The set up
I’m sitting on the train on a Monday afternoon waiting for it to depart for London so that I can meet up with my French best friend (he has recently become a proud British and would hate me for calling him French). Very much looking forward to enjoying an evening of picnic and Midnight Summer Night’s Dream performance at the Regent’s Open Air Theatre.
It’s my last day off work and feeling excited for this evening but as usual there is a fault on the train which makes me tiny nervous even though I’ve planned enough buffer time for my trip. Although it normally happens when I take the train to London around this hour, it is still frustrating to endure as I was hoping for an easy journey.
But when you’re moving out and about nothing comes easy. And my last four months at my new work and all the changes it has brought have certainly not been easy.
They have, however, been enjoyable, creative, full of life and of course full of walking! My only regret is that time is walking away too so fast and so much ahead of me that it hasn’t allowed me to write down my walking experiences. Thank you to my Greek best friend for reminding me that I’ve neglected it by saying that he missed reading my blog. I miss writing it too!
Progress of walking in London
First of all, I feel I ought to provide a full progress report of my getting used to walking in London since my last blog about it. I can happily report that I’ve more or less got used to the challenges and different types of walkers and knock on wood had no major or minor incidents happening. I still keep my brisk but not rushed walking pace and allow plenty of time to get from A to B, so I haven’t yet got the bug of rushing to get to the train!
I can’t say though that I’m doing well when it comes to using westbound central line on the tube when I have evening outings or tango after work in Holborn. It is simply packed and the other day a 2-metre middle age giant, who didn’t grasp on something when the tube made a move, crashed his whole body onto me which meant that I knocked my head on the glass panel that I was standing against so hard that I thought I was going to end up with a concussion. I got a mere sorry and nothing else. I felt so strong about kicking him back hard for being so rude but no one around me seemed to notice the incident or provide sympathy. As my tango partner said, since I didn’t see stars in my eyes it was a normal tube mis-happening. Another typical London behaviour to get used to. I had a slight pain but no concussion or bump so I moved on and tangoed through the night but not without feeling vulnerable and a little bruised in my heart.
Walking at the Heath on Summer Solstice
While the big city poses some negative challenges and rough reality truths it also offers some pretty special moments which make you feel that you wouldn’t change it for any other place in the world. Since I’ve started working in London, I have been walking for both work and pleasure but this one was a truly special one. It happened at the end of a long working day, week, month. In fact it was at the end of an open day where our university welcomed lots of visitors on campus who wanted to get a feeling of what it is to study at Queen Mary University London. In the usual format of these events it was a very early wake-up call which is necessary in order to set up for the day and get briefed on your tasks, prepare rooms, brief student ambassadors and other preparatory tasks. Although I’ve done 108 open day events in my previous university as posted on my LinkedIn profile, I woke up at my Hampstead Suite (that is the name of my French best friend’s flat which has given me a safe place to stay over when I need to be in town either early or late) feeling nervous and apprehensive about my role as a supervisor for the day. I was based on our second campus at Whitechapel, which I’m not that familiar with, and wondered what would I do if the tube isn’t working, would I be a good source of information for visitors, what would it be like to set up, would I be a good supervisor, have I read all the briefing correctly and a million other existential questions that flooded my little head on that morning.
Despite my nervousness as it always ends up being the case none of my fears materialised. The tube run perfectly, being a supervisor was super fun – especially since I got to have a radio earpiece and was listening to everything that was happening throughout the event like a wedding planner – I seemed to know quite a lot of information about Queen Mary and was quite useful to visitors who approached me.
When the event finished at around 4.00pm the day didn’t end for me as I walked back to my office on the other campus to do post event campaigns to those who’ve attended. And while I thought it would be a straightforward execution, it ended up being a slightly complicated data management heavy exercise which seemed to take forever to get done. The clock was ticking and all I was thinking of was whether or not I was going to make it for my dinner reservation at a lovely oriental restaurant near my Hampstead suite with my friend at 7pm. It was not only a question of whether I was going to physically make it, but whether mentally I was going to survive the evening and be a good company for my friend.
The work clock stopped for me at around 6.45pm as having completed what I needed to do, there was nothing else that I could do at my end and just hanging around wasn’t going to be of value. I walked to the tube and made my way to Archway lost in my thoughts, half awake half asleep, opening my eyes on regular intervals to ensure I changed lines at Bank and that I did get off in Archway rather than on High Barnett which is the end of the line!
I did a quick refresh of make-up and clothes when I arrived at my suite and switched on my Friday evening charm feeling free of the long day at work and being grateful to be greeted by my friend with a big huge comforting hug. Dinner was delicious, the conversation as always intellectually and culturally exciting and all the working day fatigue was completely forgotten. I felt truly rejuvenated, so much so that although very grey stormy clouds gathered and threatened to release a summer’s storm my friend and I decided to walk to the Heath. Being the Summer Solstice night it was still light at around 9:30pm and we wanted to digest our big meal before retreating for the night.
And what a perfect walk that was, all the way up the Heath’s hill feeling carefree next to my friend and cherishing every moment. When we reached the top and got in front of the breath-taking views of the city in the far distance, the scenery was one of the most beautiful ones I’ve seen. The stormy mixed grey and burgundy coloured clouds made the red lights of the skyscrapers shine like sparkling rubies. A light summer breeze made the colours of the clouds change from burgundy to a maroon as a few last rays of the sun as it was setting off were escaping from the stormy weather. Unfortunately, the camera couldn’t capture the beauty of the scenery and do it justice. But that doesn’t matter because the image of it has vividly been registered on my memory. The top of the Heath was packed with like-minded Londoners who wanted to make the most of the summer solstice out in the nature. But for me all the noise and presence of others was blocked. All I could see and feel was the views and the fact that I was sharing this special evening with my best friend.
On our way back my friend spotted one of his friends sitting on a bench and they chatted for a while about their film projects and their future plans. While I was listening fascinated by their world of imagination and creativity, a little fluffy dog approached me and wanted to make friends too. As I cuddled it and played with it, I also chatted for a while with his owner and his son who were walking the little one in the wonderful British way of making small talk with strangers. Eventually, we said our goodbyes and walked back home where my friend and I continued our never ending conversations until midnight.
That is how I spent Summer Solstice 2019 with a walk in Hampstead Heath with my dearest friend.
A dedication
While I started writing this blog last week, I wasn’t able to finish it until today. And today a strong earthquake in Athens, only a few months shy of my 20 anniversary of being an earthquake survivor, encouraged me to finish and share with you one of the days that I’ve felt grateful for being given a second chance in life and what it means to be alive, happy and content.
This blog is another dedication to the girl who was next to me when the earthquake took away the ground from our feet in 1999 and that didn’t have that second chance.
I will never forget you.
Walks and Smiles 
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