People shuffling about and getting in the way

[CruCru]

I’ve spent a day in the centre of London. I’m amazed by how many people wander about slowly, shuffling about - all young people (mostly staring at their phones). Groups of people just stop abruptly in the middle of the pavement and look a bit surprised when I say excuse me to get past them. People standing in front of shops, blocking the entrance and exit (not homeless people, just people in their twenties).

I can’t decide whether I’ve just become middle aged and irritable or whether people have become less aware of those around them.

It's just part of London life, but what still gets me is people who approach the ticket barriers on the tube and then look surprised that they need their ticket, and proceed to block the gate while they ferret about looking for it!

Not to the exclusion of paying attention to what's happening around me, no - apart from anything that's like painting 'MUG ME' on your arse and hanging £20 notes out of your back pockets.

I don't wander about with my phone on a selfie stick looking at the screen instead of at where I'm going, I don't stop in the middle of the pavement or in doorways to check a map or a set of directions, if it's taking me a while to read labels in a shop I try to keep out of the way of those trying to grab something quickly and move on, and no matter what country I'm in I don't wait til I'm at the barrier to start rummaging in my bag for my ticket.

Yesterday my son and I were walking behind some shufflers so we crossed the road to get past them. They then crossed so we were stuck behind them again. So we crossed a second time.

Sightseeing is fine. Shuffling about and having no awareness of others isn’t.