Dear Karen,

Yes, you read it here first:  I’m falling in love with Fall.  Autumn.  Après-summer.  Pre-Winter.  Why, you might ask?  (Go on, ask, I dare you.)

It’s simple:  this is the first year in 30 that I’ve lived in a country that has an honest-to-goodness Autumn.  As you may recall, I lived in Pasadena, California, for four years.  No Autumn there.  Well, that’s not strictly true, we did have an Autumn, but it came around Christmas time, and was called ‘Winter’.  Coming from Canada, I was slightly confused by this.

Take off…to the Great White North (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

After Pasadena, we lived in the sub-tropical world of Hong Kong.  Two seasons there:  Boiling, Stinking, Humidly Hot and Rainy, Cool.  Rainy, Cool lasted three weeks.  The rest of the year?  Yeah, that’s right,  BSHH.

I loved Hong Kong, I really did, which is lucky because I lived there for 25 years.  But it was way too hot for this displaced Canadian to bear.  I really have no idea how the locals manage to look so cool and fresh every day.  I can only think of a handful of days per year when I didn’t feel like Rodney Dangerfield, perpetually wiping the sweat from my brow, while everyone else looked like they didn’t sweat, didn’t get swollen feet, and didn’t get frizzy hair.

Now I live in London and all that’s changed.  Phew!  Last week, we had warm temperatures, around 28°C or so for days and then, hey presto, Fall arrived on Sunday.  We still have blue skies, but now, instead of summer clothes and sandals everywhere, the citizenry is dressing a little schizophrenically, diehards in summer-wear, unable to give it up just yet, and others, like me, already in long sleeves, jackets buttoned up, and thrilled to see the leaves falling off the trees.

I walked out this morning and noticed straight away the difference between September in HK and London:

Hot. Damn hot.

Not so hot.

It brings a thrill to my heart and a chill to my knees!  (I was trying to make it rhyme, but could only come up with “a chill to my farts”, which, though kind of amusing, doesn’t make a lot of sense)

I walked by a Mom and Pop restaurant, serving breakfast, and I could smell the frying eggs from outside…

Organic bacon and eggs with a double yolk (Photo credit: adria.richards)

I saw a woman in Louboutin high heels, walking her dog, which made me smile.

I’m not a good Ninja Photographer, I’m too scared of getting bonked on the head by my subject, but I think you can see the soles of her shoes from here. Right?

I felt the energy in the air, the one that says “hey you slackers, summer’s over – it’s time to get back to work” and I thought, yeah, it is.  It’s time for me to get serious about living here.  It’s time for me to marry off my daughter next month.  It’s time to sort out Christmas plans.  To get involved in activities that are just starting up again.   Fall gives me that energy, that buzz, that “get a move on” attitude.  It’s time for me to fall in love again, and I have.  With Fall, with London, with my life.  I’m ready!

Toodles,

Wendy