THE song at THE place

This past Thursday Iain and I finally did some Christmas shopping. On Oxford Street. I'm not exactly sure WHAT THE FUCK I was thinking going Christmas shopping at 5:00 in the evening on OXFORD STREET but there I was. Surrounded by people. PEOPLE WHO WERE DOING THEIR CHRISTMAS SHOPPING.

It was bad times.However, I managed to stay pretty calm. I even managed not to call anyone a cunt.

The upside to walking up and down Oxford Street amongst all the other Christmas shoppers were:

a) the pretty lights

b)  I could purposefully hit people with my shopping bags and they thought it was simply because it was crowded.

c) the Russian "model recruiters"

There were these two Russian guys trying to recruit "models". One guy stopped me on the way in by saying,

"OH! Excuse me! You seemed to have dropped..."

And I looked around worriedly, thinking I dropped a penny or something and then the guy goes.

"You seem to have dropped YOUR GORGEOUS SMILE! HI! I'm Mika! What your name?"

And then I laughed in his face and kept walking. On the way back to the tube station (on the other side of the street, mind you) another "Model Finder" stood in the middle of the side walk, and when I looked up at him he was staring at me, creating a picture frame with his fingers and made some sort of clicking noise that I assumed to be the shutter on his fake camera,

"Come here and talk! YOU'RE GONNA LOVE THIS."

Again, I laughed in his face and kept walking.

Iain and I met up and did a bit of walking and I decided that I had yet to make love to a glass of mulled wine yet this season, so we headed to Covent Garden (not CONVENT GARDEN) in search of some romantical atmosphere and some hot alcoholic beverages.

Let me just say, if you're in London and want something Christmasy to do in the evening, GO to Covent Garden after the sun goes down. They're currently putting on their Christmas Deluxe market, where you can get all the sausages, cider, ale, misteltoe and fancy schmancy cheeses your little heart desires. AND they have space heaters! AND THEY HAVE MULLED WINE...TO GO! (Plus, they have the London Gay Men's Choir!)

Covent Garden is a special place for Iain and I. On my very first night in London when Iain and I met, our first meal together was at the Pizza Hut in Covent Garden (stuffed crust, Hawaiian with 2 bottles of Becks...just in case you were wondering) and we've since spent a lot of time there.

However, one of the main reasons we love Covent Garden is on our first night there, after three months of pining for one another, we were sort of drunk on the idea that we were really together. Finally. In person. And we could, like, touch and stuff. (Heavy emphasis on the stuff.)

We stood there on January 11th, 2006, holding hands and drooling at each other,  when a busker near the Piazza started to play U2's With or Without You.

Basically, it was one of the most romantic, disgusting moments of my life and to this day I can't even hear that song without tearing up and mouthing the words and telling anyone who's within earshot of the time we heard a busker singing THE SONG at THE PLACE.

So, sure enough, when Iain and I were sitting at one of the outside tables at Covent Garden Market, eating hot dogs, and sipping mulled wine from a cheap paper cup, we heard a busker playing a Coldplay song, so we decided to walk over and listen.

Suddenly we realized that the busker wasn't just any old busker, oh no, it was Luca - THAT GUY WHO SANG THAT SONG THAT ONE TIME.

We stood there in the freezing cold, with all our shopping bags and our cheap drinks, and secretly hoping he'd sing the song....

And he did.