It's a kind of magic

Something happened today. It was amazing. You know how you always wish your life could be a musical? You don't? You know who else doesn't like musicals? TERRORISTS!

Sorry. Didn't mean that. Anyway. You know how I always wish my life were a musical? Well, today, I walked into an English bookshop in Cologne, feeling a little lonely and frozen to the bone, and the guy told me "can I help you" and I said "yes, I'm looking for some Victorian poetry". (Now, I don't really know why I said that, probably related to so much Charlotte Brontë over the last few weeks).

The man at the counter proceeded to take me on a tour of his whole bookshop, looking for something that might be relevant, and told me about his favourite poet. He asked why I was so interested in Victorian poetry and I said, well, I don't really read poetry, and I figured maybe I should try to broaden my landscape a little bit. Then we started talking about English Folk music, because I had seen a Laura Marling album on one of his shelves, and he told me to sit down, and some of his Scottish friends came over, and he started playing folk tunes on his guitar* and it was all very lovely.

I did ask if I could possibly move in, but his answer being noncommittal, I decided I'd better get a move on, and went away. It was all very romantic, and it involved a Scottish couple. I no longer feel lonely, and I'm pretty sure the cold part can be arranged with the help of a nice bowl of tomato soup.

So, here's to the awesome English bookshop in Cologne.

* It was actually a ukulele. But somehow, it doesn't quite fit. The word "Ukulele" in itself is enough to destroy the whole romanticism of this whole story. Still, I had to set the record straight. Please, note that I have no personal romantic interest in the guy from the English bookshop, who is married to a Russian woman.