Tuesday, 25 Dec - Heading Home
The journey back to Singapore wasn’t difficult at all. I was laden with goodies from London, but the entire public transport system in the city on Christmas Day had been shut down. Coming to the rescue, however, was the good chap GNK+1 in his trusty Vauxhall, providing me a lift straight from SSG and HM’s Shad Thames apartment to Heathrow Airport Terminal Three. HM was also nice enough to come along for the ride, and to send me off personally.
There I breezed through customs and the security checks, helped by the Fast Track process which I was entitled to, as I had managed earlier to upgrade myself onto a Business Class seat on the Singapore Airlines flight back home. Yeah!!! The Silver Kris lounge offered a nice respite before boarding, and when I stepped onto the upper desk of the 747, flying heaven awaited me. Visions of beauty slinking around in dark kebayas, offering me wine and more......I couldn't get enough of it all.
I awoke earlier that morning with the sound of the front door opening. It was good ol' BP, who had just flown in on a red eye flight from New York, where the lucky bugger is spending his second year of studies. He’s gonna be in London from Christmas till New Year’s Day, taking over the couch and living room that I had sorta called my own for the past week. It sure was good meeting up with him, even if for that half day, over breakfast and then over a turkey pasta lunch, rekindling memories of time in Goodenough College and of jaunts across Scandinavia just this past summer.
But now I’m back in Singapore, and back to the grind of work. Is there and can there be such a thing as instant nostalgia? I have nothing but the loveliest and warmest memories of this past week, and already, I’m thinking fondly back to my first day, not so long ago, when it was me who trundled into the Shad Thames apartment early in the morning, greeting a bleary eyed and sleep deprived HM…
I must have said it before, but I’ll say it again - this has been a most amazing week in London. I was glad I returned. I feel entirely comfortable and at ease in this city, but what has made it special were the many moments spent with close and dear friends, some of whom I may not see for some time yet. I’m very very grateful to the SSG and to the HM for letting me stay with them, for their time, for their company, for everything – especially their friendship.
And so, it’s time, again, to suspend Rampant in London, for I am now, once more, Subdued in Singapore. I know of no other city – apart from my hometown – which has managed to excite me so much, and which has offered me so much. When I was there, I didn’t feel as though I had been away. I felt I was home – a second home, as it were. I don’t know when I will be back. But back I will surely be, soon...
There I breezed through customs and the security checks, helped by the Fast Track process which I was entitled to, as I had managed earlier to upgrade myself onto a Business Class seat on the Singapore Airlines flight back home. Yeah!!! The Silver Kris lounge offered a nice respite before boarding, and when I stepped onto the upper desk of the 747, flying heaven awaited me. Visions of beauty slinking around in dark kebayas, offering me wine and more......I couldn't get enough of it all.
I awoke earlier that morning with the sound of the front door opening. It was good ol' BP, who had just flown in on a red eye flight from New York, where the lucky bugger is spending his second year of studies. He’s gonna be in London from Christmas till New Year’s Day, taking over the couch and living room that I had sorta called my own for the past week. It sure was good meeting up with him, even if for that half day, over breakfast and then over a turkey pasta lunch, rekindling memories of time in Goodenough College and of jaunts across Scandinavia just this past summer.
But now I’m back in Singapore, and back to the grind of work. Is there and can there be such a thing as instant nostalgia? I have nothing but the loveliest and warmest memories of this past week, and already, I’m thinking fondly back to my first day, not so long ago, when it was me who trundled into the Shad Thames apartment early in the morning, greeting a bleary eyed and sleep deprived HM…
I must have said it before, but I’ll say it again - this has been a most amazing week in London. I was glad I returned. I feel entirely comfortable and at ease in this city, but what has made it special were the many moments spent with close and dear friends, some of whom I may not see for some time yet. I’m very very grateful to the SSG and to the HM for letting me stay with them, for their time, for their company, for everything – especially their friendship.
And so, it’s time, again, to suspend Rampant in London, for I am now, once more, Subdued in Singapore. I know of no other city – apart from my hometown – which has managed to excite me so much, and which has offered me so much. When I was there, I didn’t feel as though I had been away. I felt I was home – a second home, as it were. I don’t know when I will be back. But back I will surely be, soon...
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