London Burning

On Sunday morning in Scotland, we saw the paper that said there had been fires and rioting in Tottenham on Saturday night.  I didn't really think anything of it because a) I had no idea what was going on because I had read a paper since Thursday afternoon and b) Tottenham is greater north London, far from my house, and (honestly) not the nicest area to begin with so I didn't really think it would be a big deal.  I thought it was sad that things were burning, but on further inspection, I thought it was a backlash to the shooting on Thursday night and it would be isolated to that area.

Well I was wrong.  Throughout the day on Monday reports were coming in that the rioting had spread to Enfield and Croyden.  Enfield is also northish greater London, but Croyden was shocking because it's south.  Completely opposite end of the city.  Still not the greatest area though, so I though, maybe it's just a camaraderie thing.  

When I got to Clapham Junction station Monday after work, I saw about 10 cops hanging near the station and a news photographer talking to them.  I thought, well being precautious is a good thing, especially as Clapham Junction is one of the busiest station in the country.  I walked home (up Lavender Hill and the about 100 years down a side street) and then started unpacking from Scotland and organizing for my trip to LA.

My flatmate got home around 8 and said, I'm so glad you're home...it's starting to kick off down there.  She was getting her hair cut and when she got out a woman looked at her and said, honey you best get yourself home.  As flatmate was walking past ASDA, she saw kids in hoodies just sitting on the wall...almost as if they were waiting for something to happen.  

We turned on the news, I got on twitter and facebook, and we didn't move for 5 hours.  It's estimated that around 300 kids (yes...aged as young as 11 up to mid 20s) stormed Clapham Junction.  First they were hitting the bookies, stealing the big screen tvs.  Then they looted Wimpy's (a fast food place).  They continued throw bricks, rocks, anything into all the glass windows they could find.  They cleaned out Curry's (like Best Buy).  They then broke into Debenham's (like Bloomingdales or Macys) and cleaned it out.  They then turned their attention to JD Sports, because obviously they deserve some new kicks.  No one was hurting anyone or being aggressive to other people standing around watching (of which there were several).  They were just taking what they think they are owed by the rich people of London.

Here's what it looked like:

This carried on until about 10:30-11.  At that time, the police and the helicopters finally showed up.  As soon as they came, everyone cleared out.  I know they were busy in Croyden, which was much worse off than Clapham Junction, but still...get SOMEONE there to be present.  The helicopters hung around for a few hours and as long as flatmate and I heard them, we figured it would stay calm.  The left around 12:30-1.  At 1:05, flatmate came into my room asking if I smelled smoke.  We looked down our back alley (where kids had been running up and down occasionally) and saw black clouds billowing down the alley.  Back on twitter, I learned that the looters turned to pyrotechnics.  They set the Party Store on fire.  Then Party Store is a ground floor store in a string of stores with flats all above.  Around 1:30, the police were calling for an evacuation of the flats around the Party Store because apparently the lovely looters had thrown hydrogen/helium bombs in the store to keep the fire going.  Lovely.

Around 2:30 Caroline and I managed to fall asleep.  The next day, part of Lavender Hill was closed off, and the fire trucks were still there.  The station was open so, as Londoners have been know to do in times of strife, everyone carried on.  Everyone went to work and went on with their normal days.

Yesterday, the clean up started in Clapham Junction.  People came out en mass with brooms, dust pans, garbage bags, everything, to help start over.  Someone compared Clapham Junction station to hogwarts with the number of brooms that they had (a little english humor for you there..you're welcome).  Last night, we got let out early because it seemed like there was almost an unofficial curfew in London.  Shops were closing up, offices being let out early, police encouraging people to stay in.  So most of us did.  Also, the police wised up (after 4 days of rioting) and threatened to retaliate with force (rubber bullets) if necessary.  Crazy to think...but teenagers don't like being shot!  So they stayed away.  Also, I saw someone say "of course there's no looting tonight...all the looters are home watching their new plasma screen tvs!"  Which I thought was funny.  


Overall, London is back to normal (seemingly).  The clean up has started, the riots have moved on (to Manchester, Birmingham, anywhere the police don't have the manpower just yet), and we're back to our normal days.  


Two disturbing things I did see/hear are:

http://audioboo.fm/boos/434411-leana-hosea-speaks-to-croydon-looters-on-bbcworldservice

and this image: http://yfrog.com/z/h07mxcyzj

Let that be a lesson to you new parents out there...teach your kids that they aren't entitled and don't deserve anything besides a chance at happiness.  And even that you have to work for.

Scotland

My friend Maura is a school nurse, so she gets the summers off.  Big bonus!  This year, she and her sister decided to take a month long vacation to Ireland.  They are staying in a farmhouse and having a very relaxing time shaking off the stress of the east coast (of America).  Maura suggested we meet up for a weekend trip and we decided on Scotland since neither of us had been there.

