The best thing about England is the people

I just got back from two weeks in England and everyone in New York has been asking me what I got up to. Did I go see the amazing Hopper exhibition? No, but I heard it was fabulous. Did I eat at any of the restaurants I mentioned on my last post? No, but I did eat out a lot. Did I merrily peddle around the London canals on the Boris bikes? Sort of, for a brief time, before I realized that I was wearing a skirt and not entirely opaque tights. Did I catch the stage production of The King’s Speech? No, but from all accounts it was wonderful and I wish I did. Did I gorge on every food stall with free samples at Borough market? Yes, finally I did do one thing that I was planning on do.

Borough market England

Honestly, I didn’t do many of the things I had planned to do in London. I didn’t have time to play tourist in my own city because, well, I spent 2 weeks laughing.

That is not to say that I did nothing. I went to two fabulous hen parties and two amazing weddings, I went out to eat with old friends, went on long country walks and had a very decadent afternoon tea at the Mandarin Oriental. And yet, what I remember most was how much I laughed. I laughed so much that my cheeks hurt at the end of the day and my mascara ended up running in unattractive lines down my face. All that laughing had very little to do with where I was (London was rather rainy apart from two sunny days) but who I was with.

London

My friends have somewhat unfortunately ended up scattered across the globe. England has a smattering of amazing school friends in London, Sunderland, Bristol and Edinburgh but from that point onwards it all gets rather aggravatingly international. Oman, Sri Lanka, Madagascar, Dubai, New York…you would think that we hated each other from the way we have all fled out across the globe. Luckily, we have email and Skype and all sorts of other fancy tech to keep us in touch. But there is nothing quite like being together. Nothing quite like watching someone bust out a hilarious dance move, or cry as they try to tell a joke, or laugh so hard they snort and then laugh some more. There are some things that you just can’t capture over the computer.

Luckily, I have enough happy memories to keep me going until the next time we get together and I’d rather have those memories than a checklist of sites seen any day.

9 thoughts on “The best thing about England is the people

  1. Lesley – I couldn’t agree more, it is fabulous. Luckily, I didn’t get too many judgmental looks and I sampled a gluttonous amount of tasters. We also splurged on some amazing raclette at Kappacasein and tapas at Brindisa. Any favorite stalls?

  2. Cheese!!! Cured meats!! Lol haven’t been for a while might take a trip up there, it’s simple joys like this that make my day. Anything to not do UNi work lol what’s your face stalls?

  3. Laughing is def something I remember most about our recent time together… I think it was I who snorted. Good post Petit! xx

    • Ditto…so many happy memories. Dude, I think we all snorted we were laughing so hard! Good times.

  4. Lesley – Love your line ‘it’s the simple joys…’ – I couldn’t agree more. Kappacasein is amazing if you’re in the mood for some serious cheese…too many good stalls to choose from 🙂

  5. Ah- I missed this one! I couldn’t feel more the same way! I love love love going back to England and laughing til I cry. Or until someone snorts. There’s no better sound to me than someone laughing so hard they snort!! See you in August 🙂 xx

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