Notes From A Summer Holiday (episode2)

There's something quite comforting about familiarity. Not that I don't like surprises ... people who know BPC, know that she likes nothing better than flying by the seat of her pants, but there is some part of her that absolutely enjoys the comfort of predictability too.

This holiday for instance. Tonight is the last night that I'm sitting here in holiday mode (ie. in my PJs all day and no nagging whatsoever about when to get up/sleep/eat etc etc). We don't actually fly back home till Sunday morning, but tomorrow night is definitely going to be a whirlwind of packing things I forgot to pack today. So sitting here in Khala's living room watching episode after episode of FRIENDS with T'bo is finally going to come to an end.

I started off talking about familiarity, didn't I? Well, part of me was really looking forward to this holiday even after the Italy bit of it was called off due to various reasons. Initially, I had thought 'what would we do for 18 days in London?what more is there to see/do?' but you know what they say about London (quote:Samuel Johnson) He who tires of London tires of life. LOL. Don't know how much truth there is in that, but I did look forward to coming back to Croydon and reacquainting myself with all that had become familiar to me during last year's trip.

Khala and khaloo, the girls, the house that feels so much like home, it's spooky! Khala's cooking that is such welcome 'ghar ka khana' after having been married for two years and taking care of my own kitchen!

And Vijay & Anu. My God, they are a crazy couple and I have threatened to blog about them and I will definitely put down an incriminating entry one of these days.

Then I knew that coming to Croydon would mean makign a trip to Portsmouth (Whidley, to be accurate) to spend a few days with L and D.

So it was the whole familiarity of where we would go and what we would do that was in some weird way very comforting to me and now when I think about it, equally discomforting because it makes me ask myself: am I becoming a complacent, boring, unimaginative person? One of those that go on the same holiday every year? Jesus, no. LOL. I hope not.

So D & L. It's so romantic. They left on their cruise today. They are on a two-week mediterrannean cruise ON WHICH THEY ARE TO GET MARRIED! Can you imagine that? Masha Allah, so lucky they are to have found such love and how romantic is D?!!! He proposed to her on the London Eye and now he is marrying her on a cruise! Wow, L ... you lucky gal, you. Masha Allah.

We spent a few days with D & L. It started with D driving down to Croydon to pick us up and then we all dorve into Central London. The boys dropped me off on Oxford street at the big Boots (which turned out to be a huge disappointment) and went on the Arfiman's comic book convention.

As Boots was a disappointment, I just walked all over Bond and Oxford and ended up marvelling at Soho, quite intimidated by some of what I saw to tell you the truth. I was a good child however and did not go into any shops selling 'qeustionable items for people above a certain age'.

I found the cutest boutiques in the back streets of Soho and then to boys found me and we had lunch. Then we went to meet an old school buddy of Arfiman and D's and while they had an excellent time catching up BPC had a very awkward chat with Wife of said School Buddy. hmm.

BPCs cold got progressively worse and she slept in the backseat all the way to Whidley. We stayed in Whidley two full days and L and D packed in a lot of fun activites for us in those two days.

We went to Jane Austen's house. No, we didn't have tea and biscuits with her :P but it did give me goosebumps to see the actual table that she used to write on. It was a tiny hexagonal thing and it was quite an awesome experience looking at it. We intended to have cream tea at a lovely tea-room opposite the house but D had warned us that his trips there have been jinxed and sure enough, the tearoom had had a fire and was closed.

We did have our cream tea in the gardens of a stately home and it was quite nice. Scones and tea and butter and little pots of jam. Very English :)

We also went to a 'typical Enlgish town': Arundel. We had lunch in a little tearoom that was soooooooo old. More on that later. We didn't visit hte Arundel castle becasue I didn't want to dole out the 12£ entry fee.

D&L took us to a pub one evening because they remembered i had wanted to go to a pub last time I was in Whidley. The pub turned out to be more of a restaurant, but a nice place nonetheless. It turned out ot be the most expensive meal that I never had in my whole life. Yes, NEVER had. I was feeling too sick to eat anyting but the chocolate mousse dessert. My whole entre order went to waste and you know how I feel about wasting food. :( Blah.

All in all, it was lovely staying with D&L. I still can't tell the twins apart, but I'm not losing any sleep over it :) At least I can tell which one I am talking to by looking at the girl standing next to him. LOL. I am being mean now.

All I can think of right now is that D&L must be somewhere in the middle of the sea now on their cruise and that in a few days they will get married. Wow!

And you know what ... in a few days, Arfiman and I will have been married two years. Masha Allah. :)