Only in London...?

I really love London. In the past I could take it or leave it, but as I've got older and got out there a bit on my own its really grown on me. There is the lively hustle and bustle of it, the fact you can do anything you want whenever you want, and the great transport - but most of all its the lunatics that really set it apart in my opinion.

The other day I was minding my own business waiting for a tube at Finsbury Park to arrive; I sat down on a bench next to what appeared to be a perfectly normal person - until they started mumbling that is. "Oh yeah....Oh - yeah... oooo" as they were caressing what appeared to be a guitar bag. I turned away for a moment, but turned back when he started playing his guitar to see the guy now stooped over, leaning right over his instrument (oo-er!). It wasn't actually too bad - fairly run of the mill Spanish sounding music. A few people further down the platform ignored the music, probably thinking - like I was - that it was a busker. But then the music started getting more and more unhinged - syncopated and faster. And it got faster, and faster. I'm no musician but it must have been about 300bpm and it was insane. Imagine a typical generic Spanish sounding folk tune played about two or three times faster than it should be. Someone who looked like a London Underground employee - complete with radio - walked past once, and then walked back again a few moments later (clearly a stealthy "check out the nutcase" manoeuvre), but the guy carried on playing like some sort of possessed crack addict. Then without any warning or appreciable end of the song, he stopped and put the guitar away, the train arrived and he got on as if nothing had happened. It was actually kinda electrifying to hear the music played so damn fast; I felt like clapping or something but for some reason I didn't - kinda felt like I should have.

Then the next day I was again minding my own business waiting for a train to arrive when I heard someone shouting at the top of their voice "Homophobia! Homophobia!" from some way off. I'm not sure if they were angry about the amount of homophobia they felt was present in society, or if maybe they were some how trying to promote it by shouting it loudly on public transport.

Who knows.

What I do know is its stuff like this that makes London such an interesting, fun and entertaining place to be!