Mind the gap, and watch out for those escalators

Its christmas in Regent Street (and its only 4.30 in the afternoon!)

Departed Morocco for a land of decidedly greyer skies....we arrived at Gatwick at the ungodly hour of 12.30 at night and then proceeded to blow over 130 dollars catching a train and then a taxi.(sad postscript to this tale is that our lovely mates/London hosts with the most Emma and Dan had driven all the way to Gatwick to spare us the epic trip but somehow managed to miss our arrival by two minutes making it a futile evening for all.)

So London was a blur of sleep, trips to the pub, bleary staggers back to bed, before rising again to head to the pub. Not very healthy but good fun. London itself was deadly cold, clear and rather pretty in a crisp, sparkling way. I think I prefer it lookswise in winter, though I don't know how people can deal with the whole getting pitch dark at 4 o'clock business, way too depressing for words.

One of my favourite things to do when I'm in the UK is to search out public signage that seems to state the bloody obvious. It is a curious phenomena that seems peculiar to the UK. For example the signs and endless announcements at the Tube station to "mind the gap", its like there is an assumption that if they didnt have warning signs and recorded messages to mind the gap the public simply wouldn't know any better and would be plunging down between the train and platform like lemmings.

But this time it was Marks and Spencers who took the prize, in their Oxford Street shop I spied no less than four signs dedicated to instructing people on how to use the escalators, this included helpful hints like "stand facing forward", "carry your children or pets" and the more obscure"take extra care if you are wearing soft boots or shoes". Nothing like having your hand held I guess........but it does makes me wonder how the Brits cope out in the rest of the world, specially when they are wearing soft boots or shoes : )

Five hours sleep and its off to the pub with the lovely Ms Emma Baxter and Ying