London - 10 years later

22nd September 2007: one way AirMalta flight to London Heathrow, ready to embark on a 1 year M.Sc. course in structural engineering.  22nd September 2017: London Overground train to Shoreditch High Street, ready to conclude a week of head scratching whilst working on a brand new tower in the City.

Who would have said?

So many events occurred since then.  Olympics.  Jubilee.  Brexit.  Terrorism.  Various home moves.  Various job moves.  A few extra kilos.  A little less hair.

It is indeed a city which never bores you.  A city booming with people and work, despite all the Brexit-ish odds.  A city where everyone can be whatever s/he wishes to be (which alas has had its fair share of calamities, too; some people opted to form part of the senseless Daesh).

However, as I am now caught in this commuting routine (ironically I only started commuting 2 years ago), I dare say that London or rather Londoners, in all their apparent individualistic glory, can really be put in several boxes - very unprofessionally from an anthropological point of view - based on what they...wear.  Specifically, the kind of bag they wear.  Or how their bag-wearing habits evolved over the last decade.  Surreal, but (probably) true.  So here it is.

a. The Pliage
Virtually all female Londoners nowadays don this certain Longchamp bag by the name of Le Pliage (I was not familiar at all with this, but am now after some simple market research).  The sheer commonness of this bag and its apparent 'cheap' appearance initially made me think that this was the sort of item you would redeem with your Nectar points or so, only to discover (to my horror) that this goes for a full £75!

b. The MK/LV/D&G etc.
Whilst not a new phenomenon, then there are the other kind of women who sport the 3 (or perhaps even 4) figure designer bags with initials of their designers who simply wear these items simply to state: yes, I can afford £784.99 for a handbag to put my soiled trainers in and change to Prada stilettos once I get to the office.  Mind you, so do I, but I would rather go on a nice holiday, thank you very much.

c. The Herschel or Fjallraven Kanken
The new trend for guys is, apparently, the schoolboy look: rucksack on the back, with both straps on, please note.  It verges on the hilarious watching the City types in suits complete with black polished shoes and pre-teen boys (and girls) sporting virtually identical bag typologies.  Except that, while schoolboys stick to conventional Adidas or Nike or even more modest Slazenger models, the choice for grown-ups is limited to Herschel or Fjallraven Kanken (which I always manage to read as Kraken, especially during my morning commute when I am less than half awake).

d. Bonus item: The headphones
Not strictly a bag, but there is an item which was not around 10 years ago.  Back in late 2007, when the iPhone and iPod etc. were still infants, people would, say, simply sit on the train staring or reading...until everyone started walking around wearing headphones.  Everyone suddenly developed this strong urge to constantly listen to something (except words with fellow people through meaningful conversation).  To add insult to injury, some of the latest headphone models are so ridiculously and unnecessarily large that probably their users need to have a bag just to store them away.  I mean, seriously, do you really need to listen to some crap podcast with £300 Bose noise-cancelling technology worthy of Abbey Road?  I daresay, do you really need to listen to anything at all?  What freaks me out the most are the (Apple?) wireless headphones which make their users look...never mind.

Cynical and/or negative, I hear you say?  Perhaps just want to take the piss out of the 200 odd other passengers on the train, but probably yes a tad pessimistic.  But bear with me, it is almost winter after all!