This could have become such an unbelievably exemplary, sprawling, enthusiasm-laden, and of course deeply profound blog article.
Me – being in London again.
It could have been all about pop culture: from David Bowie to the Sex Pistols, to Doctor Who, the Teletubbies up to Monty Python.
Or about history: from the Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell was all through to the present ongoings in the Buckingham Palace and then, with a funny twist, to Samuel Pepys’ truly outstanding and delightful diaries from centuries ago.
Certainly it could have also been politics: from my first visit after Brexit to the legendary yellow press over there – maybe also a few words about Margaret Thatcher – who knows.
But then I decided to take a whole different route and admit that it’s almost shameful how scandalously incomplete even this short list of references to this country, or rather this city, already is.
I thought: why fall into the same old trap and reheat what’s been covered over and over again by more famous and maybe more skilled bloggers?
Why not turn my gaze just a little to the details behind and beside it all?
To those places where life happens too, however absurd it may seem.
And that’s why I don’t want to dedicate this blog post to just any wonderful British thing but explicitly and respectfully to the English contribution to the diversity of window handles in this world!
Some countries open up by lifting parts of the window vertically upward.
Here in Austria, we tilt them open. At the top.
But here, in England, in the heart of Earl’s Court it’s the exact opposite. Windows get tilted from the bottom. Oi! So Glorious! I love it!