S-A-D

Hmmm... it appears that the jet lag is taking a little longer to wear off than I thought.

Been back a week and not achieved anything remarkable... well, except for remaining sunnily optimistic in the face of London's gloom.

2008 is gonna be great, 2008 is gonna be great, 2008 is gonna be great.

Actually, having had my 3-week Brissy summer, I’ve really noticed my fellow Londoner’s SAD (seasonal affective disorder). I’ve been chirpily wishing all my colleagues a Happy New Year when seeing them again, and they’ve all been moaning about how long ago it all feels now. People are just plain depressed.

I get SAD all the time, so I’m not going to take the high-ground about it, but I feel lucky that I had a break from the winter. Will hang to the feeling as long as I can.
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Sat and Sun were pretty low key. Trekked up North for a less-than-successful shopping expedition to London's first (and oldest) indoor shopping mall in Brent Cross (about 45 mins on the tube from Balham).

The point was to help Damo buy a new suit in the sales. We spent a couple of hours in Zara searching for right sizes, colours blah blah blah only to be foiled at the last hurdle by a price check on an item that had a sales tag, but apparently was “not for sale”. Given that we'd waited in the queue foooorevvvvvveeeer - watching staff and customers faff about in slow motion - it was enough to make us throw our hands up in desperation and leave without buying anything.

Even my shoe hunting went amiss. I had found the *perfect* right foot, black, knee-high boot at Nine West. Gorgeous. All leather. Appropriately sized heel. Padded instep. Half price. Then the sales girl told me they were missing the left one. It just wasn’t meant to be.

We did resurrect the evening though by exploring trendy Camden on our way home. Checked out a funky little Vietnemese place, strolled the busy streets and saw "Charlie Wilson's War" at the local cinema.

Sunday wasn't very exciting. Had planned to buy a laptop, but was foiled by the miserable weather and overwhelming urge to sleep. Did catch up with Davo though for a coffee in Balham.