Monday, April 14, 2008

Good to Be Back


I swear to God when I landed in Athens on Saturday night, I could have kissed the ground. I tried, lord knows I did. I ate well, steered clear of junk food, wrapped up warm, even took my own food with me and despite all that I caught Tube Flu.


Tube Flu is a particularly nasty type of flu which innocent people catch off London's disgusting, old, dirty metro system. I started to feel ill on Wednesday, and today I am still totally blocked up and heavy headed. Since some inconsiderate fool had travelled while sick and thus spread the germs to me, it was only fair that I returned the favour and rode here and there on the tube, sneezing with gay abandon, until my illness forced me to stay at home.


It goes to show that there is no escaping it. If I am in London for more than 3 days, I get sick. It's a bad place, man, full off unfulfilled dreams, crushed hopes and snuffed naivety.


Something weird happened to me this time in the UK. I felt invisible. In Athens, I feel like an individual. There's only one of me here. In London, there are hundreds of thousands of girls like me. There is nothing special, nothing different about me. It made me feel a little lost. I would buy something in a corner shop and wait expectantly to be asked where I was from. When the question didn't come, I would remember that I was in a place where there was nothing special or different about me. Sometimes I'd start talking about my life in Greece just for the heck of it, and be met with an expression like "I really couldn't give a flying f*ck, love."


So anyway, I managed to get through my two weeks in the UK, SOMEHOW. The utterly miserable faces, the terrible weather, the junk TV. I got through it all and listened to lots of people tell me "Oh come on now! Britain is really not all that bad."


Oh really? My flight landed at 00.10 on Saturday and it was 22C outside. So everyone who told me not to move to Greece because it would be a mistake and that the UK really isn't that bad can kiss my sun-drenched ass.


EllasDevil has tagged me for the April meme and made me feel all popular and liked. So here goes.


These are the rules:

1. When tagged, place the name and URL of the tagger on your blog.

2. Post the rules on your blog.

3. Write 7 non-important things/habits/quirks about yourself?

4. Name 7 of your favorite blogs.

5. Send an email/comment on their blog letting them know they have been tagged.


7 non-important things/habits/quirks about me.


1. I can't leave shoes with their soles turned upwards. I have to turn them right again.


2. I hate peppers and okra. I can eat sweet red peppers but all the other types make we want to wretch. Talk about world's most pointless vegetable. I love spicy peppers though.


3. I can not talk to someone on the phone and talk to someone in front of me at the same time. CAN NOT. My brain short circuits.


4. I am an ebay addict. It's the only mail I ever get in Athens.


5. I hate coffee and anything coffee flavoured. Kind of sucks to be me in Athens because I don't smoke either.


6. I doodle eyes and lips over everything.


7. My ears were pierced wrong as a child so I wear only dangly earrings because the stud types make the non-symmetrical piercing really obvious.


Name 7 of your favorite blogs


I couldn't possibly narrow it down to 7. If you're reading, you're tagged.

Image: http://neilperkin.typepad.com/only_dead_fish/images/2007/08/30/rain5.jpg

4 comments:

itelli said...

Oh Sweet Jeebus, u've turned greek...

bollybutton said...

Yes itelli, me thinks i have. Packing half a suitcase worth of vegetables sort of confirmed it for me.

Anonymous said...

Welcome back !. I know this is late but.. better late than never.

Funny isn't it? I'm as english as they come (I think) but I don't fit there at all

Mind you, I was four when I realised I was born in the wrong country. I didn't know which was the right one but I knew it wasn't England.

I love many many things about England but it just isn't for me !

Welcome back

Anonymous said...

"Oh really? My flight landed at 00.10 on Saturday and it was 22C outside. So everyone who told me not to move to Greece because it would be a mistake and that the UK really isn't that bad can kiss my sun-drenched ass"

That made me laugh out loud... welcome back!