I Think of Her Wherever I Go

A year ago I was walking home from Docklands, from 1CP.

Not going to be morbid, or overly sentimental. Although I think this is interesting, but may well be a very grauniad, white way to see it. Instead, I am going to regale you with some of my top things about London Town. Not exhaustive by any stretch of the imagination, mind.

1) The Eye. It's bloody brilliant. It's beautiful, and lots of other cities may have copied us (I'm looking at you, Birmingham - and NYC was going to do the same for the Olympics... small gloat here).

2) Yauatcha - eyebleedingly expensive Chinese cakes that are mindblowingly lovely.

3) 1 and 2 both lead to the South Bank, which I love (see 5 below), and Berwick Street, which still has the best best shops (Zest, Yauatcha for two) - although I have not forgiven them for selling up Selectadisk - how am I supposed to spot hotties now? You could always rely on there being a gorgeous creature in there somewhere.

4) Poste Mistress and the Office Sale Shop. Need I say more?

5) The River. And not a river like the Hudson, but one that really is the heart and soul of the city, that, if like me you worked in the city, was a part of my day everyday. I used to love strolling down it to go to the NFT after work, or the NT for a beer on their weird fake grass and hear some crappy jazz. Brilliant.

6) Hampstead Ponds - very Bloomsbury set / 1920s feminist feel to it, and I absolutely love it. London people without fixed schedule (I'm talking to you, WUB, and you, Le Scutt), get out there for me!

7) The Yacht in Greenwich. Views of London not unlike the Trafalgar's, but less 17 year olds from Tallis and Crown Woods, essentially.

8) Pub Quiz at the Dean Swift on a Sunday night. Unremittingly high quality questions and teams.

9) Knightrider Street. It exists. Right by the Millennium Bridge, yet another amazing thing, linking St Paul's and the Tate Modern.

10) The Oval. Although Southgate gets a special mention, The Oval is still my favourite cricket ground (although non-London Canterbury is rather wonderful too). I have had some of my favourite days of my life just whiling away the hours, drinking, doing the crossword, eating a LOT of food and occasionally deigning to applaud a boundary.