There is a love-hate relationship going on between me and Oxford Street. There are times when I feel like wringing its neck and other times Im just dumbfounded that Im living in W1 on the busiest street in Britain. Its difficult to reconcile the two when you are consistently stuck in choc-a-block traffic.

From uni, there are buses that take me directly back to my place but it runs through Oxford St. During rush hour, its unbearable because what should be a 20 minute bus journey can take as long as 45 minutes to an hour. For the past week, I have been getting off the bus a long way down before my stop and walking the remainder. But walking can be just as stressful when you are carrying your laptop and groceries and trying to manouvere around shoppers. They should seriously pedestrianize Oxford St and introduce trams. Although, I dont know how feasible that will be considering the street is quite long; from one end to the other there are already four tube stations.

Yesterday, all buses on Oxford Street had to make a detour because they closed down a portion of it to host Westlife, who were to officially switch on the christmas lights on Oxford St. While it was frustrating being on the bus, the irony was that I was looking forward to the festive lights being switched on. Well, the christmas lights turned out to be quite tame, so Im quite disappointed. I miss the extravaganza of christmas lights and decorations in HK. The Regent St lights looks good though (here is a photo).

Today I was on the bus home, around 2.30pm (presumably, not rush hour right), and the traffic was terrible so I got off just after Oxford Circus. By the way, check this out, I just goggled a map of Oxford St and found this. If you click on the numbers, it shows all the shops along each block on Oxford Street...very neat. To give some orientation, my uni is on the Tottenham Court Rd end and I live around no. 17. So, there is quite a chunk of Oxford Street to pass each day to and from Uni or work. Even after getting out of Oxford Street, I face traffic on Tottenham Crt Road, which is the road that leads up to Euston where my uni is situated. In London, there are quite a lot of one-way streets to ease traffic; Tottenham Crt Rd is one of such roads. Anyways, so I got off and started walking towards Marble Arch. Out of no where, came this guy dressed up as a clown plastered with discount stickers, prancing around and jostling pedestrians about the 25% store-wide sale happening at Debenhams (see no. 4 on map). Of course I was lured. How can a girl resist an invitation to shop? anyways, so I went in and was bowled over at the crowds. It was so packed. You would have thought Christmas was in a few days time and everyone is hurriedly doing their last-minute christmas gift shopping. Its November! I shudder, in trepidation and excitement, what it would be like in December. Its going to be craaazzy. Im excited that my parents are coming then. Its kind of perfect timing they are coming during the festive season. Moreover, they will be arriving before everything really starts to kick in and nothing is normal and leaving after the new years sales.

I better go off now. Here are the final photos of Poland.