This is LBC from Global, leading Britain's conversation with James O'Brien.

It's four minutes after ten. Good morning. I hope you had a splendid weekend. I hope you remember to put cream on. Goodness me. Goodness me.

How long does it take you normally to wish that the weather was nicer and then start wishing that it would stop being quite so nice

and return to slightly more manageable temperatures?

What do you give yourself three days, is it?

Three and a half?

Two?

An hour?

Very wonderful, wonderful place.

I moved to West London about, well, about 23 and a half years ago, actually.

I can date it by my wedding day.

And I remember being struck on pretty much the first time I went out shopping.

I moved from a wealthy part of town to a slightly less wealthy part of town.

So I'd sort of knocked around Zone 1 for most of my student years and my early years in work.

Do you know that you could work in a shop in central London and live in Soho when I left university?

Can you imagine that?

I'm sorry if I'm alienating non-Londoners,

but Soho is, you know, pretty much the coolest district in the country. And rents have always reflected that. But I was working in a shop. I was working more or less full-time in a shop,

well, desperately trying to persuade a few newspapers to give me a bit of work. And I had more than enough income to rent a room in a nice

big flat, just north of Oxford Street, actually, not quite Soho. You'd call it Fitzrovia. Now,

goodness me, you couldn't rent a bench in Soho Square for an average retail income. Incredible.

I mentioned that because we're going to talk about shops today, which as you know, is one of my

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