God save the queens!

My trip to the England this time around was a bit different than the last time I was across the pond. The last time I was in the UK was about twelve years to visit my friends who were attending university. I never made it to London that trip because I was there to visit my friends, drink and have fun. I believe my mission was accomplished when I spent six out of the eleven days there drunk. The first day I was there went out at five in the evening to watch the rugby match at the pub and didn’t return to my friend’s flat until around three in the morning. Mind you, pub close at eleven at night so don’t ask me all that happened in those last four hours. The only things I clearly remember were my friend farting and accidently shitting himself then having to flush his underwear down the toilet, having a kebab on the way back to the flat and one of the boys trying to hook up with a girl, unsuccessfully. The rest of the trip is a blur of beer, cider, smoking, food, train rides and cold baths.

This time around I did make it to London and the trip was bit more subdued than the last one. This time I was more interested in a comfortable bed, seeing the sights and meeting up with old friends rather than a lost nights of drunkenness. We met up with a friend of mine for dinner and drinks that I stayed with on my first trip to the mother land. We spent the evening reminiscing about our younger years and she asked me toward the end of the night, “When did we get old?” I told her about a year ago for me. But I don’t feel we did get old. I feel we just became different. We still like to drink, we still like to go out and we still like to have a good time. We just prefer to not get drunk, not stay out late and not have so much of a good time that we don’t remember it the next morning. I can’t compare both trips because each was different at different times in my life. I learned to love England in different ways from each trip. It’s just that this time I remember more and carried a piece of it back with me to remind me of the good times when things get to be too much. Keep calm and carry on.