Time flies, it feels like yesterday that I landed in London and now I'm already halfway through my stay here :-(((. As you all know, London is a city that I love and the more time I spend here the more I love London. Its almost like we have a connection, something that goes beyond the boundaries of time and space, like I've known London from a previous birth, every time I come here I get a feeling like I'm coming home, it doesn't feel like an alien city at all, it envelopes me in a bear hug like someone welcoming a dear family member...sigh, I could go on for ever...
Thankfully I've now moved to the company flats at Paddington (P.S. my new apartment is on the 15th floor and is nice and quiet, a welcome change from the chaos at St. Paul's) and have settled down nicely into a routine that I quite like. Everything I need is now two minutes away from my apartment complex. I've finally started cooking full fledged and quite like the independence of running my own household. You notice that I've used the word thankfully to start this paragraph, this is because I'm grateful to move out of my previous apartment complex as I've become something of a legend in a 'laughing stock' kind of way, and how did I do that??? you ask, well, smart old me, locked her self out of the house, not only did I lock myself out of the house, I kept my apartment keys in my hand bag, and where do you think I kept my hand bag, I locked it in my suitcase (it has one of those Made in China locks - the self locking variety'. So absolutely shamefaced I had to go to the reception fetch the spare apartment key and then had to bring my suitcase to the reception where the manager brought out the tool kit and the set about breaking the lock, after struggling for a few minutes he called the maintenance guy and the two of them set about trying to break the lock. The whole episode provided much comic relief to the other guest who tripped over one another as they rushed about to call their partners/friends/ children to see the 'Einstien who locked her suitcase with her keys in it!'.
That aside, it has been a really eventful stay so far, the work is challenging and while I've worked hard, I've also managed to find time to make a few new friends and travel around the countryside like my life depended on it. I've finally managed to scratch off item no 5 on my things-to-do-before-I-die list - Visit Stonehenge. More on that later and I've also done the touristy hop on - hop off bus tour of London. As an add on bonus I also visited Bath and Salisbury.
Stonehenge - To be honest the feelings after seeing Stonehenge was 'Thats it!!, is this all, shouldn't I be feeling like part of some magic!!!', but sadly it just became one more item to scratch off my list and proved to be a damp squib. It really hurt when it became another thing that I will add to my list of 'Been there, done that, none the wiser for it'.
It is really funny that I should feel this way as I've always wanted to go to Stonehenge for the better part of my life. In my head it was like a pilgrimage that I had to do, I really looked forward to it but sadly like most things in life that I've longed for when I finally saw it, it proved to be a disappointment... Thankfully I did Salisbury Cathedral and Bath on the same day, the stunning Salisbury Cathedral, the Magna Carta and the beauty of the city of Bath compensated for it and I arrived back in London a much happier person.
Moving on to the attacking showers, well I'm a very wary person when it comes to plumbing and related gadgets. I hate it when I'm faced with the stylish faucets that ultimately just dispense water but have such a smug look, almost as if goading me with a 'Chala kar bata, toh jaane'. I'm sure you know what I mean as everyone one has at least one story to tell about a tap that just wouldn't work, no matter what you did and how after you have conceded defeat a five year old who had been watching the proceedings with great interest came forward waved her hand in front the tap and as if by magic the tap worked, making you feel like a gigantic ignoramus. The shower in question is in my friend S's apartment and for the life of me I could not figure how to get it to work. I stayed overnight at her place one weekend and that is how I came face to face with my nemesis, It has two lever one small and the other slightly bigger. I gingerly turned the big lever and a blast of cold water hit me before I could say 'Oh ah'. Quickly I turned it off and fiddled with the small lever and again tried to work the tap, again with the same result and at the end of it I accepted defeat and quietly had a cold water shower and stepped out....
