London Life

After the initial excitement of getting back to London - being re-united with Debrah, seeing Amy and attending the butchery course - life has settled down again.

It's a bit weird sitting in a small, modern two bed apartment in North London rather than the vast, spacious, eigtheenth century apartment we have in Carcassonne. The open plan living room with kitchenette at one end is the same size as the kitchen in France, which naturally makes cooking here a very different proposition and the ceiling height is halved - two metres not four. I miss my office and the feeling of space but I don't miss being on my own.

The on-site gym has replaced my bike as my means of exercise - less cardio-vascular and more weights - which makes a welcome change.

I also have the good old BBC and British television although I find myself watching it just because it's there, which is a good argument for not having it in France. I still don't have any satellite or pay per view but I also don't have a local bar that I want to visit so have missed all the rugby internationals and the football of the last week. Did I really miss anything? - no, not at all.

I have been excited by the new Waitrose in Crouch End and totally pissed off with the Tesco Express down the road. I have been buying from Borough Market, which is conveniently close to Debrah's office, trying to emulate my shopping habits in France. It's very difficult to do that here in London because there isn't an excellent fresh fruit and vegetable market three times a week just two minutes away from the apartment - but because I have the time and flexibility to shop around and to cook it has been possible to buy fresh and British, if not exactly local, and the chicken and pork and beef that we have bought have sustained us through at least two dinners each.

Debrah has been extremely busy at work and very stressed by it all. I am relieved that I was back here when an ongoing issue with a contractor finally came to a head - thankfully it is all now resolved, but she still has weekly deadlines on other projects in rapid succession. I am happy to be able to take all other day to day stuff away from her so she can concentrate on just getting through this very busy period for her.

After the Friday evening explosion it was a relief that Debrah didn't have to work at the weekend and with Christian away at college and Amy having returned home to Lincolnshire, we had a self-indulgent weekend to ourselves.

On Saturday we went to Brent Cross shopping centre. I was surprised that the Christmas decorations, which I had expected to see, were quite muted and understated rather than garish and gaudy - perhaps the credit crunch has affected the usual brash excess that marks this time of year. I can't remember the last time I was in a shopping mall and apparently, according to Debrah, I wandered around with a slightly dazed expression - a bit like a child in a toyshop for the first time.

On Sunday we took my new boots for a walk across Hampstead Heath - how terribly North London Sunday is that? After the gales and rain of Saturday it was much quieter and dry and the view from the top of Parliament Hill was very dramatic across the whole of the London basin as far as the North Downs some 20 miles south of the river.

It's good to be back in London for a bit and it's great to be living with Debrah again and the plans for next year are slowly crystallising.