Hello London!
My BA flight landed at Heathrow at 5am. It was a long journey - with me hardly getting any sleep this time. The new Terminal 5 is actually a let down after coming from Hong Kong Airport. Design wise I expected to be awed by it, expecting something outstanding, comparable to the new Beijing Terminal 3, but no. Its basically the same old Heathrow...just a new version.
Being an early flight - I waltzed through immigration. The baggage was what held me up. True to its reputation we waited some 40min for the doors of the cargo hold to be unfrozen and our baggage to be freed. Above all expectation I received my bag intact and unmolested at 6.30.
Onwards to the Tube. And this is where it gets interesting. Because a feeling comes over me - I am back.
Back in a place I left with no regrets, a place I once despised, with no want of ever coming back. BUT, I suddenly felt something, a return, some feeling of joy and excitement of being back on familiar ground. Rediscovering and falling for the quaintness of London and also a feeling of homecoming... I noticed the flat landscape, the green trees, as doors opened the crisp air, stillness and birdsong. The familiar Piccadilly Line stations the tube map. Yes I was sort of "home".
I couldnt keep the smile from my face as I noticed things I'd previously taken for granted and as mundane, and places and signs that triggered memories. It was like meeting up with an old friend.
It got even better as I exited Baker Street station and made my way to Sunny and Cora's. I had lived for a year around the corner, so this had been MY station too. The streetscape hadnt changed over the year, some new shops (even a new Gourmet Burger Kitchen!!! yee haa). I fell in love with the area all over again. The neat clean mansion flats, the crisp air, flower pots with pink and red flowers in bloom, the old corner shop where I used to buy my paper, my old hairdressers, the Tescos, Nandos! the sound of London, the parked cars, the pub on the corner, the look of the people walking by, these streets I once walked.
Yes - beyond all probability - i love being back in London!
Being an early flight - I waltzed through immigration. The baggage was what held me up. True to its reputation we waited some 40min for the doors of the cargo hold to be unfrozen and our baggage to be freed. Above all expectation I received my bag intact and unmolested at 6.30.
Onwards to the Tube. And this is where it gets interesting. Because a feeling comes over me - I am back.
Back in a place I left with no regrets, a place I once despised, with no want of ever coming back. BUT, I suddenly felt something, a return, some feeling of joy and excitement of being back on familiar ground. Rediscovering and falling for the quaintness of London and also a feeling of homecoming... I noticed the flat landscape, the green trees, as doors opened the crisp air, stillness and birdsong. The familiar Piccadilly Line stations the tube map. Yes I was sort of "home".
I couldnt keep the smile from my face as I noticed things I'd previously taken for granted and as mundane, and places and signs that triggered memories. It was like meeting up with an old friend.
It got even better as I exited Baker Street station and made my way to Sunny and Cora's. I had lived for a year around the corner, so this had been MY station too. The streetscape hadnt changed over the year, some new shops (even a new Gourmet Burger Kitchen!!! yee haa). I fell in love with the area all over again. The neat clean mansion flats, the crisp air, flower pots with pink and red flowers in bloom, the old corner shop where I used to buy my paper, my old hairdressers, the Tescos, Nandos! the sound of London, the parked cars, the pub on the corner, the look of the people walking by, these streets I once walked.
Yes - beyond all probability - i love being back in London!
posted by j a s o n at 8:02 am
3 Comments:
I am glad you feel you much more positive about London this time around. Yes, there are things which are damn annoying but there's also so much to fall in love with. Welcome back! See you Monday.
oh Vodafone just ate 20 quid of mine....have to write a letter to get it refunded.
Yay...for UK
Good grief, Jase! You sound like Woody Allen drooling over Manhattan. So sentimental for the old town, eh?
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