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Italy Travel Ideas

Sunday, 27 July 2014

Guess What Londonistan and Babel Have in Common

London has become a Tower of Babel. A salon wanted me to have my hair cut and styled by a hairdresser who couldn't speak a word of English and could only speak Arabic. How can you have your hair done by somebody with whom you can't communicate?

In pizza restaurants, people who take the orders for take-aways regularly confuse "artichoke" (word with which they are probably unfamiliar) with "cheese", whereas they are in fact, well, like (arti)chalk and cheese. And, being a takeaway, you can't send the dish back to the kitchen and have it replaced. By the time you discover the mistake, you're at home.

The ultimate affront is having discovered an Italian restaurant in the Edgware Road - a central London thoroughfare that could hardly be distinguishable from Cairo, Beirut or Baghdad - with signs in Arabic: I suppose they must have them, unless they want to lose all their business in such a heavily Arabic area.

1 comment:

  1. I know just what you mean about Edgware Road. I've been down there late evening, every entrance is a Shisha Bar. Nearby in Church Street, about three quarters of women in the Market wear Islamic dress. I've also noticed in the same area several high value cars (Ferraris and Bentleys) with most registered to the state of Qatar. It's clear where the government's priorities lie.

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