A provocative title, I’m sure you’ll agree. Cue a deluge of abuse from Pearly Kings and Queens in my comments page.
I’m not saying London always smells of jobbies. But it did yesterday. In the vicinity of London Victoria tube station to be precise. It smelled like the drains used to smell on Spanish package holidays in the 1980’s.
Ahh. Laaandaaahn Taaaan. I can’t fail to be attracted to it’s buzz and almost constant motion but by the end of a day or a few days there, I’m glad to get home to the more sedate city of Edinburgh. Yesterday I barely had time to take it all in as I arrived at Gatwick, got the train to Victoria and then got the tube to my meeting. One hour later, I did the whole thing in reverse. A thirteen hour round trip for a one hour meeting.
A trip of very little event as it turned out although I was mystified to see signs on tube station ticket machines stating that Scottish bank notes would not be accepted. I mean, I know that Scottish banks have been crumbling lately but that’s a bit harsh.
Us Scot’s have suffered from this phenomenon for years. of course. Cross the border into England and hand someone a Scottish tenner and the reaction is akin to that of Billy Bones when he received the Black Spot in Treasure Island. God forbid you hand then a Scottish £20 note or something even more leftfield like a Northern Irish fiver – you know, the plastic coated ones with the transparent stars on them.
At a gig at Wembley Stadium a couple of years back, I handed a Scottish tenner to a bloke behind the bar. He turned to his boss and asked him “Do we accept Sterling?”.
Honestly………
on Jun 19th, 2009 at 11:48 am
Do you know what’s even more fun? Handing them a pound note, since they haven’t had pound notes dahn sarf for donkey’s years. You can almost see the sparks coming out of their ears as their brains. fail. to. compute. Fun.
on Jun 19th, 2009 at 3:50 pm
I thought I was going to get lifted when I paid for a coffee in Costa at Waterloo recently. The place ground to a standstill as all the staff took turns poring over the note and holding it up to the light. I’m sure they would have told me to f off if I hadn’t been wearing a pinstripe suit and a shirt and tie at the time…