Long weekend
29 Aug 2008 2 Comments
in Uncategorized Tags: family, holidays
We had a really nice, relaxed long weekend. Where we went to Wales to visit my uncle and aunt. We have been there loads of times, specially because we lived around 30 miles from them around 6 years ago. I have very fond memories of those visits – how I would rush there to eat comfort food cooked specially by my aunt for me soon after we moved to this country (ever notice how the topic always ends up in food, we Indians are obsessed about our food, me thinks), how my aunt would pack some food for me to take home so I did not have to cook, the look on my uncle and aunts face when I turned up for the first time with my driving instructor for company (I just used the lesson to drive to their house, under the guise of A-road driving practice) and so many more.
My uncle has a beautiful house in the valleys. His house is on a hill, nestled by mountains all around and he has a breathtaking view of the whole valley from most rooms in his house. Its immensely peaceful. Quiet. Scenic. Lush greenery all around. The only sound you can hear is of the birds chirping in the garden. When the sun is out, it is almost paradise in my opinion. If only the sun shone though. The real beastly downside though is the awful weather. They get loads and loads of rain all year through – even when it is sunny and dry about 20 miles down the road. i never did take much notice of it though, until this time.
Its just difficult to digest that its part of the same country – (well technically its a different country – Wales, but still a part of Great Britain). We had to put the heating on for most of the time we were around – it was so cold. I had a cold the minute i walked into the house, which left me only when I got back to London. My mother’s asthma was threatening to surface its ugly head ever so often and my father’s existing neck pain got aggravated because of the cold. I just could not see myself living there and for the first time in many years, my vision of it being a paradise was shattered and I understood why my aunt keeps saying that she doesnt like to live there. Somehow the weather there never bothered me much before, because my only frame of reference in this country was lousy weather for the most part. Moving to London has changed that outlook significantly.
I had also forgotten how isolating living in such a place can be. You rarely see people on the road, you hardly hear any sound, you dont talk to many people unless you make a conscious effort – the buzz of city life is so glaringly absent. No wonder I hated when I first moved to wales years ago. It took me years to get used to it. Looking back now, moving directly to London would have been so much easier – on me, our marriage – but yet I would not change anything, if I had the option to go back.
My aunt, who is such a strong person normally – one who did not cry when she was diagnosed with cancer, one who did not cry when she had to put a cold cap (which was horrible to say the least and I would often be in tears because I was with her during those chemo sessions), one who did not cry when she had a silent heart attack recently – yet she broke down when we were leaving this time. She must have been so lonely else she would have never broken down like that. That sight stayed with me all through our drive back and still comes back to haunt me.
This has become such a random rambling post, so will stop now. i just wanted to capture these thoughts and read it on a day when the urge to move back to Wales becomes over-bearing and all-encompassing and literally takes over my mind.
