I finally begin to have adventures worthy of the name, and suddenly lose the impulse to post details of what's been happening to me! Ralphie, I know you're disppointed that there hasn't been an update on here for an eternity, so if nothing else, the email prompted me into action. That and the fact that I just finished reading a book, and have hours of boredom stretching out in front of me tonight without any other reading material, and nothing to do but write. There might even be an addition to someone else imaginary's adventures...but only if I can wrest my notebook back from my flatmate who currently has it by her bed. But enough digressing. Adventures.
I got back from Bath today, having spent a very busy week running around all over the place. There's been a few things happen in between that and the last post that I'll gloss over, but it's all too far in the past now, and feels like a lifetime ago. There's been the inevitable bouts of homesickness, helped out by supportive emails from Nad to remind me that things could be far worse - I could be stuck back there in the middle of all our now married or otherwise hooked up friends, a solitary single doomed to fit her social life around that of her friends partners...From some fates I have been temporarily spared.
There have equally been many trips to various pubs. I did drink a lot the night that Joel died. Far more than was good for me. It was as much the shock as anything, and to quiet the little voice in my head that was reminding me of all the things we'd planned, but now wouldn't get to do, all the little things that went to make up him being Joel. It's been a rough time for the people who knew him, but since that night I've kind of been insulated from that to a certain extent. I wasn't in Melbourne to go to his funeral, although I did hold my own moment of silence for him at the time. Being over here, it's not going to hit for a while, really. And as one person pointed out, with him living in America for the past while, it's more like he's gone on a holiday for a while than anything. But at the same time, there are things that make me think of him. Seeing a nose-to-tail accident on the side of the highway, even though it's just a minor fender bender; seeing what was supposed to be Miami airport in the latest installation of the James Bond movies; hearing Jesse's Girl. I didn't mean to write about all of this again, but I guess it's part of what's been going on in the past month and a half or so, so it's hard to leave it out all together.
Lots has happened since then though. I kind of needed to get out and about a lot for the weeks after that. I was going to pub with the friendly people from work - there will be more on that later, I'm sure. I went out to see Footloose at the theatre one night. I've been shopping as much as I could afford to. I've been to the movies a bit, been out to dinner, been to a work Christmas party, started playing hockey for what was - but somehow no longer is - the worst team in London, who like to party after games, I've been away for a weekend, and I've planned a holiday at Christmas. I've been ice skating without falling over once, much to everyone's shock, but none more surprised than me!. I've mailed presents to the other side of the world, and recieved them in return. It's been a hectic time, accompanied by far more chocolate than is good for me. I've mad new friends at work and at hockey. I've seen pretty boys, I've flirted shamelessly with some not so pretty boys. I've only bought 3 rounds of drinks since I got here, and discovered that chivalry is alive and well in certain parts of London. in short, I've been living life as much as I can, trying to make the most of the experience over here while my life is basically on hold, justifying selling pretty much everything I own to get here, without blowing the budget completely and ending up hopelessly in debt. I'm trying to cram everything in!
I've taken photos, I've created videos, I've written cards, I've tried to keep a journal but gave up after 2 entries, and only one of them finished. I'm so busy that I barely have time to sit still, but have somehow made my way through a surprising number of books.
I've experienced the crush of the London Underground at peak hour, the wilting, breath-stelaing humidity of being crammed into unventilated tunnels in a train packed to bursting with people dressed for weather at least 10 degrees colder than it is in there. I've been on London's busiest shopping street in the bustling Christmas rush, and had the thrill of knowing that I have finished by shopping, only to remember that there's that one extra person who still needs something. There's been the obigatory jokes about Australia losing the last Ashes series from the English, only to have that turn to silence when it became clear that they were outclassed in the first test, and let themselves lose the second. I've written emails home asking for things I couldn't bring in the 20kg luggage limit (that I managed to exceed by 13kg). I now have my Blundstone boots firmly attached to my feet, with my footy socks underneath. I'm almost used to an archaic flat without either a TV or a microwave (although i do tend to forget to get meat out ahead of time to defrost; a low heat ove does wonderful things if you give it a chance, just don't forget that freezer bags and ovens don't mix!), and am thinking of taking up crafts that I attempted before but got quickly bored with to distract me from the fact that it gets dark here at 4pm right now. I carry a brolly everywhere I go. I mimic those around me enough that my flatmate insists I'm developing an english accent, only to hear me drop back into the broadest imaginable Australian strine.
I've been drunk. I've been sober. I've laughed. I've cried. In short, I've been so busy with the big adventure of living - includling the continuing gut-wrenching boredom of a new daily routine - that I barely have time to think about maintaining a blog most of the time. Things would probably be different if I could get into this from work though, so we'll see what happens. In the mean time, I'll jsut have to settle for getting through my day with emails from anyone and everyone, whether they be across the office or across the world. Contact is the anchor that keeps me from drifitng into homesickness!!! Contact and constant distraction. If I keep moving, I might forget that there's half a world between me and my home. the speed with which time is moving right now also makes me think that my time over here, which stretched out forever before I left home, will be all too short in the living of it. So I'm trying, desperately, to make the most of it, and to imprint it all on my memory. Sadly, it seems to float in one side and drift out the other, so this is about all I can offer by way of an update right now, a photo of Regent St by Christmas by night!
