Back in the UK

17/03/17 Back in the UK

Oh yes, it is good to be back. Although it is not the golden, warm shores of my home country, it is nice to be back in a country that shares a similar culture and outlook on life, not to mention I can understand everyone. Yes, I have been back in the UK now for three days and three nights now and I am also aware that I am writing this post on the morning St Patrick’s day before I can report anything interesting that might happen on St Patrick’s night (the last couple years saw me dress up as a leprechaun one year and dye all my hair* green on the other). If anything interesting does happen, I guess you’ll just have to hang about for my next post to find out**.

So, to get the ball rolling, and to say again, it is nice to be back in the UK. France was nice, in fact my graduation goggles before leaving kinda of make me miss a few things there, like the price of rent, or the quality of the food, but on a whole I like the prospect of being able to put my feet back on solid ground with a job and a less strenuous social life. I have nothing against the French language, and I am still going to try my best to learn it for the sake of my girlfriend (It’s the 8th easiest language for an English speaker to learn apparently), but when you’re trying to make friends with people who don’t share the same native language as you, you’re never sure how much of what you say, or what they say back, is being understood. In short, it is a little difficult to feel fully comfortable around people when neither can fluently converse with one another, it always creates this feeling of a barrier, however thick or thin, between the two of you and I am sure many can relate to this feeling (or at least those who have anxiety). To move away from complaining about the difficulties of learning a language, I was utterly stunned by being able to overhear a stranger’s conversation on the bus back in London, it made me realise what I’d been missing.

Since I’ve been back, it has been a little bit of a bumpy ride. Most of my time has been spent arguing with the letting agents, who seemed to have abandoned every promise they’d made us and had failed to fix a blind in my new room before I moved in (which is still broken in a way that allows the neighbours to see straight into my room and allows the sun to wake me up early every morning), and making sure my I get my old job back before I run out of money. On top of that, there’s been shopping, many more annoying emails and phone calls to the agents about the inventory agreement of the room, doctors appointments I’ve been putting off for nearly half a year, getting to know the my new flatmates and a running session back at the North London Lions AFL club which rendered my legs completely useless the next day. Somehow I have managed to do plenty of things whilst making it feel like I’ve been doing bugger all and it is a pain that it feels that way. Still without a job at the moment and being a little on the poor side means that I constantly find myself sitting around feeling restless, stressed and anxious (especially considering I have borderline ADHD and symptoms of anxiety and OCD), but it is nice to look back and notice what I’ve achieved in a week***. It may not be catching up with all the people I want to just yet, or making an attempt at creating music, or writing satisfying stories, but it’s something. One of the hardest things for me, and I’m sure many others, is to accept that you can’t fill every second of everyday with something interesting or distracting. It is a defence mechanism against a mind that refuses to stay quiet that I’ve got to learn to live without at times and at least being back in London has made that a little bit easier.

To move away from all the doom and gloom, an absolutely brilliant, mind boggling, insane discovery was made by me just last night while I was perusing through Morrisons for a thirst quenching brew to enjoy at the park. Coopers Pale Ale can now be found at Morrisons!**** At only one pound sixty five a bottle, it is now a sure go to place for me as it is much cheaper than the two pound fifty the off licence up the street charges. The brew always brings a pang of homesickness but at the same time keeps me going with it’s delicious and strong hoppy taste that seems quite unique only to Australian pale ales.

Other things I have learned since being back is that there is now a Bunnings Warehouse in St Albans that even does a sausage sizzle every Saturday (that’s a lie, I learnt that on facebook a few weeks beforehand). In fact, the North London Lions will be out there tomorrow, selling the tasty sausages in bread with their definitive spirit and good cheer that only their club provides, so get down there, if you happen to be about London, and get a taste of home whilst supporting the best AFL club in London (that’s right, to all the other AFL clubs in London, shots have been fired).

To sum up my last two experiences back in London, I am shocked to find the place assimilating into the Aussie culture a little bit. In conclusion, I hope this acts as an incentive for those of you who are still back home, who perhaps have a little bit of the travel bug or global curiosity stirring somewhere within you, to come over here and pay me a visit. After all, this is a modern world now, with all the instafaces and book grams and twitsnaps, so are we ever really that far from home?

*Ok, not ALL my hair, as ruinous to the story as that is

**Clever advertisement for my blog. A trick of the trade

***Had my birthday in Normandy, Saw one of the biggest WWII museums in Europe, Moved city, signed a lease agreement on a room in London, Went back to footy training, Finally saw a doctor, wrote two of these blog posts, etc, etc

****Check out “Where to Find a Coopers Pale Ale” under Misc. Prices mentioned are only applicable at the time of the writing of this post