REUNITED WITH UNITED-BACK IN LONDON

I was sleeping on the couch last night in the lounge room.  A very comfy couch, but when  you are in someone else’s house it just feels rude to be sleeping in and I was the first one up, especially since I was in the heart of the flat, I didn’t want people to think they had to slink because I was still sleeping.  So I was showered and changed and trying to remember how to turn on the TV with the 3 remotes I had to use when the house stirred.  I guess when it gets light late, people sleep in till later.  I think I may have my internal travel alarm clock going off as I generally don’t sleep past 7-7.30am anywhere in the world, well except when I don’t get to bed till 2am or 6am, then my body needs at least 6 hours.  I know people who if they don’t get a full 10 hours they can’t function the next day.  Madness. 

The only thing, well 2 things I HAD to do today was to get cracking in my blog.  As the days tick by so do my entries and after reading how far behind I was in Thailand, 22 days, that just makes me shudder to think I was EVER that far behind.  I am currently a week and that is the maximum for me.  The holdup is I am up to my departure from Australia and sometimes those big blogs take so long to write, I lose my mojo and then I leave it and then another few days tick by and I get further behind from not wanting to crack into a certain entry.  Well I HAVE to get it done and the next few days were going to be my catch up days.  The other thing I HAD to do was meet my United Hostees, David and Cheryl again this afternoon at 4.30pm.

Em and Paps had been away for nearly 2 weeks, so they had unpacking, washing and sorting to do.  So I stayed out of their hair, found ‘my’ spot on the couch where I stayed till I had to get ready at 2.30pm to leave home at 3.15pm to catch the overland train and then the Tube to the Hilton Metropole, which quite ironically is 100m down the road from my Tune hotel and where all my things were currently been stored.  Paps and Em were saving me 200GBP, which is around 330AUD by letting me stay for the 4 nights, so I was very grateful and didn’t mind travelling the 2.5 hours return trip to see my Hostees.  I met Cheryl and David on a cruise of the Middle East in 2009.  They were on our dinner table for the week and as experience has shown me on my travels there are some people in this world who you just ‘click’ with.  It can’t be explained, I don’t know why, it just happens and I have met many people with this ‘click’ factor who I am now proud to call lifelong friends and Cheryl and David well and truly fall into this amazing category.  The first thing that strikes me about both of them is they are GREAT listeners.  We had a lot to catch up on since the last time I saw them which was in August last year when I was back in London.  We are lucky, when I am in London, I let them know and then they make sure they are on a flight so that we can meet again.  I never in my widest when I met them both that we would have so many meetings afterwards and my stay with them last year in their amazing city of Chicago was a true highlight for me.  We always pick a pub or restaurant in the area, order a meal, and then before we know it 3 hours have past and it is time for us all to get going, me travelling my hour home and with them needing to get to bed for their morning flight the next day.  I LOVE and MISS you guys and look forward to catching up with you both in May with my return back to London.     

I was home at 9.45pm and I sat down the computer was staring at me, I hadn’t finished the departure blog, but I was ½ way through and I am just going to have to finish it tomorrow.  I can’t write a blog when I am tired as I just write crap and it doesn’t make sense, so it’s best I finish it tomorrow.  FINISH IT.