Unbelievables

- I can't believe that I'm still regularly having to wear a jacket. In August.

- I can't believe people seem to think skinny jeans are flattering.

- I can't believe leggings (and tights) are considered acceptable alternatives to pants/trousers.

- I can't believe I let myself wait until the summer to do 'touristy' things.

- I can't believe I'm suddenly living in a war zone.

That last one is the most unreal. Hampstead looks the same as ever, clouds blew through an otherwise pleasant, sunny (if a little chilly) England summer day, people are still out and about (carrying on), and yet...

And yet.

There is a communal tension. I can still feel it, 3+ floors above the street, tucked away in a house off to the side. Stores on the high street were not only closing by 5:00, they were emptying out display windows and packing up shelves of stock before closing the security grilles. One jewelry store even posted notices in the windows saying 'all stock removed', just in case... well, just in case. Walking down the street there are (were) small clusters of people talking together: 'closing' 'hear' 'go?' 'police' 'riots' 'say' 'home' 'cafes' drifting sporadically away from whispered conversations. There is (was) a larger group standing near two Metropolitan Police listening to them talk about... something, while other pedestrians (like myself) who really wanted to stop and ask 'What's going on? Are.. they... coming here? What have you heard? What should we do? Everything is going to be fine, right?' kept moving instead, not wanting to seem panicky or overly concerned or un-British.

I still can't quite figure out how/where this started. A peaceful protest gone bad, over the death of someone who may or may not have been a gangster/drug dealer/party fiend/choirboy. The idea of racial tensions, at least, have been pretty definitively shot down (no pun inte... er...) - it's either the disenfranchised youth rising up and acting out in the only way they can, or a (possibly organized) group of opportunists seizing the moment to loot and burn and destroy, trusting to safety in numbers and using social networking to produce those numbers... none of which actually seems to have anything to do with the initial protest. No one seems to know. The government wants to stop the violence now, figure out the reasons later. Even then, though, will anyone ever be able to say 'THIS is what happened, and WHY'? It's all rumor, speculation, exaggeration... In fact, don't listen to anything I just said. I don't know, either.

Wars and rumors of wars, indeed.

It's unbelievable.