Travel Journal Part 5: Random Musings on My Week

From this outsider's perspective, London is a fascinating mixture of the staid and traditional with the contemporary and cutting-edge. Probably a reaction of the younger generation toward the stodgy repression of their elders (and the ghosts that they continue to revere). I suppose if one grew up surrounded by so much pomp antiquity, one would find it blasé, and turn instead to modern minimalism and pop culture worship.

The effect of which is an intriguing place packed to the hilt with bodiless souls and soulless bodies. But, I guess you can probably say the same about all cities where the old world exists in such close proximity with the new.

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What I found particularly interesting are the C.C.T.V. signs everywhere, essentially warning troublemakers not to get out of hand because Big Brother is watching! True to the Orwellian vision, an enormous portion of public and private areas in the UK are now surveilled by close circuit television—not only streets, shops and private properties such as hotels, but also inside taxicabs, trams, etc. Here are a couple of C.C.T.V. signs I took—one inside a taxi and another on a garbage truck. Signs like these can be found on buildings, vehicles and street posts all over the place.

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In the news: Yob violence is on the rise, resulting in a number of senseless killings around the UK. (Yob being slang for a young aggressive person—“boy” spelled backwards.) Parents are advised on how to nip youth violence in the bud.

Dane maintains that one of the things that drove him out of the UK was this very problem.

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UK grocery store chocolates are far better than their American counterparts. Hands down.