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Banter on the flight to Lanka,
before the hysterics started... |
The ‘Air Asia’ logo looks back at me as we sit waiting for
the plane to refuel so that we can jet off to sweet home Sri Lanka, via Male
the capital of the Maldives. It’s Boxing Day and no one’s really ‘with it’ just
yet. I stumbled in with J at 4am, giving us approximately 3 hours before the shrill
piece
of cake compared to the UK. Opening your eyes from under a heavy 50tog
duvet, the ringing of that annoying alarm you’ve been conditioned to associate
with wake-mode and just… darkness. It has to be done fast, like ripping of a
plaster, you know the hairs are going to be pulled out regardless, why make the
process slower than it needs to be? The
alarm rang and it was time to up and go/ moan and deliriously pack my bag that
was brimming over with piles of crumpled up clothes – organised mess I like to
call it, something a fair few students/ teenagers seem to understand. I wiped
the sleepy dust out of my eyes, dad had already given us the wake up call but I
knew my alarm would give me another 15 minutes. I could never really understand
the concept of being able to ‘chill out’ when you know you only have a few
minutes left… I get that bodily sensation of every cell pumping itself up until
I can’t take it anymore and my legs swing themselves around until I’m standing
vertical on the floor, having transitioned away from peaceful slumber and a
comfy bed. Waking up in Asia is a
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| A lovely catch up at KLCC with H and K <3 |
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| A and I <3 |
I arrived in Malaysia to the warmth and sunshine just over a
week ago, how time flies eh? – If I got a pound for every time I said that I’d
be a rich girl. Despite the short time, I feel like I’ve covered most bases. Getting
back into the humid rush of the tropics, emotions running rampant and jet lag
greeting you in waves. Seeing family and being the ‘child’ again after having
had complete independence – not having to do
all your washing up or share cupboards or fridge space, having your
clothes washed for free and family dinners! Clicking with old friends after
years of no contact and feeling like you’ve all just returned from a very dense
spring break. How do you catch someone up on what’s been happening for the last
2 years of your life? Is it the bad times that stand out, the magical moments,
the spiritual awakenings or just the present state of being? I like asking
people how they are at the time because that’s all that really matters, of
course the experiences and the stories are what got us to this point, but we
all have so many and why waste energy dwelling in the past, when it’s the
moment you have together that makes
another
story for the next person. Walking through pavilion with red eyes at midnight,
indulging in rich, creamy ice cream, lunch with H & K - 2 old friends from
The Overseas School of Colombo/ Sri Lanka who I share a 3 – year catch up with
whenever we’re in the same place, shisha time, pool sesh’s, delicious meals
out, beer towers, swims, yoga, presents, Malaysian grass and booze.
Christmas morning came around and we cuddled up in dad’s bed
to open our stockings, which were hilarious. You know your brother’s reached
puberty when he starts pulling out face wash, deo and blemish sticks. I on the
other hand got chocolates, lingerie and… a grinder? Love you Santa.
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| KL crew's first night out :) |
The first night I was back I saw J again, after 6 months of long distance, having been
through the hardships of longing and lusting we finally got to experience the
initial moment of locking eyes, without having to be on Skype. Feeling that
familiar, overwhelmed, ecstatic and confused sensation all in one go, do you
kiss or hug or talk?! My eyes streamed and heart pounded as we embraced for the
first time in too long and just held on as tight as possible for a while,
wondering whether it was real or not. The last time we’d seen each other was 6
months ago in that very spot. It felt like the time that had lapsed had been a different
slice of life– I’d lived mine in Bristol and he’d lived his in Aus, different
people, different experiences and yet here we both were, back at square one,
something we understood together again. Do you know the theory that we exist in
multiple universes simultaneously as the same
person, but in infinite possible situations. Like the butterfly effect, when
one tiny thing changes, the rest of the story does too – if every single
possibility was to happen at once, our reality now/ perception of what we see
is one of those possibilities
because of the way the human mind has learned to conceptualise time and space.
