It's like I just woke up from hibernation and realised that maybe I have something to say, and certainly lots of time to say it, so I should get back to the rambling and scribbling.. after all London is just another 'ombelic', another navel of the world. (A note is due here: as every Italian knows, when you take any Italian word and take out the last letter, you get its English translation). London may not be an "ombelic" in the sense Cusco is: there was definitely no Sun god (or Sun, at all) picking this place to build his city.. but apparently millions of common mortals have chosen it to build their city and, all in all, the result is a pretty decent capital of the world (NYC disputes are not accepted here).
I'm not sure if I should continue this blog in my Peru style, but my gut feeling tells me that if I compare how exciting filling out excel spreadsheets is compared to hiking up to communities in the Sacred Valley, the stories from my London life may not quite compare to the Peruvian ones. I will tell the interesting and funny and outrageous things I see here, but I will probably end up talking about other things.. but this first post will have to be about Her, London.
We London dwellers know that London is a person with a distinct personality who act on its own accord. I personally think - but this is debated - that she is a woman, because she is temperamental and a bitch (apologies for this chauvinist idea). And, like many other people, I have a love-hate relationship with her.
I say 'London dwellers' because I don't know what makes you qualify as a proper 'Londoner'. When do you pass the test and get that piece of soul that you can put safely in that place that has been empty for a while or for ever and say this is my city? Is it when you get a job here, or when you buy a house, or spend X years here or marry a Londoner (good luck with that, they seem an endangered species - or at least they don't interact much with the likes of me, the immigrants).
Believe it or not, there are two distinct and parallel realities in London, that never meet and inexplicably ignore each other's existence: British London and International London. Ask any foreigner and they'll tell you everyone in London is foreign. Ask any Brit and they may have seen some Eastern European cleaners in their office but that's about the extent of the mixing and mingling. Of course the Brits have their facts right because 60% of London is "white - British".. unsurprisingly most of my friends are "white - other (specify)". And here I always wander what the hell I should specify. Italian is not an ethnicity, surely. But then the Scots think they're a foreign country, so us Italians can be a separate white - other ethnicity.
