missellie

It's hard to believe that I've been away for more than two weeks already. Time flies when one is having fun, indeed.

I'm here in sunny London; full of cranky Christmas shoppers on Oxford St, black cabs and cosy pubs with lit up windows. The ever generous Charlotte (queen of The Ship and generally lovely lovliness) has lent me a spare room in her flat above the pub and so I'm firmly ensconced in Soho again. I've got my angry London-walk back and, allegedly, after a couple of pints I'm getting my indefinite British accent back as well. Innit.

Everything is lovely and wintery, as you would expect. There are fairy lights in all the trees, people walking around with big presents, EastEnders omnibusses on the TV and fun fairs in Leicester Square and Hyde Park. Charlotte has set up a big spruce in her living room. We called him Bruce, as you do, and he's making it all feel very festive round here even if he is decorated with New York taxis and a disturbingly provocative zebra. We call him porn-zebra. We're inventive like that.

I haven't actually been doing that much since I got here, just hanging out with The Ship gang and my old friends, drinking awful lager and trying to train myself to drink Guiness. That's actually a bit of an understatement, I've been doing much more than that it just mostly consists of walking around, revisiting my old haunts and trying to get lost. I ended up at a house party in Russell Square the other night only to discover that the hostess is a designer for Giles and has worked for McQueen as well, at which point I may have drooled a little and threatened to steal her life. The night ended with us playing dress-ups in her wardrobe, it was heavenly. Oh and I went to see Bloc Party up at Alexandra Palace as well, which was amazing. I spent the entire concert crammed down the front, singing along at the top of my lungs and dancing as much as possible in the tiny space I had. They were fantastic and the view from Alexandra Palace out over London made the whole evening even better.

There's been some mental stimulation as well in the last couple of weeks, I spent a joyful couple of hours at the V&A the other day, oggling the couture exhibition (real New Look Dior! *swoon*) and discovering their opulently decorated cafe, and the Tate Modern has been beckoning me. After Christmas there will be some quality time spent.

Plus, Kat and I just got back from Florence, which kicks up the mental stimulation quotient I think. It was absolutely freezing! I spent most of the time trying to warm my feet up because the only shoes I took were my Cons with holes all down the sides. It seemed like a good idea at the time. Kat and I played tourist for a couple of days. We climbed the Duomo, visited the Uffizi and saw the David (well the fake one in the square). Kat being the eternal science geek, we also went to the History of Science Museum to see Galileo's telescopes and mummified finger (ew). There was also a completely unexpected room full of 18th century (I think) gynecological instruments and wax models, which was mildly startling but was balanced out by the pleasant surprise of a room full of penny farthings that followed later. It was also discovered that Florence has ridiculously high levels of cute old bikes, unidentifiable puddles and women in huge fur coats with silly dogs (possibly responsible for the puddles). On occasion all three of these things intersect, it's crazy.

Anyway, I hope you're all shiny and good. Have wonderful Christmases and, if I don't get around to updating before then, fabulously exotic and glamourous new years'.