This is going to sound proper tourist. We have spent most of today on one of those open double decker busses that you wouldn’t be caught dead on in your home town. The type where it costs you a month’s wages and you plug your complimentary headphones in and listen to the commentary, the types where every sentence starts with ‘”And if you look to your left now you will see...” and then proceeds to inform you of the historical significance of whatever it is.
So, let’s put this into perspective, I once lived in and about London for the best part of a decade. I have driven its streets, walked its pavements and drunk in its many bars and pubs, but today there were moments of revelation. Today I saw London in a different light; today I travelled with my eyes open. Today, in the esteemed company of my loin fruit and my significantly better half, we saw and heard about buildings and institutions that were in use 1000 years before the white man, later the colonialists and despised builder of all things infrastructural, arrived in South Africa. We travelled to and fro across the Thames’s many bridges, we smelt the smog, pointed at the various movie sets and scenes that we have seen in a variety of films and marvelled at the many green spaces (seriously a shit load of green spaces) – and even chuckled at the many office workers catching the bits of sun than speckled though the clouds – we felt the vibe, albeit from the top of the bus, of London, we saw the harried expressions of London’s people as they went about their Monday grind.
And we took many photographs, in front of Buckingham Palace, in Trafalgar square and just about everywhere else. With the modern marvels of smart phones we also posted these happy snaps, and posted them and posted them....Ah yes, tourists we were today!
On a more serious note I was also amazed today at what seems to be an entrepreneurial spirit that flourishes in this city. Every street is peppered with what looks like independent businesses, coffee shops, cafe’s, flower shops, bars, restaurants, hair dressers, you name it, it was all there. And they all seem to have business, all had people going in and out on this Monday afternoon. I suppose in a city of some reportedly 14 million people one would expect this. I suppose also that in a city that never sleeps and a city that is so in demand for tourists it is to be expected. Wandering the gates of Buckingham Palace it occurred to me that there were probably more international tourists there at that point that Durban would see in a month. I made that stat up ok but the point is, there were a lot of them and only on one occasion today did we hear a British accent. Once again I kid you not.
How did I miss this the last time I was here? Did we take life a bit too seriously the last time, when we lived here? Were we so blind to what was right here in front of us, were we so arrogant as to not see the beauty of what London has to offer. And more importantly, will we still be in this frame of mind and see it in a year or two’s time? I hope so. I can’t promise to spend my kids inheritance on taking the bus again but I will try and feel its energy when we come back.
As a side note, I had the absolute pleasure of dealing with a bloke today who is one of these personal bankers from Barclays bank. We needed to get some admin up to date and WOW is all I can say. Amazing service from this guy, completely willing to give us some incredible advice, completely made us feel like we were the best thing that happened to him today.
Until tomorrow then, bring it on!
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