Day Forty-Four: Going home and making friends with wonderful wacky people on the plane!

Hello world. I have left London. I am sitting on the plane – in an aisle seat mind you! – next to an extremely interesting couple whose first words to me were “What’s ted’s [meaning teddy] name?” The lady has written a book called Paradise Proof, and is a self-proclaimed spiritualist. She wears a lovely turquoise cross around her neck and she is fascinating. I asked her what her favourite story from her book was, and though I probably shouldn’t write it here because it’s her story! Anyway, we had a riveting discussion about souls and names and the idea of Heaven! You know, people are amazing. They’re so so different and there are so many conversations to be had! It’s almost impossible to imagine all the things they know!

So, back to the start of today, because I have time now and I need to record life! After going to sleep so late last night, Laurie and I woke up pretty late. It was wonderful: she brought me a cup of tea in bed! We were going to sit and chat, but the new-fangled bed was on wheels, and so you couldn’t actually lean against the wall without the bed rolling forwards! So we had tea in the kitchen! After that, I made a final to-do list, involving all the itty-bitty last-minute shopping things. There was quite a bit still left to do – those random things that you need to go somewhere special to ding. Top of the list were some golf-gloves for Billy. En route to finding them, we visited Harrods, which is massive, imperial, and rather unreal. It doesn’t feel right to be in a building filled with so much money’s worth of goods. I think that my favourite part of Harrods was the bottom floor, replete with seemingly infinite jewels. I particularly like the excessive displays of sparkle! It’s as if the jeweler chose the most shimmery gems he could find, and then cut them so that they shone even brighter, and then put them altogether in the hopes of blinding anyone who happened to look at them. Maybe by blinding people the jeweler intended to blind them to the price!

We took a break in Hyde Park, at the Serpentine Café, where a nosy, obnoxious pigeon pestered us. He landed on our table, eyes riveted to the carrot cake. I tried to shoo him away, after asking him politely to leave. But to no avail. He was as determined to stay as I was to make him leave. It didn’t work so well because I am not very good at chasing stubborn pigeons. If they’re the sort that fly away if I so much as take a step towards them, then I’m fine. But if the wretched pigeon is brusque and unfeeling, I am useless. Anyway, we ate the carrot cake quickly and he moved off when he realised that there was nothing left for him to have. I even made sure that there were no crumbs left on the plate; whether this was because I didn’t want to share with the pigeon, or because I just simply wanted to eat all the cake is a good question. It was a SPLENDIFEROUS carrot cake. The cream cheese icing was incontestable. I would have had another piece, but I think it may have made me feel sick. Also, it was expensive!

So we trekked 6 and a half miles in search of a golf glove and eventually found one! Then we walked speedily back to Laurie’s house and moved my bags downstairs as efficiently and quickly as possible. This was a difficult task considering that the bags weighed 22.9 and 24 kgs respectively, two hand luggages not included. With help from some kind strangers at the various staircases, we made it to the tube station and onto the right tube – the Piccadilly line – reaching Terminal 4 about an hour later. Then we went to check my bags in, and the kind lady let my 24kg bag go without making me pay! After that, we made our way over to the Costa and partook in cappuccino-and-pastry. ‘Twas yummy! Then I thought I better get moving, so we said good bye and I headed through security.

Now for those who may be travelling soon: when you go through security, you are allowed ONE plastic bag of liquids, not two. And “liquids” includes foundation powder. I don’t know quite what they thought I was hiding in my skirt elastic, but apparently I have a metallic waist! This meant that I had to be checked with a strange contraption that looks kind of like a toilet brush, which they wipe(?) around the offending area. It has a piece of material at the end which then goes into what I presume is a drug checker or something. Fortunately, my waist is not illegal, and so it was all fine! I proceeded to the conveyor belt where two of my three trays were waiting for me. But where was the one with my red bag in it? Hah. It had been re-directed to the “poke through me because you’re pedantic” pile.  I had to wait – behind people who were technically behind me but didn’t seem to understand that pushing in front would not make their bag suddenly acquire magical powers that would allow it to emulate them and jump the line. Is it bad that I was quite leased when my bag was picked up (before theirs) and I was able to step in front of them? Anyway, like I said, it turns out that foundation and the last dregs of a tube of toothpaste also need to be put in a plastic bag. Eventually I made it out alive and with enough time to buy some water and get to the gate with time to spare!

The plane ride so far has been pretty uneventful, except for two things. First, I almost went to the airhostess to ask her if I could plug my laptop in because it wasn’t charging. I’d even gone so far as to turn on the little ‘assistance’ light. Fortunately no one came, because as I stood and picked up my laptop, I realised that it wasn’t charging because I hadn’t plugged it in! The second event was when I was in the bathroom and I didn’t know that the toilet flushing thing was automatic. So I let out a semi-squeal when I was busy brushing my teeth and then suddenly the toilet started flushing on its own! And airport toilet flushes are not quiet at all, so it was quite a shock! You’d think I would have learnt, but it happened again when I moved my arm to put my toothbrush away, and I got a fright again!

Oh and we had a yummy chicken curry affair for dinner, but there was coleslaw which was gross – as coleslaw is. The chocolate cheesecake was delicieux! There are about two hours left of the trip, and I don’t really want to sleep. Maybe I’ll sleep on the next flight! 

