Xmas Shopping - A Revelation!

As I mentioned previously, I didn't get around to doing any Xmas shopping until the last Saturday before Xmas itself (23rd) and was expecting it to be a complete nightmare in terms of the sheer numbers of people and the lack of anything nice to buy still being in the shops.

Wrong on both counts as it happens. Got into London at about 10.30am, and three (count them, three! All men!) of us got off the tube at Leicester Square. And the place was deserted. Nobody else on the platform, and no-one else on the escalators. This weirded me out so much I turned to one of the other blokes and said "quiet isn't it?".

This weirdness continued when the queue of people I saw in the ticket hall were all tourists waiting for theatre tickets, and not apparently planning on going on the tube at all. Stupidly, I assumed that there would be loads of people already in London, and that I'd be greeted by the mass of humanity when I got to street level.

You know that scene from "28 Days Later" where the guy wanders through a deserted London? It was a bit like that. But more taxis. And slightly less zombies.

So I'd like to thank everyone who took the time to get their Xmas shopping done early in order to "avoid the rush", as it left me with empty streets and quiet shops while I was doing mine. Cheers everybody!