22 February 2007

We're not in Kansas anymore

Things that remind you that you're really in London:

- Someone talking loudly on a cellphone in a crowded train carriage can cause a bitter argument to break out.

- Pushy touts compete vigorously to force copies of free newspapers into your hands, which will then promptly be covered in cheap printers' ink. (Except the fantastically-named London Lite, which main promotional point is that its ink will not run).

- There's still smoking in pubs. Eww.

- There's no rubbish bins in McDonalds Liverpool Street station. Because someone might blow them up.

- Pret-a-Manger chicken stuffing sandwiches are still fab.

- You accidentally spot Oliver Cromwell's death mask in the British Museum, having never noticed it before. Cool.

- Tube carriage grafitti says "Doors may cause deafness". (Well, I suppose if you put your ear against them when the Central Line train goes around a sharp corner. "Screee...!!!!")

- Sometimes it's quicker to walk 500 metres rather than take the bus.

- On no account should you think of all the germs on the Underground's escalator handrails. No way.

- Clipboard-wielding flirty-fishing charity donation seekers must never be looked in the eye, or you'll turn to stone.

- The baby the Kosovan woman is clutching as she goes around the carriage begging for change looks suspiciously well-fed.

- Stand on the right, walk on the left. Stand on the right, walk on the left. Say it with me now.

- School half-term week is definitely not the right time to go to the Science Museum.

- 'Friends' is on TV every half-hour. Chandler still isn't funny.

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