» Letters they'll never read

Dear London
Over the past two and a half years I've had many a reason to be frustrated by you - the crowds, the financial (and metaphorical!) diarrhoea I seem to frequently catch off the dirty Thames water, the shoebox of a house I'm forced to live in - but really, I have nothing but eternal gratitude to you for the way you've changed my life.

The shit-scared and severely depressed 22-year-old who pitched up in Stoke Newington back then, just having escaped an appalling and abusive 5 year relationship is someone I barely recognise now. I've got a better job than I ever thought someone as under-qualified as I am could hope for, I've almost cut out the class As and drinking till comatose (and when I do those things now, I'm actually enjoying myself!), and, most importantly, I've met some of the most incredible, lovely people ever here. To the Harringay massive (who may well be geeky enough to be reading this): I don't deserve friends as amazing as you :-)

So, London, when I walk down the river Lea on a Saturday morning and see the sun coming up over Walthamstow marshes, when we crash out of the pub and down Green Lanes at 3 am, when we spend the whole of a summer Sunday in Finsbury Park just talking crap, I guess that it's not all down to you. A clean break from the old me could have easily happened somewhere else, but it didn't. You're a beautiful city, and the spur-of-the-moment decision I made to quit my old job, get the hell out and come here was the best one I ever made.

POP goes the b3ta virginity!
(Fri 5th Mar 2010, 19:14, More)