Medium Delirium

I was walking out of the cafe where I’d just spent the last hour reading with a parfait and sobacha while the rain that has pelted since morning raged on outside. As I shook my umbrella open I watched as a young couple ran in under the shelter, no umbrella but with hands tightly clasped and huge grins on their faces. Both were dressed casually but with intention, him in a collared shirt and chinos and her in a white summer dress. It was a heartwarming scene that made me think of how the magic of romance – love, if we’re lucky – resides in the small moments like these, holding hands and swimming through a soggy, rain-soaked city while night bloomed and the light of the street lamps flickered with raindrops.

Later, I sat at the bar counter in the Vietnamese diner, cold from being rained on then air-conditioned. Watching the comings and goings in the open kitchen I was transported to memories of similar scenes I’d been part of in New York City, noisy eating spots rubbing elbows with someone else harbouring dreams of big city life, of SJP skipping up the steps of the NYPL and Patti Smith sitting on the steps of a Brooklyn walk-up. Smoke and ammonia and frigid winter air that filled your lungs and made the world around you seem like a crazy cosmopolitan fantasy that was also a drug that embedded itself deep inside and coursed through your veins.

Sat at another counter, this time in Dior, feeling nervous while the sales assistant bustled about gathering various colours of lipstick for me to try, because I’m so clueless with make up and always, always end up picking the wrong shade for my skin tone. Under the bright white lights I thought my reflection in the mirror was borderline frightening, every pore and spot and line heightened and emphasized to the high heavens. For a place that’s all about beauty the lighting was fairly unforgiving, I thought.

Browsed around in a half-hearted hunt for new clothes that I don’t need, but was mercifully hampered by the exorbitant prices of everything other than a couple of dowdy looking pieces from Uniqlo.

Looking forward to a solid night of sleep in today’s cold, rainy weather.