London Adventures Part One:
First Loves Never Die
Twenty eight days away from everything familiar and normal
in one of the most fabulous cities in the world. Twenty eight days to wake up and ask, “What
sounds good today?” or “Where do I feel like going today?” Close your eyes and imagine that for just a
moment. As an American, that concept is
nearly impossible to contemplate. We
aren’t a nation of holiday seekers. The
average American takes less than two weeks of non-consecutive holiday time a
year. I, myself, had taken a grand total
of two ten-day vacations in fifteen years prior to this sojourn to London.
After fifteen years of owning my own business, I’ve been
working for six months to close it down and transition existing clients and
projects to other contractors in my field.
I had lived a life of being on call twenty four hours, seven days a week. The buck always stopped with me. I was the one always in charge of putting out
the fires and seeing things through. The
last few clients were proving difficult to transition. I knew that in order to truly cut the cord
and step out of that life, a drastic move would be required. I would need to be unreachable and not just
for them but for me as well (yes, just a little co-dependency had developed
over the years). So on February 18th,
I transferred my last client file to the replacement firm and changed the
voicemail on my office phone saying I was no longer in business. The next day I paid my bills, cleaned my
house, emptied my refrigerator, packed my bag, kissed my cat (who would be
looked after by her other mom, my ex) and boarded the overnight flight to
Heathrow.
Why London? Well... Hello? It’s London!
But I did pick London specifically. I have been a rural island girl for
the last fifteen years. Since this year
is all about change, exploration and rediscovery for me, it seemed like it was
time to go back to my first great love. London was the first city I actually
fell in love with back in the days when I was a student in the U.K. Oh, sure, I grew up in Southern California
and hung out in Hollywood, but I had never loved it. With London, it was love at first sight
twenty five years ago and, except for landing in Heathrow and boarding a train
to other locations in the U.K., I hadn’t seen it properly since my days as a
student.
The first days were fraught with a tummy bug but after that
passed, my friend and hostess began by reintroducing me to London’s amazing
Tube system. Much had changed in the
twenty five years since my last visit to London. Out with coins and tickets and in with Oyster
Cards, but the system itself is just as efficient as I remembered. It took me several reminders to stand on the
right of escalators and pass on the left.
The British are an orderly sort, which I appreciate very much. We wandered down to the British Museum and
down to Soho over to Trafalgar Square.
Square after square, corner after corner, the beauty of London never
gets old for me. The majesty of the
architecture, the layers of history, the city whispers stories at every
turn. I found myself just watching
Londoners thinking, “Do they see this?”
“Do they hear this?” “Do they
know how precious this is?” I hope so.
