Feeling My Age

“What’s the worst job you’ve ever had?” [taken with Instagram]

By way of an update to last December’s post Business As Usual, our local Barclays staged an official Grand Re-opening last month. In addition to an extravagant display of helium balloons and giveaways of corporate-coloured candy, staff were required to dress up in silly clothes and get the attention of passers-by.  They responded (see above) with varying amounts of enthusiasm.

Who’d have thought we would meet the uncrowned king of English acoustic music - and leading purveyor of refined lyrical vitriol - on this particular ledge?

A view across the rooftops of Mayfair from the restaurant of the John Lewis department store, with the London Hilton on Park Lane towering above its surroundings in the distance. The Royal Household kicked up a stink when it first went up in the 1960s, as the top floor gave the public a clear view into the grounds of Buckingham Palace.

Click for slideshow on Flickr

On my way into town yesterday found myself walking smack through the middle of someone else’s street party. Nice chilled vibe in a road bordering on an open green space in the late afternoon.

The euphoria up the line in Westminster had long subsided, leaving central London strangely deserted by the time I headed home that evening. No trace of the million revellers who’d descended on the city that day apart from a few lingering traffic diversions. And morose men in orange jackets at Hyde Park Corner dealing with the 140 tonnes of refuse they’d left behind.

In today’s Guardian Ian Jack compares the wedding with that of Charles & Diana in 1981, pointing our that in the middle of all the royalist ballyhoo imprisoned IRA men were dying on hunger strike, urban rioting had erupted in several English cities, and 2.5 million people were on the dole.

Checking the headlines this weekend, Gaddafi’s Libya is being bombarded with air strikes and riven by civil war, the governments of Syria and Uganda are killing increasing numbers of protesters, there are more riots in Bristol – and the US has just suffered its second deadliest outbreak of tornados in history, with at least 340 people dead.

Japan meanwhile has 18,000 recent deaths and widespread devastation to cope with – along with a nuclear crisis at Fukushima that remains – even according to official sources – “very serious”.

No wonder my brother’s buying himself a geiger counter.

It’s been hard to escape the Royal Wedding today. Especially with a younger member of the household who wanted to watch it in the next room “to see the dress”. My wife headed out smartly to get our weekly shopping – correctly guessing that the supermarket would be deserted. Meanwhile I found The Lovely Eggs cheerfully exploiting the  event – in their own inimitable style – as a godsent marketing opportunity.