Summertime in London is a really odd thing. For one, you don’t pack your jackets away. And secondly, it’s actually colder than Sydney right now and they are in the midst of their winter. The third thing, and this happened yesterday, they announce there’s a heat wave when there is not. It’s 23 degrees, my English friends. 23 degrees.
But I will pucker my little lips together and I Shalt Not Whinge. In fact, I think I even embraced the London summer not so long ago, no?
I’m gonna ask you to do something really hard. Really really hard, but bear with me ok? Because there once was a time when I was young, and the world was a very different place, and I want you to go with me there, just for one moment.
So sit still, close your eyes and breathe. In through your nose, out through your mouth. If there’s one thing I’ve learnt at yoga, is that that way of breathing is how a person should always breath (because god help me I thought my party trick of in one nostril and out the other was just the coolest thing since Fido Dido). Anyway, breathe, and concentrate… and push your mind way back to the depths of your adolecense.
Back to a time of scrunchies and crimped hair. A time of leg warmers (oh wait, that’s like now).
Back to a time when Tom Cruise was hot.
My boyfriend’s been away in Finland all week and I’ve been on my lonesome at home. You know what, I have to stop calling him “my boyfriend”. Much like you and I and that cute puppy I wanted to kidnap today, he has a name. His name is Panu. Equal emphasis on both syllables ~ Pah-noo, not P’noo, like so many people insist.
Panu and I, we are quite the opposites. He’s tall, I’m a midget. He’s… not really quiet, but I make a lot of noise. He likes rock, I like breaks. He’s a sci-fi fan (yuck), I like everything but. He loathes karaoke, and me… *coughmikehogcough*. And he’s healthy and well, I eat a lot.
But what keeps us together is that secretly, under his crazy health-nut exterior, Panu also loves to eat. Oh, and we also really like each other.
I’ve just arrived home from the most hectic weekend imaginable ~ one full day in Stockholm, then 8 hours in Helsinki, with not much sleep in between ~ I’m sufficiently wiped out and could sleep for a week. But, and you should all know my tummy by now, I’m hungry. Scavenging around the refrigerator for whatever it was I managed to buy between dining out last week, I managed to find some essentials and yes! God bless chorizo, the meat that lasts forever and a lifetime!
Do you ever feel like you’re not in control? I mean like really not in control? Like you thought you, anally-retentive-super-organised you, had everything under control and you’re wrong? With your outlook diary and phone diary (ok, so they’re synced anyway) and diary diary and lists of to-do’s and actions… and you’re not in control??? What is wrong with you?
Ok, who am I kidding here, we’re not talking about you, we’re talking about me.
Sometimes I am so completely overwhelmed with my job that I don’t know what to do. It doesn’t happen often, but when it does, it’s like the Gods of a thousand panic attacks lashing down on me. Me. There is only one of me, and far too many to-do’s to be done by one of me. Sometimes, I’m so overwhelmed, I cry. Well, on the inside anyway (because I’m Chinese and we’re thrifty, and I refuse to buy proper eye make-up remover so I can’t use waterproof mascara, so now I can’t cry in public).
Sometimes I just close my slanty eyes and hope for the best.
I think the thing I miss the most about living in Sydney is the hot summers, spent with days lazing on the beach (my favourite: Clovelly), then heading home to enjoy the balmy sunset on the balcony with a freshly squeezed chilled watermelon juice in one hand (vodka, rum, tequila optional but highly recommended). Now that I think about it, I also miss the food, the seafood, the culture, all the beaches, the weather and of course, all of my friends.
Stop it Cat, you’re making me homesick.
Anyway, having now spent the better part of two summers in London, I’ve finally accepted that this is as good as it gets. So in an act of embracement like no other, I blended myself a watermelon juice and with predicted sunshine and a high of 24 degrees today, I toasted the London summer.
Cheers!