“Sure, there are a few things I like about London, but there are many more things I hate.”
Kiwi mate Steve and I are sitting in the kitchen of my old flat in North London. It’s dark outside but then again it’s no surprise. Around these parts it gets dark around half three. Daylight decides to surface at around seven, which gives the working men and women a delightful one and a quarter hours of natural light a day, if you include a quarter of an hour on the tube and an hour for lunch. You’ll be lucky to get half of that.
So darkness then; it’s no wonder this place lit up in December. Christmas here was a godsend (pun only mildly intended). Throw aside the consumer thing, and the now traditional media rant on profit-driven Christmas, and there’s something pretty cool about bringing out all the bright lights and cheery smiles. Typically I’d play the ba humbug and spend my time between the bike, bbq, and beach, but in these parts it was pretty cool.
In December Lizzie and I broke the winter spell and took the train to Edinburgh. By day it’s a funky town the size of Wellington, but by night it turns into a theme park. Untouched during the war, it still has cobblestone roads, thin alleyways, Georgian houses and dozens of spirally cathedrals. The place is lit up like a wonderland, so we spent our time amongst the streets, through the castle, and around the German market.
Back in London Hyde Park turned into a festival zone, with a Ferris wheel and ice-rink. The bastion of materialism, Oxford Street, was lights galore, only throw on your Kevlar jacket and riot gear to get through the hordes of shoppers.
It’s January now, and the nights are still long and the temperature’s still dropping. The morning run is still a surreal experience, broken only this morning by a slip on a patch of ice. The equinox passed almost a month ago, but it’s still a long way to go before spring arrives. There are many things you may not like about London, but there’s still plenty to keep you going.
Filed under: Andrew Feltoe, London Calling! | Tagged: London, Winter
