From: Alexander
Category: Other stuff
Date: 06 December 2003
Hey, it’s a December day in London. The heater in my room broke 2 days ago and now the flat is chillingly cold. Nice flat, high ceilings, spacious, but windows like light cotton curtains. Wrap your coat around you and let a hat warm your delicate ears and still it feels like a lost battle with the yearning December wind. A big warning sign threatens me with a fine of 5000 pounds should I dare to warm my cold aching knees. I head for the laundrette instead, down the road. Of course it is closed and the very old man appearing in the door explains that their whole piping system is completely messed up, thus closed until further notice. He sends me further down the road, just five minutes. He looks so miserable, I deeply wish him to be the rich owner of the business and just on a short break, before back in Florida with his wife or man of choice. Half an eternity later I find the hidden east London market with the other hidden east London laundrette. This one is of course very busy. I am happy that there is no chewing gum in the washing machine just in the dryer, and matter of fact, it is dried out by now and no imminent danger to your clothes anymore. The market is sad and depressing and that is how the people look as well, at least on first sight. There are never washed and carelessly hung curtains in all of the windows around the square. But there is beauty in the wind that shuffles the clothes on their hangers and there is a stall, with lots of fake watches, that glows in such a warm welcoming golden light as if it is the gate to heaven. By now the sky is pregnant with snow and I see big smooth flakes falling down covering the whole place in an innocent white within minutes. Children start to notice first and run around nervously, someone starts singing, and the man who sat in the laundrette just to warm himself, laughs hysterically but full of joy. I am sure now that behind all those blind windows truly are futuristic flats equipped with the newest of technologies….London, a city full of surprises.
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