Saturday 30 July 2011

A time of change

Right now there is change in warm summer air. It seems to be all around me.

At home we're losing one of the Franconia ladies to North London; a soul I've lived with for three years now. My confidant, counsellor, source of hilarity, and number one chocolate brownie taste tester. So it's time to look for a new Franconia friend to fill the existing bright red and fabulous shoes of Eloise.

Outside of these four walls as well, change permeates everything.

Friends are at varying stages of pregnancy and birth; engagements are doing the round again; 'save the date's for 2012 are landing; new jobs, new careers, new countries to live in.

I don't know if it's just because I'm standing still watching the world, that I see what a rate it's passing at right now.

I stand there, on the corner of the Earth, fists clenched, eyes screwed shut, wishing everything would just stop for a moment. Just enough time for me to catch up with it.

Wednesday 13 July 2011

A day in the life - part 3

Most of the time my work day starts like this...

Fruit 'n' fibre in front of my laptop at 8ish.


But very, very, very occasionally, work life gets a bit more exciting.


Here's my super funky, super German hotel room in Munich, we're I'm writing this. I just spent 20mins playing with the electronic blinds.

Friday 8 July 2011

A Day in the Life - part 2

Now that my office has once again relocated, I'm back on the London institution that is the tube.

Any seasoned Northern Line travellers will well know that it's near impossible to get on a tube at peak time in the morning; that's why I make sure I'm getting on before 8am. To ensure a more pleasant journey. On at Clapham Common and off at Old Street. No changes; just straight up.

Metro digestion


From the ground up


Some days I quite enjoy my trip to work in the morning. I can read a trashy newspaper; blitz my book club read because I've once again left it to the last minute; or just stand and stare.

But other times, it's like World War Three. There is no etiquette on the tube.

Sardines in a tin

There are probably worse ways to get to work in the world, but on a humid, rainy Friday morning, when some guy won't move his elbow to allow you to actually hold your head up straight, it's hard work to think of them.

Wednesday 6 July 2011

A day in the life - Part 1

London is a pretty great city. And because my existence here has always had the possibility of being pulled out from underneath me like a cruel trick with a bath mat due to immigration policy, it's time to really appreciate my life here. Three years of uncertainty grows difficult on the stomach. But Lady London makes it bearable in very many ways.


And so begins 'A Day in the Life'.



I'm sure not many people get this sort of view as they clean their teeth first thing in the morning.

Last week I saw three juvenile foxes frolicking in the morning sunshine. One of them was so excited by the mouldy old piece of carpet he'd dragged out of the downstairs neighbours' backyard, he was springing up and down on the spot like a tennis ball.