London Changes

Essentially, the place is exactly as I left it back in '96 but there are some social changes which I will try to explain...


Communication

In 1996, cellphones were an emerging popular technology. Like in NZ at the time, they were brick-like and even more expensive to own than nowadays. If you had one, you were special. Well, like in NZ they are everywhere and many ears are pressed to them on the streets (and txting while walking is also common, dammit). It's something that was missing from the landscape ten years ago. No reception in the tube though.


Clothes

Most major women's clothing chains cut their pants and jeans long. Ten years ago there were only a few doing this. Trinny and Susannah's much-suggested retailer Zara is great. I've had a look already and bought a few things. One pair of pants I bought I'll have to have taken up. The clothes are smart and funky and very affordable (everything is expensive here).

The other thing I notice is that I don't feel like a country hick here. My first adventure on Oxford Street in 1994 a couple of weeks after arriving saw me hide in a shop as I was so embarrassed about my clothes. It was the nineties but back then, NZ fashion was still very much in the eighties. Now I feel I blend in well apart from my anti-social behaviour and facial ticks.

Mind the Gap

The voice announcing 'Mind the gap' in the tube is now female and she doesn't say it like that anymore. It's less concise: 'Please mind the gap as you...' etc.


Terrorism

Still threatens, but now it's not the IRA we all fear on every bus and tube...