In London
I got into London around 6:30 p.m. on Saturday. It wasn’t a full flight, and I had the whole row to myself.
There was a bit of an “Alzheimers” episode when I got on board the plane. I’d been assigned seat 51K but for some reason walked past that row and sat somewhere else. There I was, fully settled in, when this Mat Salleh couple came up. I looked at them and thought, “Oh no, I have to sit with these people all through the flight?” They looked a little surprised to see me and the girl said to me, “That’s my seat!” I replied, “No, it’s not, this is seat 51 … ” As soon as I said it, I knew I was in the wrong seat and knew it was 57 rather than 51. So I gathered up my things, apologised and walked forward to the right row. Except it wasn’t easy – passengers were still coming on board and walking to the back of the plane; yes, I was walking against the traffic, which seemed to sum up the way I am in real life – always walking against the flow of things, to a different drummer.
After surviving Immigration and getting my bag, I went to where the trains were and got my ticket to where Mel, my friend, lives. One Tube change and a local train later, I was standing at the entrance of the Denmark Hill station, waiting for her. A fancy car drove up, I peered at the driver (it was after 8 p.m. and dark), it was a blonde woman who waved at me and I realised that was Mel!
We haven’t seen each other for 17 years, and now, thanks to Janis Ian, we were meeting up again.
Mel looks good, too. She and her partner live with Mortimer, her 12-year-old Cairn terrier, on the top floor of a block of flats in Denmark Hill. Their place is wi-fi’d and I’ve taken over her laptop to be online like I never left home. *big grin*
Apparently, I brought the rain from Malaysia. It was fine on Sunday morning – we even went into the garden where she clipped Mortimer’s fur and I took some pictures. We later went into the city and were walking around when it started to drizzle. I had no problems with that. We continued walking around. Then it got heavier and we found shelter inside the Liberty store – lots of nice stuff in it, perfume, cosmetics, coffee table books, journals and pens. I left with a maroon leather luggage tag (much needed for my one piece of rolling luggage).
It’s April but still quite cold in London, cold enough for me to still have steam coming out of my mouth. Mel asked why didn’t I bring the hot weather from Malaysia. I told her it has to stay at home cuz our Government doesn’t allow us to export the hot weather.
