laundi in london (anniversary post)

It's been 4 rollicking years of riverside walking and Britishness learning.

From graduate school at Aldwych and Bankside to a short hibernation in Stoke Newington and then 27 months of celebrating freedom and girlieness and the late twenties in fulham. Through the brainwaves and the exasperation, the determined adventure-seeking and grim duvet-burrowing, the cultivated cynicism and the sudden innocence, London is steadfast in each memory. Friends and lovers and hated rivals have been and gone, but this city has made even my bitterst heartache delicious. Deep blue skies, old buildings, fresh winds and well planned night-time lighting in public spaces can do that.

I could walk here forever, stride on, scale the tallest buildings in zone 1 and clear the wildest heaths of zone 3 with a few springy skips. I could walk until my shoes fall off, until my hair sticks fearfully close to my sweating skin, until I run out of people and bus stops and sandwich shops. In London I could keep going.

Life peacefully ambles now through a bend in the road. With the future a nebulous cloud which hasn't completely formed into shapes and objects, it's lovely to know that London is forever. I may not be here one day, but London will always be.