Christmas 1992.

10 days

A snowflake hits my nose when I open my bedroom window early that morning. I immediately close it, feeling the fresh air enter my room and slide on my skin. I am lucky because every morning I wake up with a view on the new tree planted in front of the town hall. We are now exactly ten days from Christmas and we can still see the excitement on children's faces in front of the decorations in the shop windows. This is one of the reasons why I like to leave my house in the evening and walk to my usual coffee shop. It is down the road, you can't really miss it with its big "Welcome in" sign flashing on the door. The shop is held by an old woman: Nancy. She was born in America but spent most of her childhood here in England. She has still kept her accent though and sells all sorts of delicious treats and pastries. So I already know where I am going to head later on.
But right now, I have to get ready to go to work because I start in less than an hour. So a quick coffee and biscuit is all I need now. I then put my shoes and coat on and off I go. I know I shouldn't really run because it's slippery on the ground with the amount of snow but I don't really have a choice. I whizz past the bakery, the Christmas Tree and arrive in front of the huge grey building just in time before the clock bangs 8AM. I step in and already know I will have to climb three floors before arriving to my tiny office. This is in some way the only exercise of the day because all I do is sit behind a desk, typing on my computer about politics, gossip and crimes. This has always been my dream job but I wouldn't say this is what I expected it to be when I was ten...
But today, I will be working on an interesting case. The boss came in yesterday to say this was an emergency and he was right because this is about to change the whole population's life in Oxford.

I am literally falling asleep on my papers because of all the energy I gave in writing today's article. So I leave earlier than usual and head to the local coffee shop as I predicted this morning. Not able to see well with my scarf and beanie, I bump into a man whose wallet falls in the snow. I look up and am able to see that he doesn't seem that glad about it. All sorts of tickets are lying on the ground now and he is already picking them up and walking away from me. I turn back and walk to the coffee shop trying to simply ignore that awkward moment.