Sitting on the Other Side

I'm sitting in a coffee shop in Soho and enjoy a super sugary early dinner: belgian waffle goodness with whipped cream and a cup of nice capuccino. The place is called Crepe Affaire, my friend Yoon introduced it to me in 2007. Back then I had no idea that I would come back one day and stay for a whole year. Amazing how things go. I mean, I've always liked the idea of living in London for a while, but now that it's happening it doesn't seem so fantastic anymore. It's certainly real, and everything's good.

The little coffee shop is located on a busy corner in Soho. Chinatown is only a few steps away and when I look to my left I can basically see Oxford Street. It's a great spot to just sit and watch the immense action that is taking place outside. Clumsy tourists are trying to cross the street without getting hit by speeding cyclers, giggling Asians are trying to bootleg the London style, and locals, well, the locals seem to be busy being local. But then, isn't everyone here kind of a local?

It’s amazing how all these different characters are coming together here. The whole city, in fact, is such a crazy place with so many people rushing from one spot to another. Everyone seems to be running late, even the visitors do their part. I remember thinking the same thing about Seoul a few years ago, although I do get the feeling that in London it's primarily the people that are in constant movement, not the whole city with all its streets and buildings. 

Well, for now I'm going to enjoy the rest of my coffee and the fact that it's super windy outside. Sitting here with mellow funky tunes in my ears and sweetness on the porcelain in front of me, it's really hard to bother about the stormy craze on the other side of that glass fassade. All those people, and me, too, everybody in his own little world, filled with work and worries, pleasure and pain. Everybody's living his own life, everybody's doing their best to blend in, and everybody's hairdo is getting ruined by the wind.