Queen.

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Photograph taken in Madrid's Gaybourhood, Chueca

I have utter admiration for women like this. Which is strange because I don't know why. And I was trying to figure it out as I sat on the cafe terrace.

I saw her coming a mile off, a long cigarette hanging routinely out of her hand as she swanned up the cobbled street in her high-heels and took a seat right behind me.
She extinguished her first cigarette while simultaneously fishing out a second before ordering a beer which was swiftly followed by another in the same fashion.

Her dress was buttoned low at the top and strung high at the bottom. Her posture struck me as almost defiant. In defiance of what, though? To say 'old age' would be patronising, and to say 'life' would would be a cliche and you'd have to be dumber than a bag of hammers to use one of those.

But there was definitely an air of hedonism about her.

And that's what intrigued me so.