monumental

I climbed to the top of the Monument today.  It was designed by Christopher Wren to commemorate the Great Fire of London "and to celebrate the rebuilding of the City," according to the official-looking certificate I was handed on my way out.  Three hundred and eleven steps up a narrow, spiral staircase.  The view is worth it, even though you are surrounded by chain-link fence.  It offered a different perspective of the city, since it's placed more toward the financial district, all those tall shiny buildings glinting in the sun, and hurried business people darting around. 

St. Paul's Cathedral

Tower Bridge

The Shard

The Gherkin

The Monument

  Afterward, I sat on a stone step thing surrounding a tree outside Monument station.  I saw a young woman leaning against a closed store front, having a cigarette.  She was wearing a leather jacket.  Her hair was dyed black, and she was slightly overweight, shifting herself from foot to foot.  As I watched her, she was approached twice by two different men, each asking her for a lighter.  Each time, she smiled and was polite, handing her lighter over.  The first guy was elderly; the second guy was young and handsome: grey trousers, shiny black shoes, a businessman on his lunch break.  She smiled at him differently than she had at the older man, and the smile remained as she watched him look down to use the lighter.  I was hoping he'd stay and chat with her, but he only thanked her and strolled away, leaving her with the remnants of a smile on her face, a cigarette in her hand.