Hangovers and packing

My time in London is now coming to a close, and travelling seems just that bit closer, with a sudden panic over changes of address, packing, visas, plans for next year... things feel like they're coming to a head a bit, and suddenly my settled existence in Arundel Close is nearly over and it's brought home that I might not get to feel settled again for a long time!

I've been reading The Beach to get myself in the mood for travel, but annoyingly I can't get Leonardo di Caprio's face out of my mind, having seen the film first and attaching his face to Richard's character. It's also all wrong that Sal is American and Richard is British in the book, where in the film it was the other way around. Ah well, these are the hazards of seeing the film before the book - the book is so much better than the film.

After two nights out on the trot I am feeling beer fatigue in a major way, but as powerful as the urge is to do nothing for the next 48 hours except watch films and each snack foods, I'm picking up a van tomorrow morning to move all of my worldly possessions back up to Suffolk - where the hell they're going to go in mum's place is yet to be figured out, but I can already hear her complaining about the amount of my junk I've left in the living room, and I'm sure I'll lose the cat under a pile of boxes. Driving the van should be fun though - it takes moving to have an excuse to hire a van, when actually Transits are just great fun to drive!

The last few nights out in London have been great. It seems like at long last, I actually got to appreciate London and how much fun it can be - but maybe that's just nostalgia kicking in in advance, looking back at the last year through rose-tinted specs, when I actually spent most of the last year whingeing about how London was no fun, dirty and expensive, people were rude, the rich kids in rugby shirts and the prams in Starbucks were annoying, and Northcote Road was a stuck-up and unwelcoming place. London is a good place, sometimes, and sometimes it just plain sucks. Maybe I'll give it another chance when I get back. I will miss some great people - and it's always the people that have made places memorable so far. I'm starting to sound like the voiceover for the Wonder Years, so it's definitely time to go and pack.