Tuesday 1 August 2023
I probably think this on the first of every month about whatever month it then is, but how on earth is it August? In the British mindset, this is summer, the summer holidays, the one month we all had off as students. I have some idyllic (heavily rose-tinted, I know) memories of long cycle rides and days spent outdoors picking fruit in the Kent countryside and seeing who could make the most money of our group of friends. Today, sitting by our balcony, door open, in Lewisham, it’s grey and there’s a cool breeze. I’m not complaining about the weather, I’m considerably happier with cooler weather, but it’s the greyness and that everything looks a bit dreary.
In Lewisham today, apparently it’s partly sunny (it’s not, it’s grey) with 16°C to 21°C forecast and no rain until the early hours of tomorrow. Sunrise was at 05:22 and sunset at 20:48. In Selkirk, it’s forecast to be largely sunny right now (08:15), between 11°C and 14°C, with rain from midday. Sunrise was 05:19, sunset at 21:17. I really noticed it was darker earlier here last night than it has been in Scotland. Actually, I’m still reeling from the fact of August.
Yesterday, my friend Duncan and I walked to an O2 shop at the O2 on the Greenwich Peninsula. I am now in possession of a new mobile and a new contract. I have yet to set up my phone though. I have very, very limited interest in having a new phone and I can wait until a case has arrived before I start using it. After years of mainly Samsung, with a brief foray into Huawei, I’m now trying a Google Pixel. I couldn’t justify paying over £1000 for a Samsung. It’s silly really, I’m only going for the supposedly better phones because I use the camera so much, I don’t want or need most of the functions that come with high spec phones. Anyway, the Pixel 7 was heavily discounted and I’m okay with roughly £19 a month for three years for a phone and tariff. Anyway, point is that I was able to walk to an O2 shop, sort my phone issues, catch up with a friend, see completely different, though mainly not particularly attractive, scenery and we even had the novelty of catching a boat part way back to Lewisham. This is not how my afternoon would have gone had I been in Scotland. As usual, the differences seem extreme, but that’s a huge part of the appeal of sort of living between London and the Scottish countryside.
I also bought a pain au chocolate (breakfast) and a croissant (to fill, for lunch) from a bakery on our way back home last night for breakfast this morning. For some reason, I have been lamenting an absence of proper pastries and really craving croissants in Scotland. So the odds are high I’ll put on a bit of weight this week in London. As usual, I’m back in London and feel pretty much absorbed into being here. I will feel the same when I’m back in Scotland. But I’ve had three days of tea in London and I am still unable to not recoil at the chemical taste. It is also horrible seeing the state of the inside of the kettle here. In Scotland, the kettle is as clean as it was the first time we used it from new.