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Published: August 18th 2014
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As most of you know, the past year has been a somewhat difficult one for Mike and I. I, in particular, have had mixed feelings about moving to the United Kingdom and therefore the final week of goodbyes and farewells became incredibly emotionally taxing and somewhat exhausting. Usually saying goodbye and turning my sights to new adventures on the horizon gives me a tingle in my stomach and anxious desire to explore. This, I will admit, went very differently. Trying to coax myself with one of my favourite travel quotes by Christopher Columbus,
“You can never cross the ocean until you have the courage to lose sight of the shore.” Needless to say, by the time the plane had taken off, I was in floods of tears. I even forgot to do my usual ritual of praying for
‘interesting people, who didn’t sleep too long so I could get to the toilet’, to sit next to me on the plane. I was lucky when a pleasant-looking young couple sat next to me – a blubbering, red-eyed blob and asked if I was ok. After seeing my ill-attempts at trying to get myself under control, I was offered a hug, which I
gladly accepted. Upon chatting with them, I discovered that they were from my home town. Not believing my ears, we established that her teacher was none other than my mother! I felt closer to my mum immediately, knowing that she’d chatted with this lady just a few days earlier. This couple was a godsend. We chatted warmly about our various situations and it made the 8 ½ hour plane trip to Dubai, quite literally, fly. We all went for coffee at Dubai airport before parting ways as they were flying to Hong Kong. My flight from Dubai to Gatwick, London was less charming, however I had at least settled down by this point and slept for the majority of the journey. My initial thoughts while flying over the UK was genuine surprise and how green and how much vegetation surrounded this airport that is classed as ‘in the city’. Trees and hedges demarcate the fields with glassy dams sprinkled across the countryside. The warm sunshine made the lush vegetation glint with a golden sparkle that I was unprepared for. Looking across at a dense forest, I was immediately reminded of childhood tales of Winnie-the-Pooh and the Hundred-Acre-Wood. What a magical
introduction to a country that had always been described as overcast and rainy.
The airport’s conditions, however was as dismal as all the reports I’d ever heard of London. Having been seated at one of the furthest points from the front of the aircraft, I arrived to a room lined with 20 queues of people snaking all the way down the passage. I found my ‘foreign’ queue and, after filling in my arrival form, began to grow incredibly nervous as I realised I could still be interrogated and put on the next plane out. I nearly collapsed at the thought of another plane trip and my hands grew clammy as episodes of
Border Patrol began flashing through my mind. I saw an official doubtfully comparing a lady’s passport picture to her actual face as she frantically removed her hat and ruffled her hair in an attempt to appear more like her picture. I jerked my head in the opposite direction and heard an official requesting for a respectful elderly Indian couple’s return ticket. One man was lead to an area cordoned off by an official, where he joined three other perfectly-normal looking people that would be interrogated
privately. As the fiancé to a British citizen, coming to get married in this country, having held a ‘secret wedding’ in the forest, I felt like a criminal smuggling many tons of cocaine through the border and I hoped my poker face would hide my fear. I was asked when Mike and I had met, where we’d met, how long we’d been dating (I wasn’t expecting any of these questions!) along with many others and then the angels sang in chorus as I heard that heavenly thunderclap of that almighty rubber stamp hitting my passport. Before he could see the enormity of my grateful smile and smell my fear, I scuttled off to collect my baggage. After about 45 minutes, my luggage appeared, I sighed with relief and went out to the arrivals gate to be greeted by a very concerned Mike.
The drive home was a long one and I did my best to get my bearings as best as possible. The town of Weybridge, Surrey is small, quiet and quaint with a few restaurants and bistros dotted amongst the shops. The flat we are renting is a room in a house that has been divided
up into units with kitchenettes and a bedroom. It is small but all we need.
On Saturday we caught the train to Guilford, the closest, bigger town to Weybridge and the area where Mike originally moved to. On our way there, I got to see my first iconic English item: A bright red post box and we bought an ice cream to remind us of home: Baked Alaskan but Helga, it came a very sorry second to your amazing dessert and we’ve decided to stop trying to match the taste of home in this country. My first photo of the trip was of a funeral parlour that I had to laugh at the fairly high chance of it getting misread as
David’s Greedy Funeral Director. On the walk back from the train station, we walked through a magnificent forest full of ferns, moss, blackberries, holly and old stone walls that fences a school. We ate these juicy blackberries straight from the bushes and I was so enchanted by the winding paths through this lush vegetation.
On Sunday we caught a train to Mottingham, where we were lucky enough to visit friends
from Durban who were at the tail end of their trip to Ireland and London. This involved switching trains at Waterloo station in London. (Stop singing Abba’s song!) We weren’t able to do any of the sightseeing as Hurricane Bertha had hit the UK that blew in wind and rain in great gusts but I caught a glimpse of Big Ben, the London Eye and several Broadway productions I’d like to see. It was incredibly special to see such close friends at the beginning of this new adventure and it helped me ease into this new life.
On this trip home from the train station at dusk, about 8:40 PM (Something that severely disorientates my body-clock) we saw a tame fox scrounging through a rubbish bag for some tasty treats. Even Mike enjoyed this as he said they almost always scurry away at the sight of people.
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