What am I seeing with my visitor's eye in the UK

I come to London about once a year. I bring with me my "visitor's eye" . My young nieces are rapidly turning from girls into women and even my Godson has grown 6 inches and has a new husky voice.

But it is the landscape that has really struck me - bikes everywhere! It costs at least $120 to fill a tank. So thousands are riding. Lots of scooters too.

Everyone is gloomy. Fuel and food prices are on everyone's lips. A second major bank seems in much worse trouble than people had thought possible. Everyone has lost confidence in the Brown government. I wonder what any government can do? All the rules seem to be changing.

Few are as pessimistic as I. Last week before I left I sold everything and went into cash. My broker thinks I am mad. Can't blame him but I am in good company.

Last night I had dinner with one of the most sophisticated fund managers in the UK - he and I had read all the same books and felt that something, a Black Swan, was going to shake life here to the core. All the gain and potential gain of being in the market can be wiped out with the right kind of Black Swan. Our world is now so connected and so without any flexibility, that the knock on effect of a bad event will affect us all.

Yet also the "band plays on." Never have I seen so many smart cars. Property prices have to be sen to be believed - even though everyone thinks that prices can only collapse and now mortgages are hard to find.

I too have been indulging myself on the food front. A pub lunch today and a curry take away tonight.

I feel a bond with my family and friends here. It feels so precious to see them now and I am so glad that I came.