After 13 years, 9 of which in the same flat - the flat I leave today - I am saying see ya later to London.
London. A place which has been home since 2000, when I moved here straight after university, within a few days of my final exam, to start working at Cisco as a part of their graduate scheme. 13 years and countless (and not enough) adventures later I am saying see ya later to London.
Today I move home and (temporarily) leave London - as I type this the car is loaded and read-to-go; there is just time for another cup of tea and chocolate Hobnob, which is what I've been living on for the last couple of days. I then get to spend the next 5-6 hours having a slow and steady drive down to Cornwall; slow if for no other reason than my car is very very full - for all the dejunking, it turns out I just have too much stuff for a car this size.
I'm as certain as I can be that post walkabout London will be my UK home again; my life is very much here. The good (the people, my people; the places; the memories), the bad (the sodding tourists walking slowing in front of me and who can't understand 'stand on the right, walk on the left'), and the uniquely London (night bus adventure and the shared moments of laughter on the tube when the drunk nutter who has been entertaining us all for the last dozen stops leaves) make it a place I want to return to. As much as I like going to other places, London is very much home.
See ya later, London.
