My story with London began with a guide book, which my Californian roommate Robin gave me as a gift before I left San Diego for home. “Why London?” I asked as I thanked her. “I don’t really know why but I have the feeling that you will visit London some day,” she replied.
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| The magic book (at the lower right hand corner of the photo) |
Then we parted and led our different lives on the two sides of the Pacific again. One day three years later, I suddenly came up with the thought that I should quit my job and go to… not England, but Spain. So I went. But the magic of the book started to work. Robin and her friend Claire happened to be travelling around Europe while I was staying in the beautiful city of Salamanca. Once we found out the coincidence we worked out our schedules and decided quite spontaneously to meet up again – this time in London!
Thanks to Robin’s magic book I also reunited with another old roommate of mine, Surabhi, who was then studying in London and whom I had last seen in Massachusetts four years before.
It was amazing to see my old friends from another side of the globe again, at an unexpected time and on a third continent (If I am allowed to say Great Britain is on a continent in this context). But the trip was not at all well prepared. I was not even ready for the rainy English weather. The rest of the journey just went rather unpleasant. I lost touch with Robin and Claire after seeing them for one day due to some problems with the telephone. I got onto the wrong bus and got off in the middle of nowhere at midnight after visiting Surabhi. A while after I finally got onto the right bus, a group of some forty drunk or high teenagers stopped the bus and frantically marched in. Worse still in the hostel, my fellow travellers and I stayed sleepless the whole night, hearing people smashing glass bottles and arguing loudly right outside our dorm. Nobody dared open the door… Scared and depressed, I thought I would never come to this city again.
But I did go back, again and again six years later. My first return to London turned out very pleasant, and so did the ensuing visits. I started to appreciate the surrounding which always offered me a park to sit in at a stone’s throw. I smiled as I realised that the Tube commuters, though looking busy, always left a polite distance from others and never pushed or shoved. I found a peaceful and quiet moment for thought when I saw a poem displayed inside the Underground train on a spot which would have been designated for an advertisement instead. As I had the chances to go into people’s homes, I learned that this place was much more than the famous attractions and museums or the busy business and politics, but a real place for people to live.
And once again, this city brought me back an old friend from far away. The globetrotter Hiromi who works across countries and continents happened to have a business trip in London when I had a journalistic interview to do there. (How many years since you last left Hong Kong?) A serendipitous encounter with a friend in Bristol took me to a surprise visit to an artist’s house in London, with cool people, music and dance. The place also brought me back three old colleagues and even created a reunion among three old girls of my school. More than a decade after leaving school, we came together again and shared with each other about our lives over these past years.
I must confess I still do not much about London, for each of the visits I have paid this year was very brief. Mostly I would go for an event and meet one or two friends and then go back to Bristol, or sometimes I was just there for a transit. Excuse me for not yet having explored this city, but now I do feel this place has become a meeting point for me and people around me. There is a kind of magic in this city which brings people together… And I promise myself I will soon pay proper visit and find out the magic behind this place!
