Smooth

We had a smooth return to the UK.  Our various journeys to and from airports were without hitches and our 9 cases/bags arrived safe and sound. In reply to a friend's question we said that we had a smooth journey home meaning without difficulties, but he thought that we had an uninterrupted flight. This got me thinking about other smooth things in the UK - apart from me of course.
Our train to Devon was incredibly smooth and the connections were straightforward, the Tiverton link road was flat as a pancake, the coffee creamy, and my new shirt suave.  There are obviously some striking differences between sleepy, smooth Somerset and chaotic Cairo, one of which is road safety particularly as a pedestrian. Most of the time you have to walk in the road because there are either no pavements, they are in a dangerous state of repair, certainly not smooth, or blocked with rubbish, cars and building materials.  New building sites have no safety barriers and the buildings are often built right up to the edge of the road.  This causes additional problems for pedestrians who have to negotiate piles of sand, bricks and scaffolding: planks of wood tied together.  Here is a picture of the site of our old language school which was demolished to make way for a building four times as big (building regulations are not being enforced since the troubles).  A few days ago I was walking along the road when I heard a very load bang, looking around I saw that a scaffolding plank had just fallen from the 12 storey building - after this incident road safety then meant looking right, left, down (for holes and obstructions) and up!