Homeless

At the moment, the route to work in the morning takes me through Waterloo station. I walk out the main front entrance and through the subway that takes me passed London Imax. I then walk through an underpass that is painted bright blue and turn right at the National Gallery.

Every morning and every evening there are homeless people sleeping along my route. And not just one. Usually several.

Two things caused me to reflect on this.

One morning, I was following my usual morning route, in particular the part that takes me through the bright blue underpass, when I was hit - like a punch in the face - by the strong smell of stale urine. There was a man sleeping there, covered in blankets with a crutch near by. He was mumbling something to himself - I could not make it out. I mumbled something to myself as well, something about the offensiveness of his smell. The next day I did not see him. Nor the next. Then the evening following I saw some writing on the pavement, near where I had seen him sleeping. You can see for yourself what it said (i.e., look at the picture). Had this guy died just after I had seen him? I felt a little bad for having complained about his waft.

Two days later I walked through the bright blue underpass again. I got hit in the face with the smell of stale urine. I saw the crutch. While it would be an exaggeration to say I was pleased, I can say I was not nearly as offended by the smell.

The second thing I thought about were the upcoming London Olympic games. If you walk through Waterloo, either early in the day or late, and you do not see a homeless person - not a one - then you should know that the government and/or the Olympic organisers have done a clean up. A temporary clean up. A cover up, if you will. Just like Melbourne did for its recent Commonwealth Games (or so I have been led to believe). And you have to ask yourself, why do they do that? What is cover up? Are they ashamed?

The answer to the last question, I think, is yes. They are ashamed. Just shamed enough to cover it up, but not quite ashamed enough to do something about it.

Not that I can take the high ground on this issue. I did not give the man with the crutch any money. I did not approach him and ask him if he was OK (I have seen people doing this - they must be really good people). I did not even say hello. Until I change my ways, perhaps I should not expect the government - any government - to change theirs.

Through Rain or Snow or Sleet or Hail

Back in Australia, you might have heard the news that London has had more snow since ... well, since a while.

Yeah, I like it too. Adds a bit of excitement, it does. There is only one problem. More on that in a moment.

Compared to Melbourne, the public transport system in London is more than fabulous, it is unbelievable. I don't own a car. Don't feel the need to. I can get around fine without one.

But outside of any comparison with a chronically under-developed public transport system like the one that serves Melbourne - and I use the term serves rather loosely - the public transport system in London leave something to be desired.

The biggest problem is overcrowding. I have no problem having to stand for the entire one-hour length of my journey into the city but, gee, on some days it would be nice to have some room to stand.

Another problem is that it is hot. Not a problem during the winter, of course. But come summer, it will easily get to over 40C on an overcrowded underground train. This, in turn, is due to the chronic lack of air conditioning in the UK. This is conspicuously obvious heading down Oxford St on a very warm summers day. All the stores are stiflingly hot. Portable air-con units and fans are dragged in but they do not help.

The third problem is that the smallest things can throw of the entire system. On several occasions, the explanation for delayed underground services are leaves on the track. Leaves - what is that? I recently did some work in the mid-lands. On one Thursday in January, overland train services were halted due to wind. Even a windy city like Melbourne with its under-developed public transport system doesn't suffer from that one.

Which brings me to my point: when the heaviest snow since ... well, since a while ... were forecast, my thought was 'Oh no ... here we go ... it will be a nightmare getting into work tomorrow ...' (Oh ... I used the word 'nightmare' ... picking up local vocab!). If wind brings the public transport system down and LEAVES bring the public transport system down ... it did not auger well.

Thankfully, millions of other Brits must have thought the same thing. Unlike millions of other Brits, as it turned out, I still tried to make it into work. The trains were markedly less full than I am accustomed to at peak hour. At least I had room to stand.

So what was a potential disaster had turned out to be anything but. Bring on the snow.