People, People. Everywhere!

There are so many things in London that amaze me. All the time. But let's begin with something that has hit me nearly a million times over.

The number of people that are employed in totally senseless jobs!

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Do you remember back in the kindergarden days, where they try to involve as many children as they can in graduation plays? So teachers would make random kids "act" as trees, stones, ducks, leaves, whatever. Just so they could get on stage?



Be a sign post, anyone?

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And then over the holidays, the East London Line, one of the tube lines, closed. So they had replacement bus services.

And they had these guys, three, if you must know, standing at the bus stops outside the closed tube stations, yelling out the name of the tube stop as the bus pulled alongside the stop.

Good money. £6 an hour, with the following job description:

Brave the winds, pollution from cars, the rain, random insults from irate travellers that miss the bus, and act like a broken record whenever a bus pulls in.

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There are 276 tube stations in London. Each one has at least one ticket officer. This chap, let me tell you, does exactly what the ticketing machine does: Collect cash, credit your card with the equivalent amount of cash, issues a receipt. The end.

He certainly doesn't provide any extra services.

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On the subject of travelling, nearly all tube stations have a gate officer.

Yes, that's the guy that stands by the handicapped access gate. You scan your card, he pulls open the gate for you.

Do wider gates consume more energy, and thus make them inefficient to automate?