Senses working overtime

[filthgoblin]

I have no real time or energy to describe my week in London, and plan to do that on Saturday, maybe on the coach back to Cardiff. However, my mind is full of the sensory experiences of the past few days.

The city in bright sunshine looks so different to when the streets are grey and slick with rain like the skin of a seal. Dust and pollen swirl in shafts of light that penetrate between tower blocks, motes that dance in upward drafts of warm air carried through tiny parks and squares of green littered across the map of London. Gusts of wind channelled down alleyways whip tawny fallen blossoms into cyclones of brittle, spent flowers where the walls meet at angles. The Tube in the summertime has a heavy, cloying heat of a thousand breaths; strange bodies pressed and swaying rhythmically against my own are intimate and anonymous.

A walk through the streets smells of charcoal-grilled meat; of stagnant water near the Thames; of exhaust fumes and cigarette smoke as workers gather in tiny tribes outside their office buildings in the streets around the business districts. The taste of fresh-brewed peppermint tea made sweet with coarse brown sugar mixes on my tongue with the spicy liquorice-and-apple flavour from the smoke drawn through the long, rope-wound hose of the shisha pipe at our feet. As the sun sets, the leisurely click of counters on the wooden backgammon board ticks away the last minutes of the day. The swish of a silver tray of charcoals, swung from a metal chain by a waiter to make them glow red hypnotises me as I recline on fat cushions under a canvas canopy in the dwindling daylight.

Whatever other good things have happened whilst I've been in the city can wait for a practical description. Right now I lie in my borrowed bed, unable to think of chronology or events, only feelings and reactions.

Comments

[alba17.livejournal.com]

Hmmm, nice description. I'm going there in August.

[filthgoblin.livejournal.com]

Awesome. It's a wonderful city with so much to see. Hope you have a fantastic time :)

[karaokegal.livejournal.com]

I love London! If I ever had to leave San Francisco and had the possibility of living in London, I'd definitely do it, although I wouldn't be a happy winter camper.

[filthgoblin.livejournal.com]

Yeah, London in the winter is pretty drab. It's not really cold enough to do anything interesting like snow and is mostly wet. But it is a really vibrant city so I'm sure it'd distract me perfectly well with all its shiny attractions during the dark months.

[karaokegal.livejournal.com]

I'm just a big wuss when it comes to extreme cold or heat. I survived London in January for Squeeee-fest, and if I actually lived there I might adapt, but it's still not my favorite climate.

[ebonystar.livejournal.com]

What I love about this is the fact that you see places and experience things pretty much in exactly the same way as me. I wrote a piece on London that I don't think I've ever posted. Only a few lines, but it's like this. All about the senses.

I love it when you find someone else who sees things in a similar way.

(and I shall be replying to your other comment via PM ♥)

[filthgoblin.livejournal.com]

I usually am all about the senses. I'm actually quite inspired to pick up a fic work in progress I started ages ago that's all about senses and sensory deprivation after spending just a few minutes thinking through my senses last night. I've been suffering from a lack of sensory impetus, but that might just kick-start me.