Happy New Year!

'Tis the Year of the Snake
And combined
With the thirteenth year
This new year
Is considered by some
To be an omen of bad luck

But in some traditions
The snake is representative of
Inner power
And thirteen is the number
Of enlightenment
And change

Today
Despite the cold and wet
Londoners were out
En masse
Celebrating the Chinese New Year
Chinatown was packed
With queues out the door
Of every restaurant
The pedestrianized streets
Filled with people
Waving paper dragons
And popping crackers
And even with the dreary weather
The mood was festive and bright

Tonight it snowed
The cold weather
Finally paying off

To choose
To not buy into fear
And superstition
To choose to believe
It can and does get better
To make sense of
And make use of
One's own inner power
To learn
And seek
And grow
And be at peace with myself
That is the new year
I want to celebrate

The end.

Snow Obsessed

picture by The Times photographer, Jack Hill

You walk home from work
And the snow is melting
And turning slushy
And grey
And you go to bed thinking
It's finishing already!

And you wake up
And it has been snowing!
And thrill joy rush of it
It hasn't all melted!
It's back!

And walking to the station
Through the crunchy white
With snowflakes dancing around
Your nose and eyelashes
Ha! The glorious
Delicious cliche of it!

And watching it snow
Whilst sitting inside
There is something entrancing
Still and lovely

And at night
By streetlight
The snow actually glistens
The sparkle
Twinkle
Magic of it
Is breathtaking
And ridiculous
It's frozen water!

And oh, how magical it is
To be living in a place
Where snow is real!

The end.

A Little Ray of Sunshine

my friend

Today
A lovely friend
From Sydney
Arrived to live in London
For two years
And we had hot chocolate
And giggled at the stage door
And her excitement at being in London
Reminded me how I felt
Over a year ago
When I first arrived
And she reminded me
That it is okay to be excited
Wonderful even

And the snow never stopped all day
And everything was blanketed in powdery white
And just to watch the snowflakes coming down!
And see the world transformed
Was utterly, deliciously, magical

The end.

Let It Snow!

You wake up and the ground and trees and rooftops are white
And the air is so crisp!
And snowflakes are literally falling from the sky!

And your little Aussie heart
Which grew up in a place where winters are nothing but cold and grey
And rainy
Just sings
Because snow
Is every bit as magical
And exciting
As the television and movies
Make it out to be

No matter that London almost comes to a complete standstill
Let it pause
And be entranced
And quiet
And still
Even if only for a morning

The end.

Don't Panic

Dear Me-Four-Years-Ago, 

You are about to go back to London for your second visit. It will be covered in snow. The tube will be in total disarray and it will take you four hours to travel from Heathrow to Islington. All the tourist attractions will close early. You will not make it inside St. Paul’s Cathedral despite your best efforts. Don’t worry about the admission to Westminster, it’s totally worth it. Don’t worry that you don’t visit the West End. You will discover that traveling solo is Where. It. Is. At. You will discover that walking through London is magical. You will feel like you belong in Europe no matter what your passport says. When Susan says goodbye to you at Paddington after a week of wandering, sight-seeing, and Londoning, you will cry. You will feel as if you are leaving too early. You make a promise to yourself that you will return, and that you will one day live overseas. 

Dear Me-Four-Years-Ago, you come back. You have a Spanish passport. And yes, you live overseas. You make it inside St Paul’s Cathedral. You climb to the roof and with the rooftops of London as your background, you kiss a wonderful boy who turns out to be even more wonderful than you already think he is. You go to drama school. You get an agent. You are an actor living in London. Truly. 

In fact, one night, nearly four years from now, you will walk from your place of work, a theatre in the West End, to Embankment. You won’t even need a map. And you will easily navigate your way to Angel. And after a lovely dinner, you will travel home on the tube. And the air will smell crisp, and the ground will be gritted in preparation for the promise of snow.  And you will remember this time four years ago, and how you couldn’t even conceive how it could all be possible, and you laugh. 

The end. 

Into the Woods

Into the woods
To find the snow fairies,
To see the kids having snow fights,
To see the snowmen who have popped up in the night.

There is a mum and and her little girl building a new snowman
Mum has the bucket and spade,
They're normally reserved for holidays at the seaside,
But the snow is calling.
The little girl sits next to the growing mound of snow,
Dressed in a pink jumpsuit,
She looks at all the white around her,
And shakes her little head,
Where did it all come from??? 


There are kids and grown-up kids
With plastic toboggans,
And people throwing snowballs at each other.
People are smiling
As they pass each other by,
Hello! Isn't this great? Isn't this lovely?

And then you walk into the Little Wood.
And it is oh so quiet,
The stillness of it all,
The picture postcard perfection of it all,
Makes your heart melt
And you hope the snow around you doesn't.

Saturday Night

I have a to-do list a mile long
And a stack of emails to reply to,
And friends to connect with,
People I love and cherish and miss to say "dear friend, I love and cherish and miss you" to.
And homework, and research, and practise, and learning all to be done.

But right now,
I have a cup of tea
And beautiful music playing,
And outside the snow fairies are dancing,
And the road is turning from black to white,
And the grass is turning from green to white.
And my breath is fogging up the window.

And my little Aussie soul is laughing,
Because here she is,
In a land far away
Where it's properly cold
And it snows!
And it is lovely.

The end.