London – a cautionary tale

I don’t like a lot of change in my pocket. As you move from country to country, there is no rhyme or reason with the coinage sizes.

It doesn’t help they omit numbers on the bastards.

It’s just a drag.

You tend to accumulate more than you can spend so I dump it as tips or whatever, at every opportunity.

So we are off to Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre to see Much Ado About Nothing. We take the tube to get there. It’s very convenient.

Descending the platform stairs and there is a blockage forming because no one is moving along the platform to spread out. Over the PA system “Please move down the platform there is plenty of room there”. As we are waiting the trains arrival, a suited but scruffy guy with snaggy teeth approached me and asked for money. Without hesitation, I plunged my hand in my pocket, scooped a handful and loaded his hand. Over the PA crackled “Customers are warned that begging is illegal on British Railway and not to give them money”. This transaction had been observed. Rail staff in day-glo vests moved through the crowd in search of him.

As we entered the Globe we were warned by the day-glo vested attendants not to take any photos while the actors are on stage. Excitement was building but much to our irritation, the people behind us continued to chatter when the play started. The day-glos appeared and shooshed them.

The play was so riveting, funny, well-acted and staged that it is a bucket list item.

I did catch out of the corner of my eye day-glos moving regularly through the crowd below to other chatting transgressors and some being shown the door.

There is a subtle contrast in the level of adherence to obedience here from where we have been. Or am I just making a big to-do over trivial observations?