London's burning

Centre Court - from Wimbledon Guardian

It's been a scary few days living in London.  When the rioting was in north London I cared about what was happening but I wasn't frightened and I wasn't glued to the television.  Monday night that all changed when the riots moved to Clapham Junction and Croydon which were far nearer to home.  I was mesmorised by Sky News that night and couldn't turn it off.  Eventually i did at 2am but i woke at 3.00 and then 4.30 and checked what was going on through Twitter.

Last night things took a further scary turn when I found out Wimbledon had closed the shops in the village and the broadway and boarded them all up.  I wasn't very productive at work yesterday, i spent the day checking twitter and panicking.

Unfortunately there are a lot of idiots out there and lots of people were posting that it was kicking off in Wimbledon, that buildings were on fire and that there were police everywhere, there was talk of looting in the village as well.

Reeves furniture store by Sky News

The Alexandra was open so I continued to follow tweets by the landlord as I knew he would be speaking sense and not dramatising and spreading rumours for fun.  He was clear that it was quiet and calm. 

P came and collected me from work and we rode home together (his riding is a post for another day!), anyway when we got home we rode through the high street just to check, it was quiet but not deserted and not spooky or eerie in anyway, it was sad to see shops boarded up but I would far rather they limit any destruction they can then just sit and let it happen.

We, thankfully had a quiet night in Wimbledon and I managed to turn the telly off at 11.30 and sleep, the first night I've done that for a while.

It was sad to wake up to news of destruction in Manchester, Birmingham and Gloucester and I feel sorry for those people and all they've lost but I'm pleased that London is getting back to normal.  I hadn't realised how much I had needed things to be 'normal' to get through each day.

I really hope it all stops soon, only children that have no respect for themselves or others can be doing this, I am not ashamed, they are not my children, it is their parents that should be ashamed.  It may be that society has a part to play in what happened and that we need to look at investment in to our younger generation but I just can't believe that this has happened because youth clubs have closed or tuition fees.  You always have a choice regardless of your situation and they are making the wrong one.  I wonder what they'll think when they look back on it in 6 months or 6 years.