[jimtorr]

When I lived in England, I used to see this sort of thing in London. There was this woman who hung out near the hotel I usually stayed at. She was youngish and looked well fed and healthy. She wore dirty, badly worn clothing, and smeared dirt on her face.

During the summer and on weekends she had two small children with her, also with dirt smeared on their faces, but she was alone during school hours. I once offered to buy her and the children lunch at McDonalds, but she refused. Of course, McDonalds in England are pretty bad, much worse than they are in USA.

[jimtorr]

I used to wonder where she found the dirt, in the middle of London. Probably got it from her back garden.

[Grig]

I was in London too (in the 80's). I almost got attacked by a begger outside Tooting Broadway station (he thought I was pointing my camera at him). They were a pretty disgusting lot, they would pull out their thing and pee where they were. From what I could tell, most of the beggers there were begging because they blew all their dole money on booze and betting, but I'm sure there were plenty of frauds around too.

I never saw them in the really posh and touristy places, or in the really dumpy places like Brixton and Pecham, just in the inbetween places.

McDonalds tasted the same to me over there, it was the only thing that did taste the same it seemed.

There are plenty of beggers in downtown Ottawa where I am now, and there always seem to me more of them when the weather is nice, hmmmmmmmmmmm.

[cathalcom]

are you serious about mcdonalds?! the mcdonalds on grafton street in dublin, which i presume is not much farther ahead than london, has oak panelling and sells cafe latte

?