Sing it Chantal styles (for Caitlin.) So while this blog took an unexpected hiatus despite our best intentions, this means that the intended purpose of our time in London was met: we settled into a temporary "home". A life of day to day work and routine that became so comfortable and normal that it didn't seem newsworthy to share. But how wonderful it has been. It's been almost 6 months since we arrived in England, and it's time to move on to part 2 of this year: the southeast Asia return. It feels bittersweet, as there is of course a huge luxury in being able to not work (again!) for several months, but London continues to amuse, surprise, and fascinate, and so we are indeed sad to close this chapter. We're so happy we had the actual time to squeeze in so many new experiences even while working full time, mostly thanks to Troy who kept "house" and sorted out the day to day cleaning, shopping, cooking, organizing, etc. (People in England say "sorted" a lot, actually, not so much in Canada?) Musings of fond memories/life lessons now follow:

-Getting a 5 pound pizza on Monday nights at a sadly now defunct pizza restaurant (an aMAZing bargain)

-Having regular weekend walking days of 20,000 steps

-Relishing "winter temperatures" of 10C (accompanied by chirping birds!)

-Finding that a cemetery is actually a tourist attraction (Highgate!) and a beautiful one at that

-Tearing up when seeing "Les Miserables" on stage 20 years after you originally saw it still takes your breath away (TORONTO please bring back more shows!)

-Seeing "Come From Away" and delighting in all the Canadian accents around us in the theatre as we all celebrated a little corner of home

-Realizing early on that we are far too old to be living with 3 other flatmates, but being mature enough to deal with it better than we would have in our 20s

-Solidifying the idea that while working from home has its (quiet, calm!) advantages, one needs the social aspect of an outside work environment to feel whole (Troy)

-Being unexpectedly moved by the connections made in such a short time with students at 2 complex special needs schools (Clare)

-Trying to balance the hurried feeling of needing to "do it all" with the slowing down and finding gratitude in the fact that we managed to pull off an unplanned 6 months here

-Remembering that this dynamic city is always revealing how people are uniquely navigating their own paths in life, and that maybe we find a way to do this again….?!