Familiar Surroundings

Just returned from a last-minute business trip to London. Felt like coming home after a long time. Everything was so familiar. The squares, vistas, the 'tube', the British pound, the accents, diversity of restaurants, black cabs, driving on the left, prawn chips, play houses, dress code, .....It was a strange feeling on one hand. I didn't have to wonder how to arrange things, how to get places, I just knew. I didn't feel like a visitor at all, but not quite like a resident either. More like I was wandering in a very familiar fairy tale that I hadn't heard in a while.



I didn't have much spare time during the day - busy at a trade show and with work meetings - but had the good fortune to spend most evenings with my best friend in London. We went out to a middle-eastern restaurant one evening and just chatted for 5 hours straight over dinner and wine. We covered about everything from family, work, getting older, changing life expectations, philosophy, ambitions, vacations, cultural differences and plain old silliness. It was great.


It's always amazed me how there are certain people that you just 'click' with. No matter how often or seldom you see them, the moment you meet up again, you can take right up where you left off. You are simply on the same wavelength.

And strange enough too, I don't see these friends very often - one lives in London, another in Belgium and one in Atlanta, so none of them exactly live next door. Maybe it is related somehow, that the bond feels/is stronger because of the distance.

Regardless of which, it made my trip over more than a business trip, but a chance to connect again and refill and rekindle the batteries of a very special friendship. Made me wish I lived closer though.....