Come on Slovenia!

Today I will be a traitor and supporting Slovenia. Why? Because today I hate being in England.

I hate the weather, the misery of up to 3 hours daily commuting in this heat, the lack of air conditioning - the cattle-cramped train carriages sticking thigh to thigh to my fellow passengers, inhaling sweat and curry fumes from hundreds of alien pores, elbows jabbing me, my knees forced up to my chest and craning for a tiny bit of polluted air from the three inch window vents, praying the driver will speed up at least to get some air in and get us to the office on time for once. If only we had a siesta time in the summer like other equally hot European countries, or could just start and finish a little earlier. Last night as I waited for a delayed train, after being delayed in the office it was still so hot I burned even through my clothes in places. Summer in the city is no fun at all.


I long to lie naked on cool, smooth black rock marooned by the incoming tide and to plunge into freezing Atlantic sea. But picturing it is about the closest I can get to cooling off. Instead I look at the hollow moon of the Millennium Wheel as I cross the river and fantasise that it could be turned into a giant fan to lend some reprieve to the humidity and heat in London, or better still to stir up a massive vortex, a worm hole to somewhere with ice and penguins and Eskimo kisses.

It's not quite the "vent" I wanted, but it helped.

This is Sally

This is Sally. She is a statue the size of a baby elephant which I absolutely love. She's situated near the South Bank and marks part of a parade around London of  about 250 Elephant Statues. http://www.givinglots.co.uk/event/elephant-parade121-140 

Every lunch time I set off to walk 4 miles in my lunch break and she marks roughly the half way point of my usual route which starts at St Paul's Cathedral

crosses Southwark Bridge, and follows the Thames past Shakespeare's Globe Theatre and the Tate and all the way to the Golden Jubilee Bridge and back alomg the other side of the river.

I am kinda lucky to work here.

Summer in the City

Already in the low 70's before I even get to work and it looks like steam is rising off the Thames already as I cross it. Annoyingly, the air is thick with green fly which I swat away from my book, (the free one from the Times which has turned out to be awesome by the way The Other Side of You by Sally Vickers The Other Side of You by Sally Vickers. They leave slime green smears on my pages, so I try to brush them off with the bottom of my lovely new Thermos Mug filled with cinamon and cherry Twinings - maybe its the smell of that which is attracting an unfair share of the critters.

As it's Friday everyone seems to be dressed for the beach today. I saw a woman in what seriously looked like a maroon sarong, bunched up so high on one side of her thighs that I could practically see her knickers. Men aren't so much beach-dressed as distracted by the sudden appearance of legs and cleavage everywhere and I constantly get held up on the pavement as they stop to admire.

I predict half the city will be split between The Hatchet, The Wine Vaults and Ye Old Watling off Bow Lane or standing crowding the walkway outside O'Neils clutching pints and glasses of wine - ties tossed loosely over the shoulder or stuffed in jacket pockets by 2pm today. All because it's officially now summer in the city.