London in August

London in August empties out.  I mean, phwosh.  There are no people here.  None.  Okay, maybe a few.  But that's really sort of it.  What does this mean for the daily grind?  Let me tell you:

- I can't get much work done.  Most of our donors are on holiday, and so I can't contact them to encourage their philanthropic spirits.  Also, though, many of my colleagues are away - often up in Edinburgh at the Fringe Festival, as we're in the theatre business - and so there aren't many collaborative projects that can be moved forward.

- Traffic is negligible.  My commute has been a good 5-10 minutes shorter than usual for the past week or so.  In fact, when I last took the bus (hello, my lovely route 82) from Jon's new place to the office, we had to pause every few stops and wait for a bit to regulate the service; we were moving at such a clip that we were catching up to the bus ahead of us!

- Similarly, the tube is much less crowded.  I've had a seat on almost every underground journey I've taken to and from work for days now, even on the abysmal Northern Line.  When I have had to stand, I've thankfully been free from the awkward oh-hello-my-face-is-in-your-armpit scenario.  (This is second in cringeworthyness only to the oh-hello-I-don't-mean-to-graze-your-[insert bodypart here]-with-my-[insert bodypart here]-but-I-don't-have-any-other-spatial-options scenario.  Eek.)

- The whoopsie aisle at the supermarket has been stocked to the brim every time I've been in to Tesco, giving me yummy dinner possibilities on the cheap.  (The whoopsie aisle is the one -it's a couple of shelves, actually, and not a whole aisle, but whatever - where they put all the reduced-price food that's about to expire.  I have no idea where Jon came up with the name for this, but I've adopted it wholeheartedly.)

As payday is tomorrow and I've been boyfriendless since Saturday, I haven't been out on the town much for the past week or so; I don't therefore know what this exodus means for London's nightlife.  I'd imagine that it means reservations are easier to come by and bartenders are less harried.  I'll let you know this weekend!  I've got three nights out on the trot starting this evening, you see, and as I'm going to three very different spots (a pub in Marylebone tonight, a restaurant/bar in the City on Thursday, and a beer garden in Primrose Hill on Friday) I think I should be able to select an appropriate sample of data for you all.  The things I do for you, dear readers!