It will only get better from now on

Days are supposed to be longer now and we are going to get a bit more light as I have started to look worse for wear recently. We were not saving on heating this winter (I am too scared to look at the gas bill!) but I have managed to stay away of any colds and bugs running on lots of organic food and echinacea but my skin is dry as a leather of a shoe that Muntazer al-Zaidi threw at George Bush last week.

I have also finally managed to get through ranks of overexcited children to take a few images of sleepy reindeers at the Princess Street Gardens today. I had an impression that the animals were a tad bit bigger than what I have remembered from a visit in Rovaniemi many years ago. They had exactly the same face expression that is meeting me in the bathroom mirror every morning this winter.

After an usual nice soup at Wellingotn Cafe we bravely went for a quick but extremely effective Christmas pressies shopping (6 gifts bought within an hour for a very reasonalbe sum so we can call it a battle almost won as there are still 6 to go) in John Lewis and then for a coffee at the top of Harvey Nichs (which had Marc Jacobs ready-to-wear reduced by 50% girlfriends! Zomgzomgzomg why have I left my card at home, will have to run there tomorrow - no way I will manage to survive until the Boxing Day sale!). We were sitting with our coffees surrounded by extremely well groomed ladies sipping mostly roses (British ladies seem to drink wine without having any food with it, I would be tipsy within 3 minutes from the first gulp!) wondering why this place looks so familiar.

Monika would not approve of their interior lighting design - some tables were plunged in a semidarkness (very disturbing if you are having mussels), some were directly under a yellowish glow of the tiny ceiling lamps. Some tables had to be lit with a glow from a city panorama of the front glass wall or by a glow from the eyes of Hindu waiters. Then Simon leaned forward and whispered that just remembered where he knows an atmosphere of this interior from - it all strongly remined him of a department store in mid 90ties Slovakia.

Could not agree more. Just in case I have decided to take a touristy picture of the city panorama in the night (it was actually 5 pm) and skip the interior. Monika, you will have to come and have a look for yourself, coffee is on me.