Returning To London

Actually - that’s not quite true. I also had to find out if there was any credit left on my Oyster card (London Underground credit card), download the latest podcasts to the iPod (to remain sane), and figure out what the weather was going to do. I decided it wasn’t going to rain (har har). Destination - Liverpool Street. The early morning hours seemed rather odd - retracing the steps I had made every morning through 2007 and 2008 - from home to Paddington, into the London Underground, and then half a lap of the Circle Line to reach Liverpool Street, and “The City”. Everything worked today. One of those rare days when trains travel to their planned destination, no trains stopped inexplicably deep below London, and the various tunnels spat me out within yards of the colleague I was meeting for a coffee at 9am. Nothing had really changed - I was pleasantly surprised just how good my knowledge now is of the central area of London - I was able to pull street names from the depths of my memory, and navigate on foot between the towering buildings with more confidence than even I might have expected. I have mixed emotions about working in the city now - going back for one day is somehow fun - it doesn’t wear you down, tire you out, and allow the little things that people do annoy you too much. No doubt if I was commuting in every day again, I would quickly find objection in anything, everything, and everybody. My absence seems to have invented me some rose tinted goggles.