OK , this took a while, but mainly because the editing is really troublesome in Windows Movie Maker... since I have Premiere on this laptop, I really should learn how to use it. Hope you like it.

Midday tubes and celeb spotting

When you're looking for work, it means that you travel around London at unusual times - sends me back to student days when the random allocation of lectures meant that going IN to central London at 3pm wasn't unusual - I guess it's temporal reverse commuting rather than geographical reverse commuting (see "Living in Vauxhall, Working in Barnes" for definition). It does mean you see how many tourists are around at this time of year. I'd always known that summer is a huge peak for visitors, but here, as in New York last week (masses turned up to watch the tree being lit at Rockefeller Centre) there's a vast amount of people who show up at big cities for Christmas. I guess it's to see the lights, the shops, the tree at Covent Garden market, the ice rink at Somerset House.... its not really hard to see why London is so great at Christmas.

Travelling at odd times also meant that I had one of those London moments where you realise you're next to a celebrity (albeit a minor one). Spotted on the Victoria Line, Vicki Butler Henderson off the telly... she's the girl on Fifth Gear that you'd probably go for a pint or two with, and after the second you'd probably start to fancy her. Anyway, she refused offers of a seat from several gentlemen - whether or not they recognised her (had to hear her voice before I did) or if they were just being polite had me wondering for... oh, minutes at least.

Ok, NOW it's really December

Touched down in London at 8.30ish this morning and was actually refreshed to feel the coldness that had been missing from my autumn thus far. Walking around New York in a coat was a start, but it still had that fresh and fruity feeling that made it way too much like being on holiday. In contrast, this morning's coldness was accompanied by that overcast, dreary grayness only found around the 51°N 0° area of the world and I found it surprisingly reassuring and comforting. I realised that I had actually been missing London's autumnal weather. Walking around Santo Domingo throughout November in t-shirts and as much linen as possible was obviously undermining my subconscious perception of what life should be like at this time of year. This is really how December should be, cloudy, damp and with most of the daylight dissappearing by about 4.00pm. This is when coats and scarves and big jumpers are worn and you can see your breath in front of you. I'm sure I'll be sick of it after a week, but for now, the REAL December is most welcome.