Dirty Puddles

A dirty puddle. A dirty puddle with floating cigarette butts. I see these everywhere. It's not what most people think of when they think of London. Things like Big Ben, red phone booths, the theatre and palaces might normally spring to mind. But puddles, dirty puddles are most definitely London. And if I'm being honest, straying a bit from the fantasy of life living in London, my new life here often feels just like a dirty puddle. I thought about taking my camera out and shooting one of these oft seen dirty puddles, but right now the last thing I need is a homework assignment. I get why there are adverts to places like Cyprus, Tenerife and Spain just about everywhere you look here. I wanna get away too. I sit now in a cafe (don't get carried away with this romantic notion of European living lounging in cafes; I'm only in this cafe because I have a bit of time to kill between a teacher conference and back to school night and nowhere to go in the rain). So I sit here watching passersby all wearing the same overspent, soggy expressions. They are overladen with umbrellas, bags, purses and parcels, like some kind of acrobatics. Will they smile when they arrive at their destination? Will I? Why did we come here to the dirty puddle! Maybe tomorrow the sun will shine, but real life in London is hard, sometimes painful. So for all of you who are somewhat envious of our new supposed "cool" life in London, now you know the dirty truth. We left paradise for dirty puddles! What were we thinking!

Okay, thanks for indulging me in my vent session!