We think of time as linear and progressive, when in actuality it’s one point in space and that point
symbolizes everything that’s happening
at once, hence the importance of ‘presence’. We spend so much time planning our
future or worrying about our past, but if we died in 2 minutes, none of those
thoughts would be significant if we hadn’t taken the time to live those 120
seconds to their fullest – YOLO I believe is the expression? Haha, sorry…
Before I boarded the plane in London, I wondered whether I’d
run into anyone. It’s quite cool that as International kids we could be in any
airport anywhere in the world and still see someone we recognize or know,
standing right next to us. M from Alice Smith was on my flight so we chatted
and caught up, the general theme being that going home was something everyone
was craving. It’s interesting seeing how everyone’s taking Uni, A lot of people
seem to take a while to find their feet, including me. You’re thrust out of
this spoon fed, easy going bubble of fun, expat living, cheap food, taxis, free
drinks, great clubs, shitty music… to independence, bills, cold weather,
reality. Of course that’s slightly cynical and there’s a lot more to it than
that, a lot that’s beautiful and life changing and fun. But for the sake of
argument, it’s a big shift that involves big emotional turnovers leading to
this suffering in the form of disorders, drugs or disease. My heart goes out to
all those having a hard time <3
On the other (slightly less depressing) hand, it’s great hearing
stories from those that are loving life. R’s living it up in Sweden surrounded
by beautiful, blue eyed blondes, C ‘s experiencing her love for Bushduf’s in
Aus and H has her head firmly on her shoulders with a great group of friends in
Holland. It’s also great being able to give that experience to each other – a
drunken night out on Changkat full of laughs and dancing, being 19 and walking
into our old hang out spots while you feel the evil eyes of 14 year olds
wondering who you are and what you’re doing in their space… as you look back
wondering how old they are and remembering the days when we were them. A meal at
3am at Nasi Kandar where the common favorite is roti Cannai and Milo ice, £2 for something that takes
5 minutes top to inhale.
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| Family at christmas |
Last night after a huge Christmas dinner of turkey, duck,
roast potatoes & all the trimmings, a stodgy Christmas pudding, apple
crumble, minced pies and large glasses of baileys, R and I were planning on
finding someone to rub our tummy’s for a bit before we became mobile enough to
walk/ go out. We held our food babies and reveled in the satiation of
stuffed-ness. You know food comas are a real thing right? As you’re eating your
body releases dopamine, a hormone responsible for states of excitement,
ecstasy, happiness, that’s followed by the slow release of
serotonin and melatonin – the hormones released when one goes to
sleep hence why you feel sleepy after a meal. The Spanish have it right with
siestas – when I bought that up over summer my cousin suggested that that’s the
reason things don’t get done fast enough there contributing to why they’re in
such a bad way, economically. I can’t imagine London chilling out enough to stop
everything and sleep for a few hours after lunch; you can’t even walk
slowly in London without feeling out of
place. A nap?! Pshh. If only.
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| Jack and Jill :) |
So with our full bellies, my red drunken face and a
Christmas spirit, we took the bus to KLCC and walked over to Changkat to have a
couple of happy hour drinks with the upbeat Aussies J and J. Joined later by
other friends we moved from one bar to the next, from Sambuca to long islands
to beer to cider. We sat in ‘fish n chips’ a bar down the road, with the first
man sitting down ironically chowing down a plate of fish and chips – good
advertising. J got up to break the seal and came back chucking a live lobster
on the table that crawled around frantically as we all stared in amazement at
what had just interrupted our conversation. ‘Cannot lah! Cannot!’ the waitress
squealed as she looked over our shoulders at the live sea creature, pulling The
chef out of the kitchen after a few minutes, to put the little guy back in his
tank. Causing more trouble J and J disappeared for a bit to say hi to a few
other friends at another nearby bar, Healy Macs. We soon ran into them, ripped Calvin
Klein shirt, hyper demeanor and wide eyes at having sprinted away from a
bouncer that had obviously woken up on the wrong side of the bed and hurled a
few punches before realizing he wasn’t going to get them. We thought we’d get
out pronto so off to J’s hotel we drove, clambering up to the rooftop to spin
around in awe at the panorama of KL on Christmas night. The orangey glow of
city lights added warmth to the scattered skyscrapers. We lit up and exhaled,
talk going from small to medium to deep deep down into the depths of the ocean.
Enigma codes, fractals, human perception, the creation of math, 3D printers AH
brain-ache. I sat hours later on the same side of the table as R facing the
fluorescent, empty hallway of lights and sipping on a Milo panas (hot
chocolate) just absorbing our flow.
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| Bright and early on xmas morning |
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| Christmas night <3 |
Time was ticking, 8 days had already gone by, I still hadn’t
packed, showered, been home or hydrated
after our night of drinking, I could
almost hear my alarm going off already, ugh get us home! We all hugged tight
and said our indefinite goodbyes to each other, getting into a RM10 taxi for my
last ride home in however long it would be. It’s a scary thought not knowing
what the future holds isn’t it? But at the same time, like the ‘simultaneously
infinite existences’ that I mentioned earlier, there are also infinite
possibilities of what might happen in our future so we can only really flow
with it and see where it takes us. Right now I’m being taken back home to the
country I lived in for the longest, to stay in our friends fairytale wooden/
glass house in the rubber plantations, a hippy eco-village for New Year, a dive
and surf in backpacker central/ Hikkaduwa and some family/ friend time at good
old Galle fort. How I miss it so. Merry Christmas everyone, live up the last
few weeks of 2013 before the post-crimbo diets begin ;)
Recipe of the day: Christmas Pud
http://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/cuisine/european/english/traditional-christmas-pudding.html
