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The Police helicopter has been hovering over our office all day like the angel of death. You could hear the sound of its blades thumping through the air-con vents.

So much for the benefits of working in the west end. This year’s protests seem to have been fairly low key, by and large. There was a small gathering of people with dogs and interesting hairstyles on Broadwick Street, but the mass rally we saw last year didn’t happen this time around. There were rumours of underground stations being closed and some people went home early, but I worked through until half seven and left the office just as the sex workers were having their parade through Soho demanding better pay and conditions.

I decided to avoid Tottenham Court Road, which was one of the rumoured closed stations, so headed south to Piccadilly Circus instead. As I arrived it had started to drizzle, but the sun was shining brightly and arcing above a large group of ugly police horses and unfriendly looking would-be anarchists was a beautiful rainbow. It was a startling contast and would have made a fantastic picture.

I looked up what I wrote a year ago:

May 1st, 2001. Anarchists don’t smash doors.

Jason and I walked down Oxford Street, leaving early to avoid the riot. The shops were boarded up from the near end of the street to the far. A good day for glaziers.

‘War zone’ were the words we both used. We said them together, unprompted. McDonalds had disappeared behind wooden walls built to protect the windows. Electronics Boutique the same. But nobody covered their doors, most of which were propped open for business.

Anarchists don’t smash doors. It’s an unwritten rule.

Downloaded the latest patch for Winamp today and while clicking around the site waiting for it to complete came across the instructions for creating your own skin. A lunchtime of creativity later, the brand new PCW skin for Winamp is ready for download:

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 1st, 2002 at 10:12 am and is filed under Journal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.