[For the direct yet subtle way he hinted and nudged me towards my composing extended proses, I dedicate this (disclosed) piece to B, who has nothing to do with the content though.]
I recall it to be about a week before Christmas of 2011; I was in the student union’s building for a meeting and as I was walking out I saw this Christmas tree at the atrium decorated with what looked like small square flat shiny papers. I thought it was quite creative so I detoured to have a closer look, but those ‘shiny papers’ turned out to be condom sachets in different coloured wrappers according to their various flavours and types. And the icing on the cake was a sign that read ‘Feel free to take one. Have a safe holiday!’ I seriously didn’t know which of the elements should be my first attention! Alright that’s not completely true; the irony of the whole display shouted out to me. Although I felt a bit undignified about the fact that the concept of Christmas - the commemoration of the birth of Jesus Christ who, in Christian belief, saved the world from sins – being misconstrued into a propaganda to promote ‘safe sex’ during that same Christmas holiday, I walked off musing about how modernism could get it really stupidly wrong sometimes.
Just two days before Christmas day, I was walking as fast as I could in the chilly wind grabbing my coat tighter around me to get home before the sky grew completely dark. This is one thing I hate about winters; the days are just so blindingly short! I was still about four houses away from mine when I walked past a group of people (I think they were all British from what I could see of them in the dark) singing carols by one of the houses. They all looked so happy and most of all, I felt warm just watching them stay in the cold and still enjoying the singing. I stopped for a bit to listen to them sing and you know something, as I stood there foolishly smiling by myself I realised it somewhat restored in me pieces of faith in people. That simple scene sort of gave me assurance that not everyone would risk ignorance just for the sake of appearing contemporarily modern.
My Christmas and New Year holidays, spent with friends in Birmingham, passed by in a blur of happy moments, tiring shopping trips, quick assignment getaways, a mix of pain and laughs induced by ice-skating, pool, bowling and Monopoly, worship days, fun tummy-over-filling KFC nights and finally, sad farewells. This was the first Christmas holiday my sister and I didn’t go home, due to the distances that now exist between home and our respective places of study. So that leaves just mom, dad, lil’ brother and not-so-lil’ cousin brother at home; I know my family missed me especially my mom and I missed them too, so very much. But then again, I’ve learned to live with this can’t-be-at-home thing a long time back when I realised I don’t really like living in my hometown and can’t stand it after less than a week of going home; I last about four days tops. It has nothing to do with people or whatever, it’s just a personal preference for wanderlust.
After the last and saddest farewell I grudgingly walked to my platform where the train was, as I found out too late, delayed. I stepped into my room probably around 22:30 on 3 Jan, 2012. I felt so horribly lonely I thought watching a movie based on one of my favourite comic characters would cheer me up a bit, so after a long shower I snuggled into bed and watched ‘Green Lantern.’ Oh my gosh, how could they ruin such an awesome already famous character with such a horrendous movie! It did NOT live up to my expectation at all, on the contrary the movie bumped down the rank of Green Lantern on my favourite comic characters list :/ The only decent thing I took from the whole experience was how cool it would be if I were a real fighter pilot, no??
Weeks of numbing cold went by and the weather finally gave my part of the country proper snow on 4 Feb, 2012 and I went berserk about it since a winter without snow is boring! In the midst of my housemate laughing at me, I made a footprint graveyard on our front lawn, left a watery mess on our kitchen floor, walked a quarter of a mile in the snow to get KFC just cause we were hungry (never did this when the skies were clear), trained in snowball-throwing by aiming at the wall, slept in the snow to make a snow-angel and excited my housemate enough to make her sleep in the snow with me. Good times.
So now, last week of Feb, as the weather’s warming up and hovering between 5 – 9 degrees (in Celsius), I just thought I’d write this much-needed yet long-pending post reviewing briefly the few highlights of my first winter in UK.
