It doesn't really help that about 90% of all windows appear to be single-pane. No wonder everyone's allegedly terrified of the gas and electricity bill. If I ever buy a house here, no matter what the cost of installation (I'm sure it'll pay itself back either in resale value or gas bill savings eventually), I'm so going to put in double-pane glazing, just like I'm used to. It only seems a matter of time before I wake up to ice flowers on my window, a phenomenon that I really am only familiar with as part of my dad's childhood stories.
Anyway, for the more cheerful stuff: I've been to London to do some Christmas shopping. And I succeeded. I'm not going to tell you what exactly I bought, because my family reads this blog too (they're actually my primary readers, hi mum! hi dad! hi step-dad! hi dad's girlfriend!) but I'll tell you that it was loads of fun. Actually, it wasn't just Christmas shopping, it was also the EvilCo board weekend - that is, I met up with Danou and Sam and we did fun stuff, like just aimlessly walking about Covent Garden ("Look at her, a prisoner of the gutter...") and the City of London, finally visiting Leadenhall Market and doing one of the Jack the Ripper tours. The latter comes highly recommended, by the way - no such nonsense as dressed up people appearing from behind corners but instead a tour guide with a knack for telling stories very sensationally and vividly and unafraid to bash pop culture renderings of Jack the Ripper. Afterwards, we watched From Hell at Danou's and though we'd seen it before - it's a really good film, I must say, it's just the right amount of scary for me to watch it without nightmares, so I guess it's fairly soft for everyone else... - it was quite strange to watch it now and be like 'hey, but that can't have been' or 'that's so not how it must've looked like'.
Today Danou and I went to Camden Town for more Christmas shopping, and I got really very greedy there. I want to have EVERYTHING.
I didn't buy everything though, I'm proud of myself.
It was really crowded though, so maybe I shouldn't go on a Sunday next time.
Anyway, lots of arts and crafts stuff and goth clothes and vintages clothes and retro clothes and antiques and knickknacks and everything. I bought myself a pocket watch which is probably quite crappy but you can't really go wrong for six pounds for a watch.
Fell in love with a coat that I now MUST have. http://www.collectif.co.uk/plain-gretel-coat-p-sku03120604-c-red.html
Of course it's already out of stock. This isn't the type of coat that remains in stores long. Really, I should've bought it the minute I saw it but on the other hand I shouldn't go about spending 175 pounds on a new winter coat when I've got two really good ones already.
Tried on hats - made me look really posh - and fur coats - made me look not posh but really really not me. I just don't have the face for fancy things, I guess I'd better just stick with plain long woolen coats.
On my trip back North I sat on the floor near the toilets and bins because all the seats were taken and/or reserved (cold!). Somehow I was incredibly reminded of that one scene in Hard Day's Night in which John, Paul, George and Ringo are sat in a compartment and a gentleman comes in and starts harassing them because the four of them want the window open and he wants it closed, and because they want to listen to some songs on a portable radio and the man wants to read the newspaper. I'm not sure why I'm reminded of it, because the people on the train just basically ignored me and I ignored them and we all went about our business of sitting around/tossing stuff out/visiting the toilet, but at least it was a nice distraction...
Also, Camden is absolutely flooded with Beatles-related and Beatles-inspired stuff. I get that it's 50 years since Ringo joined and all that, but honestly, I'd almost expect a repeat of Beatlemania...
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