Practically Perfect

Today has been (to borrow a phrase from Mary Poppins) “practically perfect in every way”. I’ve almost entirely shaken the cold of the past week (I needed a tissue just once), and today I rose early, showered, and paid my rent. I made myself a cup of tea to go (weird note: that precise bag of PG Tips was taken from a hotel room on The Strand last spring, made its way home to California and was mailed back to London along with other teas from home), and had a very good interview – which included a series of tests with good results – at an office temp agency in The City. I then bought myself a hot brie sandwich at Eat and walked round the corner to the Tower of London to eat it by the Thames.

Being only just after 2 PM, much of the day remained and I felt inclined to wander. I wandered across the Tower Bridge, bought a cup of cinnamon-coated nuts from a cart, explored the area in search of an elusive tea & coffee museum (the website now tells me it’s closed till early 2009 anyway), took a dozen or so pictures of the Thames and converted warehouses in the fading light, and spontaneously walked into a beautiful setting of lit skylines, passing yachts, cherry mulled wine, and carolers putting on a Cinderella-esque show (it was office-themed, featuring a temp up against three snobbish sisters whose last name didn’t sound unlike “ugly”) in an outdoor amphitheatre outside City Hall.

I met Agneta at Primark after that; she needed some work clothes, and I wanted Christmas decorations (and a nice pair of Victorian-style heels). She had to head home to switch shoes before going to a trial shift at a champagne bar in West Kensington, so we parted ways for a time. Two hours were spent in search of wrapping ribbon and the game Sequence, and as it happened, I only found one of these and gained a couple other treasures along the way. The day had already gone so well… productivity seems to add an extra spring to my step… and the search felt a lot more like a journey through the best place for Christmas shopping in the world, as it just may be. From Oxford Street to New Bond, to Old Bond, then Piccadilly, Piccadilly Circus, then Regent Street and then back to Oxford Street, I became a connoisseur of Christmas lights, abusing my poor cell phone’s battery in pictures and videos – not that the quality is top-notch; maybe I’m just in the mood for boasting… I want to share some of the wonders of Christmas in London with everyone at home. It’s just about impossible to imagine that Rodeo Drive could have ever impressed me. To compare, now, is just unthinkable.

By the way, I bought something at Selfridges for the first time ever – some colored sparklers to surprise my flatmates with later, and I explored Henley’s on Regent Street for the first time, seeking Sequence but leaving with Uno.

[Pardon me if my writing starts to sound a little fragmented now… It’s almost 5 AM, and I’m starting to drift.]

I was late to meet up with everyone (Oscar, Chloe, Agneta, Giulia, Ryan, and Ryan’s friend) at the Italian restaurant in Notting Hill… and my tardiness was increased by 10 minutes as I put up some of the decorations as a little surprise. When I finally did get to the restaurant (which took a while to walk to… and thank goodness for my A-Z book), what followed was well worth the £30 bill eventually accrued by my credit card. The whole dinner was perfect. How could I put it without sounding too corny or too plain? I was very glad for the company; we really did have a lovely, intimate gathering. And the food and drinks were appropriately both lavish and like comfort food, and so authentic. I’d like to see the Olive Garden just try to cook this way. And somehow having an Italian friend be the one to introduce me the restaurant added to its value. She even worked there for a while; and for a very short time, so did Agneta.

We walked home in clusters, some leading, some meandering behind; Giulia, Oscar and Chloe formed the caboose. For a time, the three of them were singing something in Italian for a while; Agneta and Ryan were talking about some club, and Diana & I chatted about books and personal libraries. Back at the flat, I had the pleasure of watching their reactions to the decorations I set up in their absence. It turns out that Agneta spent about 3-4 hours cleaning and reorganizing the kitchen earlier, and my decorations were like the icing on the cake.

Oscar and Chloe went to bed first. Giulia stayed for one game of Uno before getting some rest for hers and Claudio’s morning flight to Italy. (I’m envious now just thinking about it.) The rest of us played for a couple hours, with Christmas music and tea (I had cinnamon and anise seeds; the others had mint). None of us had played the game for a long while, and we referred to the rules a couple times, but it felt like childhood renewed and reinterpreted among the four of us. It wasn’t like other late nights in the flat… there were no drinking games (the "Tesco vodka" has become an ongoing joke), no pervy jokes. It was all coziness and fun… the sort of innocent, wicked fun that that comes from attacking other players with “draw 4” wild cards (“the evil card”).

It was a day and a night I shan’t soon forget.