Squeezing all we can into six weeks...

I sat on the tube on my first day in London... Listened to the scraping and squealing of the wheels on the rails, the beeps announcing the closing of the doors, the "mind the gap" warnings... I felt the uneven jolting and rocking of the carriages and the gusts of stale air as underground tunnels were negotiated... And I felt as if I had never been away.

So many things have remained as I remember them. I have been genuinely surprised to find streets are lined with many of the same shops. That buses travel the same routes to the same destinations. Pubs still smell the same (sans the stale smell of cigarettes) and bar staff still welcome patrons with the standard "alright?"

The chaos of central London is certainly more frantic, and yet the relative calm of Richmond (where I used to live, and am now lucky to be staying) feels like the haven it always did.

And as for my long list of things 'uncool' about London in yesterday's post, rest assured, there are so many more things that ARE cool. London public transport is awesome. The history, the tradition, the icons of London are ageless and still take my breath away. The art is brilliant. The shopping is varied and full of treasures (and a lot of crap too!). The shows are vibrant and affordable (if you're willing to sit in the gods!)

The scale of everything here is breathtaking. Each turn uncovers another icon or a hidden treasure. It's easy to fill hours just walking the streets and catching the sights or grabbing a seat somewhere and watching the world go by.

I am loving being back here after all this time. Every now and then I pinch myself to remind myself I am here and how lucky we are to be able to spend six weeks exploring and enjoying it all.

So far I have returned to many places I have been before, but I have also explored new areas too. Windsor and it's castle, Trafalgar Square, Big Ben and parliament, the London Eye, Covent Garden, Piccadilly Circus, Oxford Street, Hyde Park... Hampton Court Palace, the National Gallery, the British Museum, the Wallace Collection, Kew Gardens. Les Miserables. A long weekend in Aberdeen, Scotland visiting family friends.

Phew! Did I say we'd been busy?

Being a tourist is exhausting. But there's still so much to see and do...

There's still the Globe Theatre, Portobello and Spitalfields markets, The Mousetrap, the Foundling museum, the Tate Gallery... And a few trips out of London... a trip to Bath or Salisbury where we can also catch up with blogging friend Trash... we have a four night trip to Barcelona booked and (time permitting) we might even squeeze in a two night break in Paris. Not to mention catching up with Lucia & Felipe when they get back from Brazil.

Busy times.

Busy busy times.

So I'm on the train this morning...

It was cold this morning. 4 degrees. The coldest May morning in 9 years. I figured public transport would be running badly. Usually, a little bit of cold, of heat, of the stars not being aligned, and they run to the beat of their own timetable. This morning I was pleasantly surprised.

As I got to the station, the City Loop train pulled out (this is fine as it's not my preferred train) and then within a minute, the Flinders St train arrived. My train. A spare seat all to myself and no-one standing on my toes. Fantastic start to the day.

So, I take my seat and have a quick glance around the carriage. The train was sparsely populated, though there were the usual commuters. Business men and women, grey faced and newspapers stretched, a few kids on their way to school smelling of recently extinguished cigarettes and hair gel, many with ipods jammed into their ears.

A woman sat opposite me, her toddler standing on the seat beside her, both of them looking out the window. Cute kid. I liked his hat. They were a happy looking pair.

They were on the other side of the carriage, but their empty pram was propped inside the door, just beside my seat. I was quite surprised to notice the woman's handbag was sitting on the top of the pram.

It was open, and her purse was sitting right in the top in full view. It was JUST ASKING for trouble. A couple of other passengers had also glanced at it and I'm sure they thought the same as me. But everyone else stayed silent. Of course I had to say something. Couldn't help myself really.

I leaned over to her and said "I think you should be careful of your bag, it's in easy reach, and you never know what people will do." It was no refection on any of the other travelers, I just thought the temptation may well have been too much for anyone getting on or off the train. I figured it was worth a mention. No mother with child was going to catch any purse snatcher, and I am a slow slow runner so I wouldn't have been much help!

She looked surprised anyone had spoken to her and I felt as if I had intruded a little on her morning trip. She said she wasn't too worried because there weren't many people on the train and then said "thanks though." At this point I was feeling (just a little) embarrassed I had said anything.

When the train pulled into the next stop, she got up, put her child in the pusher, zipped her bag and but it in the tray below the seat and got off the train.

You know, I hope she was right (that would be preferable of course) but you never know, and you never can be too sure. Sad but true. It may not have been necessary this morning, but maybe it will make her more aware of it on another occasion.

I would prefer a little embarrassment to feeling regret later. It would have been a shame to ruin a perfect start to the day.