Half-coherent ramblings
Back in London.
Am partly relieved to be back. Back to a place where things are familiar, where I feel more in control of things and my life.
The trip and my stay in the US was great though. A really good break for me. The kind of vacation that I really badly needed. Where I could kick back and relax. But it was ultimately a dream I guess. Like some kind of sweet drug that transports one to a floaty swirly world, where everything is hazy and comfortable.
But real life isn't like that. Real life isn't waking up 10.30am to play videogames, or lounging in bed, and having absolute freedom to decide how I want to fill my day. Real life isn't having boba for lunch, spending all day taking buses around town to hunt for the perfect pair of jeans, window-shopping, sitting in Union Square, reading a book under the sun. Real life isn't having a boy come home after work, to have dinner, and watch downloaded movies with, to level up with - there's something really fun, and warm about playing video games with someone else. That's fantasy life.
Any more of fantasy life, and I think I would have found it very very difficult to return to my own world. Even as it is, I crave so much to have the two additional weeks that my original plan would have conferred me. More. More of that sublime denial of a reality that is now staring me in the face.
But I had to return today. I arrived in London Gatwick slightly before nine in the morning. This was the latest flight out of the States I could catch, such that I will be able to pick up my parents at Heathrow airport later this afternoon. Their plane lands at 18.10 hours. If I could catch a plane that arrived in Heathrow at 18.09, I would have.
One of my housemates has gone home for a couple of months before he returns to start work. Another is at work at her internship right now. And my two remaining housemates whom I had lunch with, have left for Heathrow. They will be catching a plane to New York City, and then tour D.C. and Boston for 10 days, spending 4th of July there.
It's funny how two inhabitants (them) of this house left for the States, on the very day that another inhabitant of this house (me) returns from the States.
I like being older. It confers some benefits: like all this whizzing around. As a kid, going abroad seemed a huge deal to me. Now, hopping on a plane seems as effortless as hopping on a bus to head downtown. US folks coming over for a quick European tour, visiting friends all over the UK; plans made for friends studying in US, UK, and Singapore to meet up either in US or UK, then stopping by Hong Kong for a round of shopping before heading home; plans to hop across the border to Paris to visit a friend residing there disrupted by the friend's sudden decision to visit the States. I don't know if the borders are melting with our age, or with the age of computers, technology and cheaper, faster travel.
I am still jet-lagged. And semi-dreading having my parents over. Parents can be stressful at times. I am really not in a state to deal with nagging parents right now, so I'm hoping they will be as tired as I am, so we can all just crash out once we get back home.
Now I just have to keep awake for another hour or so...
Am partly relieved to be back. Back to a place where things are familiar, where I feel more in control of things and my life.
The trip and my stay in the US was great though. A really good break for me. The kind of vacation that I really badly needed. Where I could kick back and relax. But it was ultimately a dream I guess. Like some kind of sweet drug that transports one to a floaty swirly world, where everything is hazy and comfortable.
But real life isn't like that. Real life isn't waking up 10.30am to play videogames, or lounging in bed, and having absolute freedom to decide how I want to fill my day. Real life isn't having boba for lunch, spending all day taking buses around town to hunt for the perfect pair of jeans, window-shopping, sitting in Union Square, reading a book under the sun. Real life isn't having a boy come home after work, to have dinner, and watch downloaded movies with, to level up with - there's something really fun, and warm about playing video games with someone else. That's fantasy life.
Any more of fantasy life, and I think I would have found it very very difficult to return to my own world. Even as it is, I crave so much to have the two additional weeks that my original plan would have conferred me. More. More of that sublime denial of a reality that is now staring me in the face.
But I had to return today. I arrived in London Gatwick slightly before nine in the morning. This was the latest flight out of the States I could catch, such that I will be able to pick up my parents at Heathrow airport later this afternoon. Their plane lands at 18.10 hours. If I could catch a plane that arrived in Heathrow at 18.09, I would have.
One of my housemates has gone home for a couple of months before he returns to start work. Another is at work at her internship right now. And my two remaining housemates whom I had lunch with, have left for Heathrow. They will be catching a plane to New York City, and then tour D.C. and Boston for 10 days, spending 4th of July there.
It's funny how two inhabitants (them) of this house left for the States, on the very day that another inhabitant of this house (me) returns from the States.
I like being older. It confers some benefits: like all this whizzing around. As a kid, going abroad seemed a huge deal to me. Now, hopping on a plane seems as effortless as hopping on a bus to head downtown. US folks coming over for a quick European tour, visiting friends all over the UK; plans made for friends studying in US, UK, and Singapore to meet up either in US or UK, then stopping by Hong Kong for a round of shopping before heading home; plans to hop across the border to Paris to visit a friend residing there disrupted by the friend's sudden decision to visit the States. I don't know if the borders are melting with our age, or with the age of computers, technology and cheaper, faster travel.
I am still jet-lagged. And semi-dreading having my parents over. Parents can be stressful at times. I am really not in a state to deal with nagging parents right now, so I'm hoping they will be as tired as I am, so we can all just crash out once we get back home.
Now I just have to keep awake for another hour or so...
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