I'm not going to blog anything about not being able to get a guy this post, i swear.

I did another kung fu grading last sunday, and I'm now a brown belt! Yay! That means if you're shorter, thinner and wimpier than me, then I could almost definitely whoop your ass. I rock.

England is good, or rather, London, is being good to me. I feel I know all its nuances, all its idiosyncrasies, all its moods, all its high points, all its low points. When I ride through the streets on the bus, every now and again a lump rises in my throat as the familiar sites fly by, the high profile places busy with tourists, the local community places hot and buzzing with residentialites, and the quieter shopping parades, almost peaceful and serene, performing their low key yet essential services to the neighbourhood. The little roads, and the concrete flyovers soaring past big name hotels, shopping centres, high rise blocks. I know them well, I drive through them all the time, I've seen them choked with traffic in blistering heat, and I've seen them deserted at midnight lit up in orange sodium glow.
When you're young, or new to the city, you start off by going to all the tourist hotspots, because that's all you know. And then as you get older, you see and get to know more places, and you instinctively search out the quieter areas away from the center. And you encounter some amazing places, the experience of which is perhaps not entirely to do with the location, but the people you are with and the circumstances which bring you there.
You learn to dress the london way, and the best places in which to buy disposable fashion, and you come to think there is nowhere on earth which dresses quite the way london does, especially the women, have you seen them? Fa-bu-lous.
Very often, as is the way of large cities, London can seem uncaring and cold, and occassionally, you might take care to go out of your way to do something charitable, just to go against the grain, just to rebel a little, y'know, just to feel good about yourself a little. And sometimes you might be the recipient of one of these acts, which actually occur much more often than people might think.
And although this may seem a little superfluous, but in London, I can walk around in my Chinese skin, and not feel like I'm sticking out like a sore thumb, not worry about those petty little comments that complete strangers on the street say to you that still get under your skin. In London, when people talk to me they can tell that I'm a local, sometimes they only have to look at me and they can tell as well. People come up to me to ask for directions, and most of the time I can help them.
Some people think that London is dirty and overcrowded with endless traffic, but I also know London when it is quiet on Sunday mornings, where open roads stretch out and you can hear leaves rustling in the green shady parks they pass. Where you can go out for a little walk and hear the tip tap of your own shoes on the pavement.
I don't care what people say about my city, my backyard, no of course its not perfect, its full of assholes and bastards the way most places are. But after all these years, I have come to the realisation that London is my home, and there is no place like it.