Day Forty-One: JUST ONE MORE CLASS

We're busy doing some group studying now, and I hope I'll be able to go to bed soon. In about twelve hours I'll be half way through my Photography exam, and then boom. It'll be over. I'll be done! I just have to make sure that I make it on time for the LAST time! I'm pretty proud that I haven't been late to class yet!

Day Forty: ESSAY NEARLY COMPLETE

And once again it's very late and I have not yet made it to the land of Nod. I am sleepy and saturated with every fact that can possibly gleaned from the two books I have out from the library about the Albert Memorial. I am also feeling slightly sick because of the two chocolates I ate about an hour ago, and the yoghurt that went down after them. Oh and the cup of tea. But you know, despite all that, I'm a happy chappy! My essays are basically done, which is fantastic because I can now actually enjoy these last few days without the heavy, dark, and ominous cloud shadowing my every step, and breathing cold and angst-ridden breaths through my window. HAH. 

The sun came out and dried up all the rain and Sarah can go and enjoy mochas again. 

I think that's why I haven't really been able to do much consistent and fruitful essay-writing in Waterstone's: I want to enjoy the experience so much that it just doesn't seem write to be forcing myself to work there. Today was a little bit different because I was on page seven, and I knew what I wanted to talk about for the rest of the paper, so I actually wanted to write! In the end, it turned out that I went up to twelve pages and I actually enjoyed the process. I also changed spots mid-way through my pot of tea, which helped. 

So that's me, essays nearly done and London nearly done and so much to look forward to and so much to wish would never end. Life is strange like that. I'm sure I have heard that somewhere before, or read it, or seen it, that you can't experience the loveliness of the future if you keep looking backwards. That's why I try so hard to live in every moment, and squeeze everything out of every moment. If I didn't live like that, I think I would go mad. I mean, sometimes I think I probably do go mad because I'm so focused on trying to live that the actual living is forgotten! But most moments I do live out my philosophy, and it makes looking to the future a wonderful thing, and remembering the past even better. Colours are a big part of that, I think. And people's faces or clothes too. I like to notice those sorts of things: the golden tea cup, the red teapot, the purple coleslaw salad and the muddy brownies. That man with the wild mustache, and the other man with the mustache that looked like it had run into his beard in a freak accident many years ago, but resolved the situation amicably and decided to settle in where they'd collided. 

The sweetest father-son pair sat down at the green couch today. The little boy was so excited to eat his lemon-drizzle cake and his hot chocolate. I loved his sense of wonder when he sipped the little cup and his dad said that that was his and the big one was the little boy's. He was so excited to have the big cup, and he just couldn't contain his excitement! In fact, he told his dad three times that he'd thought that the little cup was his and that the big one was his dad's! He reminded me of myself a little bit, when I find a connection or a realisation and I just can't keep quiet about it. I think the dad must have been a 9-5 working day dad, and he took his son out sometimes to spend time with him and help him with homework. They were doing fractions, and the posh, officially-suited daddy clung comically tightly to a brightly coloured book titled "How to Help your Child with Maths". The little boy was very sweet, but also apparently very confused about what fractions were, because he would enthusiastically say "that's five tenths" and then his dad would stare intently at the question for quite some while, by which time the little boy had piped up with another, very different, answer! It was a tender spectacle, especially when the pair of them sat with their legs crossed in the same way, leaning on their hands in the same way, mirror images of each other. I wonder if it's a genetic thing, or if the little boy was deliberately copying his dad. Either way, it was so sweet!

Right, to tell the honest truth, I would like to go to sleep now. I did almost everything I needed to today, bar filling in the empty and rather sparse posts for the last two days! I can probably do that on the plane though.

Tomorrow is another day! 

Day Thirty-Nine: More work and Andrew

Why is it that right at the end of a this trip, I have to do things. There's reading and reading responses and class in an actual class, and no trips or excursions, and no dinner parties, and no new coffee shops.

Why is there no time for that.

Why has time suddenly picked up all her luxurious skirts and traded them for block-y slabs of dreary black and white text and too-bright computer screens. Her dress is ugly, cold, glaring, it is no longer hazy and unknown. She does not have time to go adventuring and instead she must sit and be proactive and restrain herself. She does go shopping, once. But not real shopping because she is leaving soon and she does not want to waste. And now it is late and her reading is not done and her skirts are unfinished because she has not finished making them. But she has so much to do and it will all get done.

As you can see, I was a little upset! 

But on the plus side, I got to see my long-lost-but-recently-rediscovered twin today, and we explored London and that was wonderful!

Day Thirty-Eight: Laurie and a picnic in Hyde Park

The seagull squawks above our heads

And soars on and on and on and on.

It calls our frustrations up into the air

And takes them with him on and on and on.

Over the deep white oceans of clouds,

Through the blue-tinted air and the smog

On up to the sun the sea-gull soars,

Chasing it on and on.

Our worries they follow and all fly away,

Burnt up in the sun as it sinks.

And I and the lavender sit by the water,

And slowly, the lavender blinks. 

I spent the day with Laurie today, we had a picnic in Hyde Park, I wrote four pages of my essay, and then I sat by the water and wrote this when the seagull squawked overhead.