just a small-town girl, livin’ in a lonely world
she took the midnight train going anywhere

snapshots of perfect moments like this are what makes city life worthwhile. there was something beautifully alive about it all – the colours changing in the fountain, the national gallery lit up in the background, trafalgar square illuminated on an unnaturally balmy autumn evening – and all around the lively buzz of friday night, there but in the background, almost like movie music – so that as we sat down in the square leaning against a pillar, it was like a private little oasis of quiet contentment.

and in that moment i felt the city live, i felt i understood what dickens and the victorians meant by the city having a life of its own in a way the country doesn’t, there is a pulse running through london that i don’t know how to pin down or describe – but the way it lights up, the way its streets are worn down and its alleys twist, the way you never know who you’ll meet, the way it never ceases to surprise you after living here so long, the way it never sleeps…

all this flashed through my head almost subconsciously in a suspended instant, everything frozen, except for the constantly changing coloured lights in the fountains. i am, by nature, not a night person; i love my sunshine and the long days in summer, i love the calm of early mornings. but the more i spend nights out in london with good friends, coffee and ever-surprising night views, the more it is growing on me. night, and the city.