Had one of the busiest days of the year yesterday when I decided to be brave and go see a bit more of London. Our sole intention was to attend the 02 Scrum on the Beach but I got bored half way through and decided to wander through the city whilst I was there. I’ve come to realise that all the touristy places in Central London is quite close to one another and you definitely do not need to take the underground everywhere, it’s just a waste of time and money.

Anyway, the best time to explore London is when everyone else is at work. Central London is always packed during weekends for some bizarre reason, not that they have all that much to see and do every weekend. To get back to my original point, I was on my way home, had to switch to another bus as I forgot to pick up something. While I was waiting at the bus stop, eagerly counting down the minutes until the next bus is due to arrive I notice an older black couple sitting down next to me.

He mumbled something to her about topping up her oyster card, she responded that she needed money and he dug in his pockets for loose change. He finally handed her some loosed change and off she went to top up her oyster card from the convenience store behind the bus stop. A couple of minutes later, he stood up, looking all annoyed and walked away in the opposite direction. The thing that struck me as odd was that he did not even wait for her to come back. As he walked away I watched him and I noticed that he a fold-up knife in his right hand. Immediately realising what I just saw, I turned away and got a slight panic as I was standing two feet away from him minutes ago. You never know what would tick someone off to taking their knife and stab you with it but something in the back of my mind told me I would be fine if I minded my own business… which is what I did.

It sounds cowardly of me to say it out loud that I would just mind my own business but what chance would I really stand against him and besides he was walking away, by the time the police got here, he might have disappeared already. So the lesson I learned was to be more aware of what’s going on around me and to get to know my local safer neighbourhood officers.