A sundry list

Ten random things about London we found out after moving here. How many of these did you know? 1. There are falcons (yes the real giant bird) for hire in London and a man wearing a thick worn-out leather glove will "administer" it at a building you request. Why? To get rid of pigeons! 2. This shouldn't be too surprising but the turning radius of London buses is ridiculously good. The tiniest of streets and U-bends are no challenge for a red double decker! 3. The Evening Standard has been a free newspaper since 2009 but people are employed to shove it in your face at most train stations. And they're really committed to getting busy commuters (who probably only read the news on their phones) to take a copy. I wonder what they get paid for this lousy job? 4. There's a mandatory Mr/Mrs/Ms/Dr title on credit and debit cards - but I've already whined about this one previously. 5. If you hear a child crying in your garden at night don't be scared. The terrifying noise is most likely a fox. Our building has a regular visitor. There are about 15000 stray foxes in London! 6. Maybe this one doesn't startle and maybe it's an overestimate - Britain has an abnormally high number of CCTV cameras, supposedly 1 for every 14 people. An average Londoner is supposed to be captured by up to 300 cameras a day. There are usually 10-12 on a single bus! 7. London is a melting pot like no other in the world. But we are still surprised at how many mixed race families and groups of friends we see walking down the street and guffawing away at restaurants. No one is an outsider. Not an Aunty going to work in a sari and not a man in the most colourful outfit from Ethiopia taking his kid to school. No one in London turns to look at a 'foreigner' because the word does not apply in this city! 8. Here they always toast with prosecco and not champagne! Yay Italy, nay France? 9. We knew the diaspora from the Indian subcontinent was large here. But there's an Indian restaurant on nearly every road, sometimes three in a row. You can hear shouting in Punjabi from a random store you pass by. And you'll find city signs in Bengali! 10. You can smell marijuana everywhere (and no it's not coming from us) :D