The South Kensington Preacher Man

This guy is a nutcase.
He wanders up and down Exhibition Road in South Kensington, London, right outside the entrance/exit to the nearest tube station to the V&A Museum, the National History Museum, the Science Museum, and Imperial College. This road gets very busy between the hours of 0830 and 1000, and 1600 and 1800, Monday to Friday, and pretty much all day on Saturday and Sunday, if the weather's not too bad. The pavement down this road, outside the tube station entrance especially, really is not that wide, and so he wanders up and down here, so no one can really avoid him. He preaches about how life is so much better when you have found God, and other such things. I have to be honest, I never really listened to him too closely. Now, I don't have a problem with a person who quietly and/or politely approaches you and asks if you are interested in perhaps talking a while about religion, or double glazing, or whatever he/she is promoting. But you don't get too much choice with this guy. You see, he doesn't just walk up and down the street talking to random people. He does this with a megaphone. Walking through crowds, screaming his religion at you. Now I don't know about you, but I would have said that this was perhaps a little rude. And with the kind of thing he is saying, you'd have thought that he would need all the help he can get in getting people to stop and listen to him.

And so, inevitably, it has become necessary to scream back. Of course, this is only done when the pavement is fairly empty, so as not to scare the children. Although, a lot of children would probably be amused, as this is normally done by myself and a friend while riding back from Sainsbury's on our unicycles, carrying our weekly shopping. Rather shockingly (I think so anyway), considering he conducts his "business" outside one of the main entrances to Imperial College, I have yet to see or even hear of anyone else who has yelled back at this guy. Guess we must just be so clever and funny that no one else has thought of it. or maybe not...
As yet, he has failed to respond, I guess he must be on a higher plain or something...




Now I have a small admittance to make. I have now seen him actually on the tube, being quiet and polite, Asking people in a pleasant manner if they believe in God, and trying to continue a conversation. However, this was almost invariably met with a rude answer, and I suddenly found myself almost feeling sorry for him. He was really trying to be nice and talk to people.
Then later on, I saw him again, this time in the tube station at Paddington. He was sat on the box you poke your ticket into that controls the gates, effectively blocking the way out for two of the gates. When a lady carrying two large suitcases walked up to the gate and tried to exit through, asking if he could perhaps move so she could get through. Did he move? Did he fuck!
He sat and ignored her. Right in front of her, and he ignored her. Now, I had been starting to change my opinion of this guy, but now I feel even more strongly that he is a rude and ignorant man who should learn some damned manners.
I also realise that shouting at him is not the most mature thing in the world to do. But he's such an easy target, and it's so satisfying to shout at someone every now and again...


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