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We've been back more than a month, the Christmas tree finally got put up and taken back down and now we're into Real Life, post-London.
We are glad to be back, but I will say that we miss our London life. I'm jumping in my SUV without a thought these days and I'm back in the iced tea and coffee habit. How soon they forget!
People ask me all the time about the trip and they always want to know what stood out. What was the best thing we saw or did? The answer to that is a funny one. We saw some of the greatest sights in England and we certainly hit every London hot spot. But what stands out in my memory are little things - moments, really - that won't mean much to people looking for guide book-style thoughts.
I miss walking in our neighborhood. The route we most often took to the grocery store was a favorite walk, a maze of streets with wrought iron gates, wide sidewalks and some funny names. (I always giggled when I crossed Lizard Street with its elegant sign.) I loved walking by the Britannia Pub and down the street past the Ironmonger Row Baths, a rather plain-looking but apparently high-class gym. There was often a Maserati parked in front, with lots of other luxury cars - Jaguars, Lexuses and the like. I loved walking by the window of the gym's laundry, getting a whiff of that clean laundry scent. And I enjoyed walking by that old-fashioned barber shop, Best Gents, where Keith got his one and only London haircut, at an amazing 10 pounds for a great cut.
Now I go grocery shopping in a blur, whizzing down the road, scarcely taking a look at anything but the car ahead of me and the two stoplights along the way. In England, I slowed down and really looked around me. And I liked it.
I miss hearing people talk. On the bus, on the tube, in shops - I loved all the variations on an English accent I'd hear. I loved picking up interesting phrases - one that stands out is "sick as a parrot." (And we thought it was "sick as a dog"!) It was fun to buy a newspaper and get a "Cheers" back from the street vendor. And I miss the hustle-and-bustle of London life. Yesterday I worked at home all day - I saw Keith before he left for school, Mocha hung around me all day and I saw Keith when he came home. My neighborhood looks like a ghost town since the cold snap hit - you do see cars on the street but they pull into the garage before you see the actual humans driving them.
I miss the ritual of tea and the fact that a warm cup is available everywhere, with the caramely sweetness of Demarara sugar swirled into it.
I miss the majestic Thames and the Embankment walk alongside it. I loved to walk down Embankment in late afternoon, watching the sun set over the water and seeing the Houses of Parliament across the way. I miss walking through the quiet parks and Leicester Square teeming with every kind of humanity you can possibly see.
I treasure everything about those months in London. I told Keith the other day that I think the coolest thing about me is that I lived in London in 2008. Remember that - I am cool.