A refuse collector, solitary, wearing his flouresent jacket and carrying a broom. He looks comfortable collecting last night's rubbish, stoping for a smoke and collecting his thoughts. How long has he been doing this job? He looks like he's been here forever, he knows where the rubbish will be before he reaches it. The rubbish bin he uses looks like part of his uniform. It serves a practical purpose but without it he would feel less confident. His tools of broom and bin give him identity and in this he is safe and content.
A few lonesome indivduals scuttle to work, bag in hand and food parcel hovering. If no food parcel is evident there is an oversized cup full of morning wake up juice. Coffee. There must be more coffee sold in the World than anything else. Everyone in London drinks coffee. Everyone buys it, pays for it and carries it to another destination. Bizarre really, what would we do without coffee? Mornings would be a very different story without this caffine fueled drug.
Two different refuse collectors appear with much more sophisticated tools than the first refuse man. A proper cleaning cart, with gismos and attachments coming out of the little rectangular box thing on wheels. A machine no less! Conversation I can't understand, banter I can't fathom but an awareness of comradship. No anamosity regarding the cart from the guy who only has a bin. If I had the bin I'd want the cart. He isn't concerned, he's simply pleased to see his friends.
A van appears, could be delivering something, could be masked terroists inside, possibly aliens having hijacked the van as a keen disguise for their ploy. But no, none of these are true. the van belongs to a man who works for Westminster Council. His job? Ah, yes, his job is too remove grafetti from the Southbank. This is somewhat hilarious when the skate park shares its home with the grafetti artists. However, he is doing this job and trying to keep the grafetti contained just in the space for the skaters. An impossible job yet one that needs to be done to prevent this tourist riddled walk through becoming like other parts of London. He retrives from the van a mini roller and paint and quickly applies the blue mixture over a small area of scribble. It is quickly and easily applied and there is a sense of satisfaction that the World is in order.
I can smell coffee. I can see everyone else drinking or carrying coffee. I need to go get some coffee.
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