TheDecliningStateOfTheNationYou are on the archive wiki. The new wiki is here. Feh. It's just my luck. No, really it is. My bag was stolen on Thursday night. I was at a bar having catch-up drinks with Alex, and we were seated in a cozy section of the lounge area. There was never a point where we were both away from our table but apparently at some point some dodgey guy came and sat on a chair next to me (they were very wide chairs) and when he got up it must have been with my bag. So, I've lost: My bag, my phone, my wallet (with all relevant contents i.e. cards and £40 in cash and my SA drivers licence), my keys, my oyster card (again), my umbrella, my sunglasses, my mini Leatherman, my favourite jacket which had my favourite brooch attached to it, my book (Ian Banks - Whit, which I was really enjoying), all my lip balms and glosses, my 64mb USB flash-drive and, worst of all, my MP3? player I was given for christmas! Insurance? What's that? Also the police here absolutely don't give a fig for 'petty' crime at the moment, to the point that the police station nearby is closed most days since the entire force are out standing like bored idiots in tubes stations fondling their assault rifles. While there was a CCTV camera pointed at our section, I doubt anyone's going to ask to see the tape. Sigh. At least the English can, occasionally, get some things right so having reported things stolen on Thursday night and Friday morning I had already recieved a new Oyster card and ATM debit card by the Saturday morning. I've also replaced my wallet and sunglasses and have ordered a new Leatherman Micra off e-bay for a grand £10 - we'll just have to see if it's as genuine as advertised. The MP3? players my biggest decision, since considering my luck, I'll just buy a new one only to have it stolen the first time I take it out my bag in Joburg. I do miss it though. :-( If there have ever been signs in my life that it's time to leave a place it's now. I'm at the end of my patience, and now I'm out of pocket and have my nose out of joint. I'm not liking the "police / nanny state" attitude that's starting to manifest here. Before my misadventure on Thursday night I'd spent about three in the back of a cab trying to fetch Mike's passport from his house and then take it to Heathrow in the hopes of persuading someone sympathetic at Lufthansa to ferry it to Frankfurt since "Mike had left his Russian visa in his other passport!" Ron, the cabbie, was as I hear most cabbies are, a very interesting person to talk to. Along with the fact that he's done judo on and off for 6 years, so we had the MA thing in common, it was very enlightening to hear his views on the changing fortunes of the average Briton. Apparently the immigrant problem has become so bad that he reckons that they're on the brink of a civil war. Over-statement perhaps, but he's implied that there's a rift in the society of the United Kingdom that the terrorism attacks are just going to widen. He says 'armed gangs of asian youths' (a term frequently found in the average copy of your local paper) really do roam the streets with impunity and the police won't touch them, but they'll give the white kids no end of trouble if they follow suite let alone try to defend themselves. He believes all this to the point that he's emmigrating with his family to New Zealand in the next couple of years. While I'll take it all with a pinch of salt, despite the fact that Ron seemed a pretty 'together' sort. However it doesn't take much to see that the Uk is facing some sort of crisis in the near future, and I'm very, very glad that I can call myself a South African and flee back to a nation that I like to believe is past this point and in the entirely labourious process of putting itself back together again. Amazing that I meant this to be a short post, more with the point that, if you've got my UK mobile number, discard it and email me for the new one (if you haven't already heard from me). However, rambling comes easily to me so, with that, I shall bugger off to Jitsu. Comment: That sucks... (by OOPMan on 2005-08-09 12:41:55)Sorry to hear about your shitty happening Loth. Figging bloody police. What do they expect they're gonna do with them rifles, though? Plug any "Terrorists" that run up waving packs of nitro shouting: I am a Terrorist. Kill me Now. Anyway, hope things get better Comment: rifles (by d@vid on 2005-08-09 13:14:07)no, they plug non-terrorists {confused} Comment: non-terrorists (by InfernalRabbi? on 2005-08-09 17:19:24)they seem to aim at any one suspicious. the guy they shot did run from them, because his visa had expired two years ago and he had forged a new one. Comment: That's what you GET (by SynKronos? on 2005-08-09 23:11:53)I bet he'll never forge another visa now, will he? Lesson learnt, I'd say. Your tax dollars in action. Pounds, whatever Comment: living in fear (by BlueHands on 2005-08-10 09:46:44)actaully I think people with expired visas now live more in fear than home-grown wannabe terrorists. well that was the joke on sunday cos one of the girls there had to sort out her visa before it expires within the next month. and Robs I'll email you. |