Saturday, February 18, 2012

The Lonely, Crappy Day



I usually don't mind business travel.  I have written about it before.  It's good to get out of the office.  It's good to see new things and meet new people.  I have also said that anyone who thinks there is any glamour in business travel, think again.  Yes, I have an all expense paid trip to a place that some people pay a lot to come see, but today, all I can think about is going home.  Before today, the longest I business trip I have taken was 4 days.  That was about one day too long.  This trip is 12.  I want to go home.


Don't get me wrong.  I like England and Cambridge.  In fact, I have been thinking that this is a place that I would not mind living, but not by myself.  Not without my boyfriend and my kids.


Today I took the train into to London and I don't think I have ever felt more alone in my whole life. 


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I got up, had breakfast at the hotel and walked 15 minutes to the train station.  I hopped a train to King's Cross Station in London.   Once there I got approached my 2 very cuts Asian men.   I assumed they were going to ask me for directions.  They asked if I knew where Platform 9 3/4 from the Harry Potter movies was.  I told them I didn't know and this was my first visit to London too.


Then I went looking and I found this.


Apparently there is such a thing.  It is located in an  area near Platforms 9 and 10, but it is not in the place shown in the movie. Not that it seemed to matter.  When I got there, there was a line of people waiting to take a picture.  I waited 10 min to get this shot.  When I was done, I was surprised to see the line had grown many times longer than it was.


I thought it was a little gimmicky, but I took the picture because I knew my kids would think it was cool.


Then I went on a mission.


K is a collector of pins from Hard Rock Cafe's.  She has lots of them from places either she or I have been.  I have gotten her pins before.  Most recently from Toronto and now London.  So my first mission was to get some pins for her.  I also picked up a gift for one of my sons.  I don't usually bring back presents from my business trips, but I think this will be an exception since I am gone for so long.


After that, I headed back to the Tube toward Westminster. 




The Westminster Tube station comes up right at the base of Big Ben.  I walked half way across the bridge over the Thames river and snapped this shot of it and the Parliament Building.  Just as it was starting to rain.  And not a fine, misty drizzle, but real rain.  Just f-ing great.  It's not bad enough I was going to be lonely and cold.  Now I was wet too.


I found a place to eat lunch.  A nice Chinese place that was out of the way.  I might have missed it except they had a guy (kind of a creepy guy) asking people if they wanted Chinese food.  I was glad I did.  All the places to eat were packed.  Because this place was out of the way, it was quiet and relaxed.  Even the food was pretty good.  I hung out there for about an hour.  Leisurely, drinking my beer, eating my meal and reading my book (I downloaded several gay romance novels onto my Blackberry Playbook before I left home)


I went back outside after lunch and it was will raining.  Fuck this.  I'm going back.  I was not having fun.  I was not gong to be having fun.  I was lonely and tired of being lonely.  Being wet sure as shit was not going to help that.  I made my way to the train station and headed back to Cambridge.


Did I waste and opportunity to see London?  Maybe.  There is always tomorrow.  It's not supposed to rain, but I am thinking I will just take some walks around Cambridge and see more of this town.


I talked to T tonight.  He worked much later that he usually does on a Saturday.  Just hearing his voice was lice soft music.  After listening to all the British accents this week, his Vietnamese accent sounded a little thicker than I remember it.  It's still was so wonderful to hear his voice.




I miss him so much.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

About fifteen years ago my then-employer sent me to Edinburgh to deliver a paper at a conference. I was gone for a week. Every night I ached for my man. Every day I ached to talk to him. Finally--costs be damned!--I phoned him. Our fifteen-minute conversations--hours and thousands of miles apart--made me the happiest man in the world. I remembered in my bones and in my blood that an amazing man loved me!

You have the Internet. You have Skype. Use them, please. To make sure that you connect with the man who makes your life whole.

You are so lucky to have a man who loves you so much!

TEL

T said...

What accent?
If people just listen to me without looking at me, there's NO WAY they could tell that I have a Vietnamese accent!...a Chinese or Cambodian accent, maybe...