We both booked tickets to go into Glasgow.  We were going to do Glasgow for a night and then take the train to Edinburgh for a few days.  We hit a small hitch when a week before we were meeting I tried to book hotels in Edinburgh and found out it was the Fringe Festival (http://www.edfringe.com/) aka the biggest festival in Scotland.  Thousands of performers, tens of thousands of people...no hotels.  So we decided we'd stay in Glasgow the whole time and then take the train to Edinburgh for the day.

I got there on Thursday night around 11 pm and met Maura in the hotel room.  It's been a few months since we've seen each other, but probably 5 years since we've had one on one time, so we had tons to talk about.  We went to bed a few hours later and woke up the next morning to have breakfast and then head to Edinburgh.

When we got there, they were just setting up for the festival because Friday was the first day.  First of the list was Edinburgh Castle, obviously.  The jewels were meh...but the cool part was the prisoner of war area.  Most of the soldiers that were captured during the American Revolution were housed in Edinburgh Castle.  It's crazy the different treatment they got - worse treatment - from the Spanish and French POWs because they were considered traitors.  So the Americans got less food, worse sleeping quarters (just hammocks instead of beds), and they didn't get released when the other POWs got releases.  Always trying to hold the man down!!  It was really cool to see the carvings in the doors of ships with the American flag on the back and the tagging from the 1700s and 1800s:

SO COOL!

After the castle we strolled around for a few hours doing nothing in particular.  We sat in the park, went to a free tasting, went to a beer tent, just really enjoyed the scene!  Then we headed back to Glasgow because we thought we'll get there in time for dinner and then we can go out.  Well we ended up substituting dinner for a bottle of wine on the train, a bag of wasabi peas, and some Percy Pigs (candy).  Maura loved the idea of traveling while enjoying a glass of wine.  

When we got back to Glasgow we headed out on the town and then called it a night around 1 because we had another trip on Saturday morning.  Maura's sister Molly is dating a Scottish guy who lives in America.  His family lives 40 minutes outside Glasgow.  When he found out Maura and I would be there, he insisted that we spend the night with his family.  It was awesome!  His mom picked us up and drove us around all the sites of his town, and then we went to her house, dropped our stuff, and then his sister, her fiance, and his two brothers, their wives and kids all came over for dinner.  It was soo fun to be around the kids the family.  They were really welcoming and sweet and we were up until 3 am talking!!  I was ready for bed around 1 but that would have been rude so I powered through!  

Sunday morning we headed back to Glasgow, found Maura a place to stay and then went to dinner at an Indian place that was really good.  

Overall I would say that the best part of Scotland was definitely the fun times with Molly's boyfriend's family.  I don't know that I would spend a lot of Glasgow or Edinburgh in the future, but I'm glad to have checked it off the list! 

Ke$ha - the concert that didn't happen

Following our excitement from the amazingness of the Katy Perry concert, V and I thought it would be really fun to see Ke$sha in concert.  Her songs are fun, she seems a bit crazy, and the venue was the same one where we saw Katy.  Before we knew it, the day of the concert was upon us.  After work, V and I met at Hammersmith Station and hit the McDonald's.  We were dressed in our work dresses and responsible commuting flats.  Looking around us at McDonald's, I saw gaggles of girls with glitter on their faces sitting with one women who was about 40 (repeat throughout several tables).

"oh that's nice..the mom is taking her daughter and friends to the concert," we thought.  Not thinking anything else of it, we finished our meals and headed towards the venue.  When we got there, we looked around and felt a bit like my cousin Vinny and Marisa Tomei when they arrived in that southern town.  We stuck out like SORE THUMBS.  Let me describe the different categories of people around us:

1) 10-13 year old girls all glittered up, teased hair, and dollar signs on their shirts, followed a few steps behing by their moms
2) 13-16 year olds withOUT any parents.  These children were wearing cut off tops, shirts that were strategically torn, hot pants, lots of make up and lots of glitter.  They were not accompanied by adults, but by one of two groups of boys:
     a) a group of very tall boy
     b) a group of not as tall gay boys

All of the parties in group 2 were also carrying soda bottles that were not containing soda.  The time was about 6:40.  V and I looked around and felt VERY out of place.  We tried to imagine what it would be like on the inside.  I pointed out that at last the line at the bar would be short since none of these people can legally drink.

We then thought about it logically.  Doors opened at 7, Ke$ha probably wouldn't go on until 9, we won't get home until 11, and (let's be honest) we're probably going to have to get PRETTY drunk to have a good time here while being pushed around with the teenagers.  We debated going to the pub that's a responsible train journey away from both of our houses, and then thought, no.  Let's suck it up and go in.

And then....

One of the people in group 2b (that's the little gay boys) threw up.  In the line.  At 6:45.  His friends all laughed.  They started taking pictures and shouting "get down with the vomit so I can take a picture!"

I looked at V.  "Pub?"  And we left.

Of course, we went to the pub, had a few bottles of wine and ended up feeling pretty bad the next day, but at least we were around other people in work clothes so it made it all ok!