London on tenterhooks

This is the view that confronted me from my office window (well almost, I stole this from the BBC website) about an hour a go. If I was in Melbourne, this would clearly be a large fire at an industrial facility somewhere. Being London however, it’s a potential terrorist attack. It was almost eerie, watching everyone on the floor trying to get news on what was going on. The BBC web site must of almost gone into melt-down. It turned out to be a fire in an abandoned bus depot, near the new olympics site.A similar thing happened yesterday, some parents in the cafe at Hamleys Toy Store took their kids to the toilet and (foolishly) left some bags on the table. The store staff immediately started to close the floor and usher everyone off and people co-operated, calmly leaving via the escalators as soon as they realised why. Of course the parents were surprised to come back and find their shopping cordoned off!It’s one of the difference I’ve noticed that makes me feel lucky to come from Melbourne where, at least for now, a fire is just a fire and shopping left behind is (hopefully) handed into the counter for safe keeping.