My Non-Holiday in Canada

Alright, I'm trying to catch up on things I want to blog about, which is why I'm writing about my "holiday" in Canada which occurred around two weeks ago.

I use "holiday" in the loosest sense of the term here. Yes, I left Libya and therefore didn't have to go in to the office everyday, but I was up at 6 every morning doing office-related work (checking/responding to emails, working on a transcript, etc.). Then there was all the personal admin stuff I had to do: renew driver's license, renew passport, file taxes...Between all that, I had no chance of living out my fantasy of just lying like an inanimate lump of organic matter in the recliner in front of the TV, glass of bourbon in one hand and petting Vivace (my dog) with the other.

My brother was incredibly busy with midterms the whole time I was there, so I barely got to see him, though I did get to attend his highschool graduation (Canadian high schools have graduation the autumn after their final year) which was fun. I think it was the first time I'd attended a graduation without either playing in the band (pomp and circumstance ad nauseum) or graduating myself. I was proud. Also got to see my relatives a bit, though not as much as I would have liked due to my busy-ness and theirs. Finally, got a chance to see many (but alas, not all) of old friends.

I also had the good fortune of having a 24 hour layover in London on the way to Canada, so there again I had the opportunity to catch up with many old friends who, even though I had left them only a month previously, it felt like I hadn't seen in ages. Amazing how major life changes can broaden the expanses of time which in actual fact was very short. In any case, I pulled up to The Driver (pub) in a cab and found a bunch of the old gang sitting out front (Jeremie, Arjun, Keya, Eleise, Hung Bin) and they graciously welcomed me with great jubilation and (more importantly) some beautiful, amber, Maker's Mark bourbon (this blog is starting to seem like a prolonged Maker's Mark advert). And so we proceded to drink...drink..and drink some more. We relived the old days, drinking at the driver, then proceding to the King's Crown (where we requested Shakira's "Hips Don't Lie" of course) then when to Paul Robeson House and yelled in the courtyard (Arjun was particularly keen on this). I also rolled around in the Paul Robeson (damp) grass. We thanked the guard, our old corpulent friend, for allowing us in by giving him a swig of the bottle of Maker's Mark that we were walking around with. Then on to Clockwork to cap off the night. By this point we were all rather inebriated. On the walk back, Jeremie felt the urge to run up and down Pentonville Road and go up to random strangers to yell "COPTIC IN THE HOOOUUUUUSE!" (that was a reference to me being in London I suppose...). All in all, it was a pretty amazing 24 hours. It made me realize how much I miss London and all the people in it that have made my memories of that city so fond. I hope to be reunited with both the city and the people once again soon.