London summer...aaahh yes!

Listen up all you beautiful people…it’s here. The sun is here. Summer is here!

In case you’ve been stuck indoors for the past 5 days, you’ll have noticed that the sun has been a-shinin’ doon, and the city has been a-sizzlin’…ooooohhh yes!

And ain’t it but somethin’ how the warmth and light changes this and that and us and them? C’mon – it’s genuinely remarkable…

*adopts Attenborough’s signature hushed whisperings*…In the past few days, I’ve witnessed the annual transformation of one of the world’s greatest cities…the introduction to a London summer! The streets have started humming with the heat, the pavements have started drumming under the pattern of the millions-upon-millions of flat-patting bare-feet that have passed over them before…even the buildings themselves have started to sweat with the brimming, buzzing, neon-summer sun…London is, without doubt, waking up!

And while all this is going on, we are changing too…in just the last week, I’ve seen the many and varied people of London wake up with a smile, dare to go for a walk over lunch, they’ve even shaken off their winter hunches and started walking taller …we are, in that respect, like the plants and flowers we are now able to enjoy – we gravitate towards that big ball of light instinctively…it’s life-affirming, day-longing, night-living energy draws and pulls us out of ourselves and upwards into the world…and boy, doesn’t it feel but great!?

It’s wonderful and wild and invigorating and liberating and straight up incredible…like when you hear that song that you just have to dance to…it’s like the sun and the summer has it’s own drum beat, that our bones pick up on without our ears actually recognising it…it’s an innate understanding that, in the words of Mr. Bob Marley, while the sun shines, “every little thing is gonna be alright!”

So this is me – enjoying the sun, and urging you to get out there and do the same…enjoy it while it’s here…don’t get on that sweaty, dark, underground tube – walk home from work, hell – walk TO work, take a walk at lunch, head to the park after work, rustle up a picnic and a cool box over the weekend, whatever you do, just remember to enjoy those diesel blue mornings, and those Monet-like skies, all pinks and orange hues…and just enjoy it…smile!

Just a thought…

My top 3 places enjoying the sun in London…

• Greenwich Park – Enjoy the rolling, rising greens of the largest of the royal parks, and head up to the Royal Observatory at the top (where Layer Cake was filmed, coincidentally), and you can see everything from the Olympic park (East) across Canary Wharf all the way to BT Tower and beyond all swathed in the gleaming, city sunshine. Plus, The Royal Navy College and Cutty Sark are just a 5 minute stroll away. Definitely my favourite London sun-spot…

• Hyde Park – it’s stretching fields and long walkways are teaming with people who love the sun, but there’s always room to lay your blanket down…and despite being in the middle of one of the busiest cities in the world, you instantly forget the hustle and bustle of Oxford Street just a half a mile away…

• Primrose Hill – I’m not going to ruin it for you, but this park is just perfect. The views at the top are fantastic, and the eateries and independent shops in the surrounding are are again, perfect – a great spot to relax (and celeb spot, if that’s your thing), and just a short walk from London Zoo as well…