The city life is starting to grate on me, and I can feel this South East Asia break is more necessary than ever. However, I have had a little boost this month, as I cannot deny that London is a wonderful place to live come November.
As it get's colder, people gladly reach for new coats, boots and scarves, and for a while the cold feels like a novelty, and red noses and cheeks flushed with chill are endearing. The first morning I saw my breath I shivered with excitement and was glad for my new multi coloured mittens as I crunched purposefully over the first sprinkling of frost on the grass. The delicate dusting of frost is not the only beauty nature offers us in November. She also gives as the rusts, reds and russets of autumn, the leaves turning before they drop off the trees and cushion the pavement in a rustling carpet. The colours are a show I missed out on live in the wonderful but steady climate of Durban for most of my life. Now the foliage fills me with wonder as I whizz past it on busses and trains, and I find myself picking up fallen leaves on my way home, and finding them crushed and crumpled days letter in my pockets.
November air carries the non threatening scent of gun powder as fireworks light up the skies in flares of celebration. This year it threatened rain, as usual, but people turned out in hoardes on Clapham Common for an impressive show. My brother Rory laughed as I Oohed and Aahed at the pops and bangs. Fireworks fill me with that wonder that gets harder to hold onto the older you get. They are magical, and incomprehensible for an artistic soul like myself who has no knowledge of the endless possibilities of Chemistry.
And so, I love November - despite the corporate crappiness of early onset Christmas, with every coffee chain printing red ribbons on their cups and stores exploding in tinsel in early October, I am still somewhat entranced by the twinkly lights adorning Oxford Street and Regent Street. I look forward to the mulled wine and mince pies and mistletoe that accompanies this beginning of winter, and despite the cold I am glad I live in London.
