Loving and living in London

Sometimes, living in London, I start to get bored. It's the only city I've lived in, and whenever I go abroad or to the countryside I am always left wondering how it would be to permanently leave London. I don't like the idea of getting too patriotic or attached to places, but there are some things about London which make me love it so much.

Today was a wonderful example of why I couldn't imagine not living in a capital city which simply buzzes and overflows with energy. There is just always something to do. Yesterday, a quick google search revealed that London seems to have a skiing and snowboarding weekend in October similar to the Art Fairs which took over the city last weekend. Although I have never touched a pair of skis or a snowboard in my life, today saw me and a friend decide to visit 'The World's Largest Ski and Snowboard Show'.

When we first entered, stall upon stall of skiing and snowboarding 'fashion' confronted us, but I soon started feeling right at home. There was a gigloo (a gig in an igloo!) and plenty of freebies; sweets, cereal bars, pens and t-shirts galore. We were determined to milk every last penny of the entry fee. At one point, whilst queueing to get a photo taken with some huskies, and replenishing with some maple syrup flavoured taffy courtesy of a ski chalet in Quebec, the following dialogue took place:

'So, where do you normally go to ski?'
A moment's awkward silence.
'I don't ski'
'Right - what are you doing here, then?'
'Just having fun!'
'Cool'

And so we moved on, to a skiing and snowboarding demonstration, where several young men dressed in outrageous 'fashion' battled it out to win a £50 prize. The comentator was an over-excited man in lime green skinny jeans and a propensity to exclaim 'oh my days!'. Random balls, t-shirts and stickers were thrown at the crowd; I caught a ball, and almost wrestled a t-shirt from a genuine snowboarding fan before remembering my dignity.

Further seemingly irrelevent and free activities awaited. A rodeo competition, ice curling and ice skating and ice carving all seemed to be linked by the idea of 'snow' - but the highlight of the day may have just been the origami. A Japanese lady taught us how to make paper shirts at the 'snowboarding in Japan' stall.

I don't think skiing or snowboarding could ever be more fun, than at a freebie-filled convention in West London.