On Friday evening, I said goodbye to my colleagues, who were staying behind to enjoy the rest of happy hour at a wine bar. I was going to walk home. The walk takes about an hour so I left while there was still light.
My walking route takes me past Trafalgar Square. A giant screen has been set up there so that people watch the BBC coverage of the Olympics.
As I walked by the Square, people were watching the women’s football quarter final and I started thinking. What was I walking home to? At home, I would probably eat leftovers for dinner and spend the evening (alone) watching the Olympics on TV.
The night was warm and there was a Tesco grocery store near the Square. So I decided to buy my dinner and sit with the crowd of strangers to find out whether or not China could equalise with a goal against Japan.
This is the kind of spontaneous decision that in the past I have not been able to make. I find that living by myself (albeit with housemates) has made it very easy for me to do whatever occurs to me.
It was very relaxing, watching football on a giant screen. I didn’t mind the couple sitting beside me making cow eyes at each other, and didn’t mind that tourists took turns blocking my view by standing in front of me.
At 9 PM, I was surprised to find out that there would be two live performances as part of the Trafalgar Square Festival. Aqua involved circus performers rolling around in the Trafalgar Square fountains and contorting their bodies on a trapeze. To be honest, that probably sounds more interesting than it actually was.
I really enjoyed the second performance, Toolie Oolie Doolie by ZooNation Dance Company. They danced a combination of hip hop and lindy hop. The show was to reflect the last time London hosted the Olympics (1948) and the upcoming Games (2012). Hip hop and lindy hop are, of course, two of my favourite dance styles. My favourite part of the performance was a particularly funny and expressive sequence showing a boxing match.
People often ask me if I like living in London. This is a difficult question for me to answer.
Some people like living in London because they earn a lot of money. I don’t because I’m not a contractor in the finance or IT industry.
Lots of people love the fact that London is a springboard to other parts of Europe. As you know, I don’t like travelling so this aspect of London/UK is not particularly interesting to me.
Other people love clubbing, shopping, eating out, meeting people, being in the middle of it all. I’m not a party girl. I don’t buy things a lot. I think the food in Melbourne is as good food in London. I meet people no matter where I’m living. I like being with friends and friends are not specific to London.
What I do like about London are:
- Dance lessons at Pineapple
- My job
- The Tube — amazingly convenient, no matter how much Londoners complain about it
- Public spaces and gardens — Covent Garden, London parks, Trafalgar Square, and so on. In my opinion, Federation Square in Melbourne is at least as well used as Trafalgar Square. Melbourne, too, has beautiful parks and gardens.
My unplanned community-oriented, cultural and sporting evening at Trafalgar Square made me like London a bit more than I did the day before.