THE WORLD IS FULL OF SURPRISES - THANK GOD

I’m just back from ten days of being soaked with sun and heat in Venice unlike what’s happened here. Bill Bryson once lamented that living in Britain was like being under a Tupperware container. Bill was right.
But Mike Geoghegan ex CEO of HSBC was wrong when he scathingly remarked “Venice used to be the banking centre of the world now it’s just a water attraction”. Venice could actually say something a great deal nastier about HSBC given their current problems with money laundering.

Life started to get tricky for Venice in the late 15th century as their monopoly of sea travel ended thanks to Columbus opening up the seaways going west and Vasco de Gama opening up sea trade round Africa and into Asia.  Venice then had a population of 180,000 (much bigger than London) and 1,000 of them would have been multi-billionaires in 21st century terms. Considering what Napoleon finally did to them in 1797 they’ve done OK.  I hope London survives as well.

Surprises about Venice:
Prices are cheaper than last year – in some cases 40% less.
People are more cheerful and customer service has improved.
American accents fill the air.

The towering Costa Fascinosa sailed in bold as brass as though nothing nasty had ever happened to the brand.

There’s a rash of graffiti (much of it anti-fascist.)
And there’s poster for Prada on the side of the Doge’s Place….I hate marketing.
The churches are empty of tourists.
It’s never been easier to walk quietly around the art galleries.
The food has got much better and better value too.
We had Orange Martini Prosecco cocktails in the Guggenheim dryly described by someone as “alcoholic marmalade”.
And Tintoretto continues to astound the more you see of him – a Shakespeare of painters

Surprises closer to home:
Gatwick was the airport of the future going out – upgraded, highly-automated, no horrible security queues.

Coming home Border Control people were quick, efficient, charming and intelligent.

And in Curry’s yesterday I had my own personal shopper helping me choose printer ink followed by a beaming manager thanking me for shopping there. In the background I saw a group of employees role playing and testing each other’s product knowledge
In the past month something has changed. It’s as though superior customer service has been poured into the water system. I never thought I’d say I’m proud of a British Airport and people seem to realise doing tourism well may actually be a better trade than banking.

And one other thing.

I saw a story that only around 50% of people in London were looking forward to the Olympics. I think that’s actually a surprisingly high figure. And the weather’s getting better too.

Cheer up.

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