Illegitimi non carborundum*

As it was the second Tuesday of the month, I went to 

Liars' League earlier this evening.  There's more info on their website so click on the link above but in a nutshell, it is a 'live fiction night' where a bunch of actors read short stories from various writers, in a pub behind John Lewis in Oxford Street.  Sounds random but having gone for the first time last month and having enjoyed it then, I thought I would go again this month. It is actually very cool and a little different.

I ended up going on my own because unfortunately, the person who I was going with wanted to go home as they felt unsafe following last night's riots. Understandable given all the terrible images being relayed and discussed. However, from my point of view, my risk assessment of the situation figured that London is probably the safest place right now. My rationale being;

- 16,000 beefy policemen milling about compared to 6,000 last night is a good thing

- thieving scumbag vandal cowards are not likely to go anywhere where said beefy policemen are and there was vans full of them in Oxford Street

- I'm a stubborn cow and refuse to be put off by said thieving scumbag vandal cowards

I know some of you are probably thinking that I was a bit of an idiot for putting myself in possible danger but I genuinely believed that I was going to be ok tonight.  And you know what, I was right.  

Liars' League was shorter but no less fun. There was no interval (the pub was short-staffed) and there were four stories read out instead of five due to actors not being able to get to the pub because of the riots. There was a real Blitz spirit about the fact that the organisers still held the event even though they knew the audience would be noticeably smaller this evening.  It didn't diminish our enjoyment and made for a more intimate evening. 

Ironically, given the number of people staying away from London tonight, the tubes, trains, buses etc were all running like clockwork and all the extra police presence made me feel so much safer than usual! I was home with no incident in no time.  I would ask can it be like this all the time but all these riot vans isn't really a look for London is it?! 

Onwards and upwards.

Illegitimi non carborundum*

* Don't let the bastards grind you down