If I was sitting in a cafe with my girlfriends, and they eagerly asked me “So, how’d it go?”, I would be looking down, fingers ripping up a serviette, blushing, as I reply, “I think… I think I really like him.”

And of course by “him” I actually mean “it” and by “it” I actually mean “London”.

I can’t explain the magnetic attraction we Aussies have to London. It doesn’t matter that we know we’ll be burnt by the ridiculous rental costs, the crap pay for crap work and the rainy weather… we’re like moths to a flame.

Am currently reading the new Harry Potter to accompany my time here, which is highly apt. Not only because the story is set in and around London (traveled Charring Cross Road the same day Harry does!) but because Rowling manages to hit the exact same nerve that’s going around here in the story.

The beauty of HP is that her depiction of the Magical World is really her sly parody and dry, witty commentary on our own. (Corruption in the government and media, cultural references like love of celebrity and gossip mags, racism and bigotry.)

In her latest offer, “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,” the Ministry of Magic have finally admitted that Voldemort has returned, and thus begin putting stringent security measures in place and actively spreading the same sort of “Be Alert” message we are all getting from out governments post 9-11. Fear is everywhere.

Coming into London Airport now, as opposed to before the recent bombing, is no doubt a different experience. The woman who checked my passport asked me so many questions, and I felt a little interrogated. – What are you doing here in London? Why do you have a German working visa? How long are you staying for? Who lives at this address you’ve listed as your residence? etc. etc.

And the trains, of course, have warning stickers about what to do if you see any suspicious people or bags lying around, and there are regular announcements of the same vein.

At the same time, I sort of appreciate these posters and flags that the London mayor have put up reading

7M1LLION
LONDONERS

with the “1″ and “London” in red so that it reads, “7 Million Londeners, 1 London.” And he has a billboard with a quote in which he says something about the fact that these attacks don’t divide the city, and London stands together against them. I’m not so sure if the city actually is so chummy at the moment (To my taxi driver – one of those fabulous black boxy taxis – I commented on how multicultural London is, he replied “maybe a bit too multicultural”) but it’s nice that the government acknowledges the possibility of increased racial tension and encourages the city to stick together.

And here’s a personal warning from me: don’t read Harry Potter if you have something to do in the day, or before you go to bed if you have to wake up early the next day. The book is seriously like a heroin addiction. As soon as you’re on it, damn it’s just so good you can’t stop. You keep telling yourself – the end of this page, the end of the chapter, but then you look over, and you can’t tear yourself away from the tantalising words, and fuck it you go for it. The rest of the world ceases to exist. You don’t want to go out, you don’t want to sleep or eat – Harry and Hermione, and Ron, and the Weasleys, and Dumbledore, and the Order and Hogwarts… that’s all that exists now.

And even when you are off it, you’re counting down the hours until you can just get back on. The worst thing is, it’s finite, you know the story won’t last forever, so you really should pace yourself. But you can’t. You simply can’t.

Also, have put a bunch more photos up, so check them out at my photoblog.