Happy New Year!!

I hope you all had a great New Year's Eve and wrapped up 2007 without any last minute travel or alcohol-related mishaps! I spent a wonderfully chilled and civilised evening with friends in Marylebone drinking bubbly and generally putting the world to rights! On my way back to Waterloo this morning I decided to walk along Oxford Street, knowing it would probably be the only time in the year when it was quiet enough to do so! The hordes of stressed-out shoppers that usually crowd the pavements here, even out of the Christmas season, are enough to drive anyone over the edge.. and I certainly avoid it at all costs!

Of course there was SOME commerce going on. Starbucks, true to form, was open from 9am, and although I was grateful to be able to pick up a soya chai tea latte to break my fast, I felt desperately sorry for the puffy-eyed baristas who just about managed a weak smile as they served me. No doubt they were more in need of a coffee than their customers! The commerce-free theme continued even as I descended into the tube at Oxford Circus, only to find that the Bakerloo line platform was completely bare of advertising posters, something I'm not sure I have ever seen before! Of course, by now the city of London will be humming again, but it was nice to catch a brief glimpse of her, just once, all sleepy and blurry-eyed before she had a chance to wake up :)

Happy New Year!! M xx


Oxford Circus tube on New Year's Day: No advertising posters..??


Two dogs waiting for their owners outside Wellies Restaurant, Chichester last Sunday