Celebrating this Anniversary today it strikes me that there are a bunch of London things that I am reliving after years of being away.
1. My driving has diminished. On ringing the Car Insurer to discuss my new (higher of course) premium the receptionist suggested I might do only half or less of my previous mileage. She was right.
2. My driving has deteriorated. Perhaps not in quality, but certainly in politeness. The tipping point occurred about the third or fourth time I was cut up by a white van that was deliberately using the wrong lane to get past a line of traffic I was in.
3. My parking has improved. Basically, if you can't park your car in a space that is smaller than it there's no point in having a car in London.
4. I no longer associate the Oyster with the seaside but with Red Buses.
5. I now assume that everyone in church comes from a different country to everyone else. e.g. Brazil, Japan, Costa Rica, Iran, South Africa, Nigeria, France, Cyprus, Poland, Malaysia, Singapore, Romania, Italy, Burma . . .
6. I am reminded that every church building in London seems to have at least two churches meeting in it, and usually one or two based in a different language.
7. I assume everyone in London has a baby - it is not at all hard to understand why London is projected to grow by a million people in the next ten years as I negotiate a thousand prams in the shopping street.
8. I have rediscovered that, while everyone outside London thinks of living there as their worst nightmare, nearly everyone who does live there loves it to bits.
9. Every loft is converted.
10. There is always an airliner overhead.
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