London calling

It's coming up to a year since we moved to London, and to be honest, I've completely fallen in love with the place. I was ready for the crash and burn, and had even steeled myself against turning into rush hour tube commuter - becoming someone who ignores everyone else and hates the journey. Yeah, I get the tube in the mornings and evenings, but it's not that bad. I actually enjoy the time, as most days I manage to get a seat - perks of living on the arse of the Northern line I expect, and I use the opportunity to read. I get through about 2-3 books a month, which is more than I've been reading in years.

The main thing that I enjoy is walking around London. When I was based in central London, it was a novelty to get to know the 'above world' as most of what I had known of the city was through the tube. I started formulating a map of the place in my head - from Soho, Covent Garden, Trafalger Square, Embankment and beyond. Guess starting off life in the big smoke just as spring/summer kicked in helped.

Now, I'm based south of the river for work, and it's only just started getting warm enough for lunch time treks in the area, and I'm loving it so much more. There's not much to discover within Elephant & Castle, as exotic as it sounds. I got bored of just walking to and fro to London Bridge and Borough Market. So I've been exploring the edges in my lunch hour instead. All the way out to Waterloo and the South Bank, round the back of the Old Vic, down to Blackfriars, across to Westminister to say hello to Big Ben and now I'm getting to know Bermondsey and the Tower Bridge side of town. The guys at work think I need to write my own version of Time Out.

See, it's not so bad living in London when every day you get to see the Gherkin. Not bad at all.