Further ramblings of a self-made pauper

London seems sluggish this morning and the people furtive. I suppose furtive is the word I want; there’s an underlying anxiety and people seem to be moving around silently in clusters as if there’s safety in numbers. The tube in to the city was packed, which is unusual for that time of day in the middle of the holiday season.

I am guessing that there is a slight nervousness around given the news concerning the heightening of the security level to critical together with the news that security services have foiled an ambitious terror attack on civil aircraft over the UK (which hasn’t stopped flight cancellations in and out of the country, especially to the Middle East).

The weather has changed, too. Although it is still warm, the skies have greyed over and the wind is up; trees are bending in comparatively strong gusts and there is just a hint of thunder in the air.

Taken together, there is almost an air of anticipation with just a little underlying tension. I am not the most sensitive person on the planet, so if I can feel it, it must be strong.

Of course, it could all just be twaddle and I am imagining it. It might simply be down to the population pondering the collapse of the Ashley Cole transfer between Arsenal and Chelsea over the former club’s valuation of the player. I tend to the view that Chelsea never wanted him and the entire thing has just been a well-orchestrated piece of gamesmanship to unsettle their nearest and most consistent league rivals.

But I have my camera with me just in case anything interesting kicks off. I'm that anxious to tap into the zeitgeist.

We are approaching the end of an era.

Monday will be the last day in her current posting for Suzi the Office Bombshell. She is moving on to a job in Private Office where she will perform some as yet unspecified function for the Minister. This is the Minister who was to have been Secretary of State until Two Jags told Tony precisely what to do with that part of the proposed reshuffle after the General Election back in May.

The place won't be the same without Suzi. She is one of the few people – make that the only person - I know who must have distilled water in her veins rather than blood. On the hottest of days she is able to sit at her desk covered in cardies and blankets complaining about the cold, while we watch lead melt and drip from the church roof. I have often suspected that being rather too clean living is the problem. She is a tea-total veggie. Actually, I don’t think she drinks tea, either. Not proper tea, anyway – that stuff that actually used to be part of a tea plant, as opposed to the stuff that gets called tea, but is just perfumed dandelion sweepings that somehow tastes of cold chewing gum, no matter how aromatic it smells in the cup. I’m pretty sure she doesn’t touch coffee either, just water and fruit juice.

It’s not right.

Mind you, all is not lost, as she can destroy chocolate and flap jacks faster than a plague of locusts.

Anyway, she’s off from Monday. We have no idea who will take up the existing post. I myself am thinking of putting a fiver on the cave troll option.