London calling...

There was no-one more stunned than me to learn of the two proposed car bomb attacks in London late last week.
I was in the capital until Thursday night, when I jetted back to Australia. Just 24 hours earlier I had wandered through the West End, taking in my old haunts and the familiar tourist sites. I'd dined with a friend on The Strand and had marvelled at how nice it was to be in London again.
But at no point did I feel safe.

I'm not sure if it's the post 9/11 society we now live in or the fact that I live in the relatively safe Australia (I say relatively because of this article)but I was very guarded in London.
I was terrified to wear my iPod shuffle anywhere it could be seen and was very aware of where my wallet was at all times.
And when some crackhead woman had a go at me on the Central Line at 10am on a Thursday morning, I kept my cool and a reasonably civil tongue in my head for fear of being stabbed to death in broad daylight.
Surely that can't be right - or a healthy way to live?

I landed in Sydney on Saturday morning to a text from a mate asking if I'd inadvertently forgotten to return my hire car, opting instead to leave it at Haymarket. Amusing thought, but I can't believe that London is under such security scrutiny again. And Glasgow, for that matter. All Scotland has done is give the world Irn Bru and heart disease... hardly grounds for blowing up the airport and local hospitals.

I wonder how the 2012 Olympic Games in London will be shaped in this culture of fear...