Sunday 7 June 2009

London, baby

So, we've arrived. The flight and stuff was uneventful. And in fact might even be described as smooth. We ended up, rather fortutitously not having to queue to be processed at LAX or when we arrived at Heathrow. The longest wait ended up being at the baggage carousel. We even managed about 12 hours sleep in total between the two legs.

We're laying here in bed at Jez and Winnie's after close to 12 hours sleep last night too, hoping that we're totally over the jetlag already. We've found that staying up as long as possible that first day makes all the difference when trying to get into the timecycle of your destination. That and not constantly working out what time it is back home, of course.

Yesterday afternoon we'd arranged for a load of people from the barge to come across to Jez & Winnie's for an open home. Winnie had so kindly organised food and drinks and stuff for us too. In the end maybe twenty or more people came, with various babies in tow that we'd never met before. It was so brilliant to see all our friends and catch up with them for a while. People came and left between 3pm and 6 and it worked really well.

I think one of the things about moving to the other side of the world is that sometimes you imagine life in the place you leave just goes on pause when you're not there. So it was a great reminder of the falseness of that to see people and talk about how life's changed for them in the past two years for them. And meet their children. There has been a positive baby explosion at the barge since we left. I'm not sure what they're adding to the tea.

It's weird sitting here, in London. I've just been gazing out the window and everything looks exactly the same. Our flat was less than 400m from here, as the crow flies, maybe even less, so we know this area very well. And nothing has changed. Driving through London yesterday from the airport and on to the Isle of Dogs there are some changes, a few new buildings, but everything pretty much looks the same. And feels the same. In some ways it's like we have never been away.

But that's where it's weird. Because we have been away. For almost two years. We've had two years life in Nuzziland and life here has had two years without us. But now we're back, Chch almost seems like a dream. It is so far detached from our previous life here that it doesn't quite seem real. Just like when we are over there that sometimes London seems a lifetime away. It's difficult to explain.

One thing that's not difficult to explain is the London weather. We're led to believe that the last week had seen sunshine and temperatures of 28 degrees. But we landed to 12 degrees and grey drizzle. Ah, London grey. We left Christchurch to beautiful blue skies and 15 degrees. Tell me, which is winter and which is summer? If we'd not woken on Friday in NZ to -2 and a frost we'd be hard-pushed to tell.

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