I’m sitting on my front stoop in Wallington, Surrey watching the rain come down and sipping tea. Yes – English tea – while hearing the chimes of the church bells in Beddington Park tell me it’s nearly 4PM. I have never done this before now. Why I felt compelled to do this I no idea. It could be the pending move. Kim and I finally decided on Los Angeles as a place to settle, for now. Or it could the fact that I’ve been inside all day packing my life away and needed to get away from the boxes which are piling up in every room at this point.either way it’s quite nice down here.

The birds are telling their usual story. Not sure whats it’s about but man do they have a lot to say. I’m sitting in a chair I hauled all the way down the front stairs, past bags of clothes I’m giving away,  and over piles of shoes boxes in the hallway that leads to the doorway I’m sitting in. It’s raining, well pissing rain, definitely not enough rain to warrant the need for an umbrella but you would get wet if you didn’t have one.  My feet are the only thing outside the door and if I look up from my computer screen I see our little green patch of grass outlined with rose bushes, shrubs and weeds. In American we would call it a small, a very small, yard.

Our rose bushes haven’t bloomed yet this year. I hope they do before I leave, on the 28th May, as we finally have them the way we want them. Over the past three years we have moved them to the right place in the garden and properly trimmed,them to yield an awesome amount of colourful, yellow, red, white and pink roses.

I have less than 10 days left at my current job. I am sad to go but ready for new projects and challenges. I am having a leaving ‘do’ or party on the 19th with my co-workers and then a big fat party at an old Tram Depot turned bar/dance club on the 22nd. It’ll be a blast. We have at least 10 confirmed guests so far! Our physical goods get picked up on the 24th and Kim will leave at the end of the month. He’ll staying with some really close friends of ours up the road. So nice that he won’t be by himself in this big apartment.

The bells are ringing again. It’s actually 4PM.

There are lot’s I’ll miss about living in London, one being the architecture. I am going out in an old Tram depot! How cool. I’ll miss feeling like you are a part of everyone’s lives in some way or another by taking the public transport. You may never feel like you have your own space but I give the English credit for being able to keep to themselves  and put up with the lack of space. The English aren’t rude they’re too darn polite!

I will miss my friends and meeting up with them for a pub lunch on a Sunday or a drink after work. I will miss taking drives into the country in our Mercedes. Even though they are a nuisance, I’ll miss foxes that run around our neighbourhood. One just trotted by now :-)

I will miss my walk through Beddington Park every morning to the Hackbridge Train station. I loved watching the seasons come and go each year. Nothing ever happened at once. It all seemed to take time which is something else I learned here in England, patience. The trees shed their leaves in the fall, the rains and the wind come in the winter, seeing the new fluffy ducklings swimming in the pond and daffodils bloom, in the same spot each spring, and the finally the calm and silence the whole park has in summer due to the humidity.

I’m going back to Los Angeles but I am going back after having lived out of America for three years. I had culture shock after just 5 months away from America the last time I lived in a foreign place so it’ll be interesting to see how things have changed and how I cope with being back. I’m excited about seeing my old friends and entertaining my new friends when they come to visit, getting to hang out with my nephew when I want, getting a new job and the choosing new opportunities that LA always seems to bring me. I most excited about showing my husband around one of my favorite places in the world, as he’s my absolute favorite travel companion.

I may have been born in NY but I feel most at home in California and can’t wait to get back!!!

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