public servant at the moment
- It is a fun thing to be short staffed, underpaid and shat upon by everyone who isn't a public servant. Actually, technically speaking the people instigating the paycuts/job losses etc are public servants too, so I guess that should be changed to just being shat upon by everyone.

b) neither of us had left a ten mile radius of Bournemouth in months
-well I certainly hadn't. Well, other than that trip to Portsmouth last week. For work. You know what I did there? Worked. Not what you might call a refreshing change of pace, though they did provide some mighty fine sandwiches, apparently the last they could ever provide due to...*dramatic pause*...budget cuts...fun!

c) both of us needed to not be at work (see a and b)
- a slow build-up of tension in the office as a result of being dumped on repeatedly was leading to the sharp increase in the likelihood of a rage blackout for Alex. I'm not saying he is an angry guy, but he did start a blog for the express purpose of being angry, which might indicate that he might be somewhat irritated.

Not that I can say much, we spent the four hours of train travel making entries in the newly purchased 'Book of Rants', which I'm sure Alex will talk about in more detail later (the pages now seem to pulsate with venom).

Anywho London was a rollercoaster ride of raucous hilarity and bitter resentment. We had a great time in all but let's just say some material for future content was provided gratis.

As a start - crowds

London is a busy place, I understand this. Ten million inhabitants and as many tourists is going to place some strain on the breathing space. Right. Fine. I get it.

But a peculiar phenomenon associated with crowds in London is the singleminded purpose of its constituent members.

On any given major street there are thousands of people in a limited amount of space, headed in a dozen different directions, all focused on some distant goal. A goal so incredibly important, so necessary for their existence that small things like cars, children, other people and, on one particularly impressive occasion, a roasted chestnut seller complete with wheeled transport, play second fiddle to its successful attainment.

To make matters worse it is not simply a question of mass, if there were just a lot of people in motion it wouldn't be so difficult, you would just maintain a steady pace and go with the flow.

No. They stop. They admire the view. They look in shop windows. They take in the air.

And, in order to suitably do the above, they feel the need to stop directly in front of you.

Again I am not so without understanding that I can't recognise why someone might do this. London has a myriad of attractions and architecture which would be worth detailed examination.

What I take exception to is the complete lack of spatial awareness which can lead a supposedly sentient human being to come to a full stop, on a crowded street with people packed like sardines around them, and not even bother to a) move out of the thoroughfare or b) look to see if such a sudden implementation of the brakes might result in the person behind you being pinioned on your umbrella.

What it boils down to is at best a lack experience in such a mass of humanity and at worse plain rudeness.

Things are not helped by some elements of said crowd, especially nearer the grand constructs of Westminster and St Paul's, swinging cameras. I'm not even going to get started on this. Suffice to say, you hit me with your camera whilst you swung it about in an area with about a square foot of empty space. How is any resulting contact my fault exactly?

Could go on about this more...might well do that later...

Hey, he said he wanted content.