A crisp winter morning

I woke up and class was cancelled- good thing since I was going to be late. But as I stepped out to get a coffee and bagel at Think café, I relished the cool and crisp morning. I've always been comfortable with cool weather- it brings back memories of Delhi when I was 5 and was kitted out in a blazer at Springdales School (that was part of the winter uniform).
I remember landing in London with my family on our way to Nigeria in 1985. We spent four days there and the first thing we did was go to H & M (I think it was around then) and buy parkas. I remember standing on the corner and blowing into the air. Perhaps it wasn't the next time we went there- in 86. I have always found london to be a delight. Then (as we would now) we stayed in cheap hotels or Bed and Breakfasts. The rooms were warm and in the morning there were cartoons on TV and then some show entitled "Good Morning Britain" or something like that. In the well lit studios with bright pastels colours, the hosts were always relaxed in their own skin and discussing the news- it was as if you walked in on them eating breakfast in the bright city of the world that London was. Then we stepped out for breakfast- eggs, bacon, sausages, coffee. The days were about shopping, actually mostly window shopping. The days were exotic and every pound carefully but well spent.
There is something to be said for waking up and walking around in the crisp morning and finding you are in centre of the world as people from all parts bustle around you making their lives, finding each other. Makes me think of walking to the railway station early in the morning in Bombay to see an aunt coming in on a train. As the city lightened and cars started running and garbage trucks were heard, vendors who slept near their sugarcane juice stands awoke to set up for the daily business.
I have early morning memories of every city I've lived in- it's a movie collection in my head that I can play back whever I need to.