Eyeful Tower

The London Olympics are a topic that make me shudder with despair right now. It may be the opening ceremony tonight and some people may be generally excited. However I venture a guess I'm not alone. Ask those living and working in London you will find we are peeved. The signs all over the place warning us to be careful, take other routes and generally uproot our lives while not getting any tickets despite living on the doorstep generally grates me.

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One of the things that makes me most sick? The Eyeful Tower. No, competitive helter - skelter did not become an Olympic sport, the huge monstrosity of red metal that cost a whopping 22.7 million and is twice the height of nelsons column and a whopping 72 feet higher than the Statue of Liberty is 'The Orbit Tower'...but what is it's purpose? Oh that's right absolutely nothing!

What a ridiculous waste of money. OK so they have managed to make the 'Millennium Dome' a success now (thank you O2) what what are we going to do with this in a few weeks time when the throngs of tourists have gone? Stick a restaurant on top? I have no idea if there's room but if they were going to do that why not do it now when you have the footfall??

Five other things that frustrate me greatly about the Olympics:

1) Not getting any tickets in the ballot but tickets still being available with days to go
2) The patronising posters on the tube shifting blame to commuters and telling me to change my route
3) The signs on the road telling me to avoid central London (I work there you divs)
4) Feeling like a criminal for writing the words Olympics, London 2012, Games and combinations there of
5) Tourists

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Looters, Yobs and Nobody's

London is a mess today. Last night when I got back from visiting the parents I came into Hackney, it didn't seem to bad and was no different to usual between the station and our place. Coming home to Sky News though was a different story. A couple of streets away was pretty much warfare. What really gets me is these opportunist kids will probably get away with it.

It's mob mentality and safety in numbers, hundreds of 'rioters' (actually I think the term petty thieves is more adept) were tearing through the streets. Some taunting police coming right up to them and basically showing no care or cause for their actions, and the police didn't even floor, cuff or arrest them, why not? Some of the footage I've seen these kids do not appear armed they are just gobby boys. Why aren't they being arrested and held accountable?! It's sick.

Then today, I didn't put any news on this morning, or switch on my Blackberry, the first I heard of trouble in Ealing was when I was a couple of stops away on the tube. On getting out there was a police corden a lots of people gawking and taking photos. From what I can tell it was mainly upturned bins, I later found there had been a fire near the station. On the way to the office it got worse. A lot of the shops had smashed in windows, it seems anything had been used to smash windows. One of the ones in the Arcadia shopping centre still had the cone lodged in the glass.

On the green however it got worse. The local corner shop was completely burnt down. The lady who runs the shop is lovely, what I didn't even realise is there are 4 flats above that shop - someones house and belongings just wiped out.

At lunchtime we were told local businesses were advised to shut up and go home - so we did. It was an eerie feeling basically evacuating the town. Since I've been home in Hackney there has been a spattering of sirens going all day and there is the ever present police chopper overhead (it was also there all night). Luckily we haven't been affected in the street. I'm hoping we're through the worst of it. It really does need to come to an end, I just hope the government and  the police actually made a real effort to catch these idiots and throw the book at them. It makes you sick to be British.

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A weekend of terrible news

This weekend has bought a number of shocks to the UK news wire. The killings in Oslo have left shock waves around the world. A man who has gone on the biggest killing spree in modern times. Reading about it really is terrible. I feel for the victims, their families and the survivors. Quite how you get over something like that is beyond me.

Also this weekend news that was out of the blue, yet marked the end of the long and well documented demise of Amy Winehouse. It really is a tragic loss, she was so talented and now - no more. At this time it is unknown what exactly the cause of death is, although widely reported and highly likely to be drug related.

One thing about this weekend of dreadful news is the usual Sunday staple that would have reported these occurrences like no other is the News of The World. Ironically no longer in circulation - and also due to these incredible series of events, yesterdays biggest news (the phone hacking scandal surrounding the NoTW) is no longer news...Reading the Metro and Standard today it was barely mentioned at all.

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