TAKE ME HOME
Sarah Drane finds that a trip to London confirms exactly why she prefers to live in Spain
I’ve just returned from a four day trip to London comprising a PR meeting with one of my clients, followed by a stroll around the A Place in the Sun exhibition at the Excel Centre to put some faces to names, finishing with a couple of days at my mother’s house.
All my activities were very worthwhile, rewarding and fun, but I still couldn’t wait to get back to Gatwick and on that plane home to Spain. There are certain things about a trip back to England that remind me exactly why I chose to relocate to Spain almost four years ago. I’ll list a few that struck me on this four day trip…
a) Points failure on the Docklands Light Railway to the Excel Centre resulting in a melee of suits (and me) milling around on a windy, rainy platform awaiting further instructions about their onward journey.
b) The waft of take aways, stale beer and clammy bodies on a packed London Underground train.
c) People barging, elbowing and running wheely suitcases over your feet rushing for a train and then glaring at you as if it was your fault for existing.
d) Sudoku. Does anyone in London not have a folded newspaper on their knee and a pen in their mouth trying to decipher the solution to odd little squares full of numbers?
e) 99.9% of Londoners having an iPod permanently screwed into their brains. Will evolution eventually give rise to Londoners with ready-made earphones?
f) Battling down Oxford Street dodging people and puddles with the general flow of pedestrian traffic seemingly going in the opposite direction to you.
g) Pallid, pasty, sallow, pimply commuters with standard-issue bags under their eyes.
h) A bottle of Highland Spring sparkling water in a four star London hotel restaurant for £3.80 (really)
It’s all a case of horses for courses, one man’s meat is another man’s poison, but my sporadic trips back to London tend to be just the reality check that I need to remind me how grateful I should be for living where I do - sunny, southern Spain.
Sarah Drane is Director of Purple Cake Factory, a marketing company based in Marbella on the Costa del Sol.
From www.newskys.co.uk
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