So time has flown, as it will, and I'm now halfway through the two year probationary period I've placed London on. Well, it won't technically be the one year anniversary of my arriving in London until Monday night but I'll be out that evening and blah blah seize the moment when you can.
After a painfully sore foot keeping me in pseudo-house arrest last weekend, I was damned if I was going to stay around Islington today. With no specific game plan in mind, I grabbed a bus down to The City and went on a ramble which helped connect a lot of the dots which I've been highlighting here. I can honestly say that I can now give directions with confidence when it comes to The City and that I don't really need my London A-Z for that area anymore. If I had three hours and felt like wearing my feet into stumps, I could actually navigate from my doorstep to the Thames. My journey today started with a rough plan which placed me at that 177 year old cane and umbrella store I found near the British Museum.After ogling some decently priced, superior umbrellas for the discerning gentleman (one of which I may come back and buy to replace the stupid, cheap thing I bought from a pharmacy) I think I was just about to inquire about the sword canes when I looked out the window. The fall sun hit the leaves and the architecture just right enough to produce that weird sensation which I've fallen prey to a few times before (at least one of which I've mentioned here). My eyes got a little wider, my imagination starts firing on all cylinders and any plan I may have had gets wiped out with a ruthless efficiency. One barely trembling foot steps in front of the other and off I go, a slight running of excess saliva along my lower lip. After my experience in Soho the other night, I must say I'm pleased this can still happen.
Retracing my steps, I know I went to Soho Square, enjoyed the peace it offers and wrote a short while before heading down Charing Cross road and Leicester Square. From there I found myself at St. Martins just before Trafalgar square - where I more took pictures of features which I've neglected in the past. I'll post most of them later in the week, for now I'll stick to the ones which I feel are most relevant today.
So yes, do I want to come back? Sometimes! In fact, it wasn't more than a week ago I was seriously looking at coming over for the holidays...and staying. But while I was going around today, after the initial tourist-ettes passed, I guess all the thoughts I've been turning over for weeks now have finally coalesced into something better resembling a decision. I'm not coming back for good, this December. I don't yet know if I want to stay for good, but I know I want to stay longer. Fifteen months just isn't enough. Not when there's so much to do - I've just signed up for the ICA and by gum that place alone has enough to keep me fascinated. Plus the very physical reaction that sights like the southern promenade of St. James Park can trigger in me is something I'm not ready to say goodbye to yet.
Addendum: Oh man oh geez I wish I had had some million dollar camera which could have captured the way I saw this last sight. The picture just doesn't do it justice, so I've included the others I took in the hopes that maybe they'll help. I'm not being hyperbolic for effect here, something really moved me about this.
It not only touched upon my appreciation for beauty but trigged some kind of nexus point between a dense multitude of treasured memories from as many moments and places in my life. If I'd been standing in a regular lane I'm not sure how long I would have ignored the cars behind me, but probably long enough for someone to get out of the car to move me.
Anyways, I better sign off now before I start prattling on like some coke head squirrel going on about his favorite car.
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