So it’s the first day of the 2012 Olympics. Folks are flying small or large national flags in front of their houses to show their patriotic support. London is theoretically packed with Olympian fans from countries around the globe and amazingly the weathermen accurately predicted that it would rain on the evening of the opening Olympic ceremonies.
I will readily admit that I’m more impressed by the accurate weather forecast than anything else that might be happening in London or anyplace else for that matter. I know that the press has been predicting that traffic down to (or up to, or across to depending where you live in the country) will be horrendously congested as folks flock to the games.
Well, I don’t know but I think a whole group of them have gotten lost and wound up in my neck of the woods.
I just went down to pick up a prescription that I then had to drop off to the pharmacy of my local Tesco Metro. For those of you who don’t live in England, the Tesco Metro is a mini version of the Tesco supermarket. And despite the friendly folks who work there, is a giant pain in the ass. It is conveniently located so that older (aka retired) folks can get the essentials for their homes. It is also almost always crowded. There seem to be an awful lot of old people where I live.
Today it was worse than ever. Because today it wasn’t just the old folks shopping, it was every bugger and his dog shopping. The queue to the tobacco kiosk, with it’s very popular lottery till and scratch-n-win tickets, was so long I thought maybe the kiosk was giving money or cigarettes away for free.
Amazingly, I dropped off my prescription, paid for it in advance, did some shopping, and walked to the local library (only to find it is closed on a Friday) and came back to collect my ‘drugs’ and the queue was sill ridiculously long. On top of that the Metro itself was suddenly ass-deep in people.
I felt like a linebacker trying to make a touchdown against a team that had ten times more players than the side I was on. Now I know it’s a Friday, the day that is traditionally a pay day. But surely in this day and age of monthly pay-checks and electronic banking and shopping not everyone is going to flock down to the nearest store.
I mean it’s summer people! You should be on holiday with your over-weight sunburned children, in-laws and grandparents. You should be at the seaside or at the English home-away-from-home, Spain (specifically Majorca) or at the very least Bognor Regis and complaining about the English weather. Not at the Metro around the corner from my house.
I think somebody put up a detour sign that funnelled all the Olympic traffic heading to London to the Metro. That’s the only explanation. It has to be, if that isn’t the reason, where the hell did all these people come from?
Hey! Maybe they are giving away money and cigarettes! I’d write some more on the subject, but I just remembered some things I forgot to get from the Metro.
Related articles
- Severe flooding in Bognor Regis (itv.com)
- Your Olympic etiquette guide: Walk on the left; when in doubt, queue; if you don’t like the weather? Wait five minutes (itv.com)
The Tesco in Callander was busy too yesterday. I almost had to interact with real people! *chills.*
Well, I suppose that picking her nails is somewhat better than picking her nose. 😀
Free cigarettes. Oh what a glorious day that would be…funnily enough, that was one of my favourite bits in Maximum Overdrive, which I d/loaded after your review (love a King movie): when the cigarello and dollar-changer machines at the Dixie Boy go apeshit, and dude stuffs his pockets with free cigs and change.
In other news, I didn’t realise the ‘lympix started today…well I wouldn’t have, except for the fact mum just txted to say apparently HM didn’t acknowledge the British team during the march, and was apparently picking her nails?
Thankfully we are about an hour and a bit away from London and the real madness. But it seems like the population is growing all over. I think I’ll be excited when the whole thing is over as well!
St Louis huh? I’m originally from Arkansas, the north-western part. Small world. 🙂
UGH that reminds me of how crazy it was round here during the World Series. I live in St. Louis, Missouri and everybody and their brother was here, clogging up all our shops, restaurants, streets. I was excited when it finally ended.