All in the Mind

I got back from London U.K two days ago - I think. It's hard to think right now. Actually it hurts - jet lag. I was jonesing to get back there (my home town) as I'd spent a year isolated in the 'tundra' (Ontario, my home for over a year now) seemingly friendless and certainly feeling very sorry for myself. But through the magic of social media I had reached out and slowly begun adapting to consuming friendships online at least until such a time I could be with them in person. This I finally got to do last week and thanks to the continuity offered by Facebook it was very easy to pick up the conversation where we had left off instead of wasting time on awkward pauses.

Don't get me wrong I'd rather be talking about say the Andy Warhol exhibition at the Hayward Gallery with a friend (in person) over a cup of coffee or even better, a nice glass of wine or go on then, a pint of beer, after having gone to see it with said friend (as I did) than over social networking tools any day of the week, but fact is I made the choice to move here and now I wouldn't give these tools up for all the friendly faces in town.

Another thing I realised is that relationships are about perception, visualisation and idealism. For example, after a year of yearning for home and familiar cultural reference points afraid that absence would eventually eradicate all relational association, I arrived at London Heathrow and with the determination of an Olympic athlete set about negotiating my way to Islington where I would be spending the week at a friend's place. I got to Paddington Station within 15 minutes; one Oyster card later I was rocking away underground on the Victoria Line heading for Highbury and Islington.

I am not exaggerating when I say I skipped down St. Paul's Street and past the Essex Road towards my friend's flat; all the time realising that no amount of time away from London will ever erase the intimacy of my relationship with it because, it's just that MY relationship, MY perception of it and MY idealisation. I spent the next week criss crossing the town visiting friends and pubs and TopShop like I'd never left, not even for one day.

As a result I've returned to Canada with renewed appreciation for well...everything. And I may have another interview for a Corporate Relations position to boot though I've given serious thought to actually getting down to doing what I moved here to do in the first place - lead a simple life (I have London for complexity if I ever want it) and write a novel. Onwards and onwards.