An anniversary
15 years ago today I arrived in London for the first time. I had been to London Heathrow before, on the way to the U.S. and Ireland but never visited the city. And I wasn't just visiting for a few days but planning to stay for a couple of years.
It had all started in the autumn, when one morning I walked into HR and asked to be sent abroad somewhere. The company I worked for had links with a large British I.T. company and took part into a inter-company placement programme, which allowed people work experiences abroad. Indeed some English people I knew at the office had done the opposite transition and stayed in Italy for good.
A phone interview with a guy in London a few weeks later and et voila' I had an offer for a 2 year contract.
What made me do it?
A spirit of adventure combined with the realisation that I had to move away from my parents' to live my own life as a gay man.
In many ways London was my very own Emerald City.
Not that it looked anything like it when I emerged from Warren Street station with my two suitcases that Saturday!
I checked in at the Radisson Edwardian hotel on Tottenham Court Road (paid by the company for 4 weeks) and then went out for a walk.
The following day was grey and cool but I went for a walk around the Pall Mall, and St. James's.
It was all very exciting and new! And it was all so different from what I was used to.
The environment at work was also rather different from what I was used to.
The first few months were not easy in many ways but I was quite enthusiastic about it all!
Could I do it again 15 years on?
I'd like to say that I could move somewhere else but I've become quite set in my ways and 'anything for an easy life' is my mantra.
Not to mention of course, that I'm not a bright young thing any longer and that london1952 would have to move too, because I can't envisage life anywhere without him.
So here's to the next 15 years!
Tonight on the way home when I go past Trafalgar Square and Buckingham Palace on my bicycle, I will try not to be blasé about being in London and remind myself that yes, I'm not in Kansas any more!
It had all started in the autumn, when one morning I walked into HR and asked to be sent abroad somewhere. The company I worked for had links with a large British I.T. company and took part into a inter-company placement programme, which allowed people work experiences abroad. Indeed some English people I knew at the office had done the opposite transition and stayed in Italy for good.
A phone interview with a guy in London a few weeks later and et voila' I had an offer for a 2 year contract.
What made me do it?
A spirit of adventure combined with the realisation that I had to move away from my parents' to live my own life as a gay man.
In many ways London was my very own Emerald City.
Not that it looked anything like it when I emerged from Warren Street station with my two suitcases that Saturday!
I checked in at the Radisson Edwardian hotel on Tottenham Court Road (paid by the company for 4 weeks) and then went out for a walk.
The following day was grey and cool but I went for a walk around the Pall Mall, and St. James's.
It was all very exciting and new! And it was all so different from what I was used to.
The environment at work was also rather different from what I was used to.
The first few months were not easy in many ways but I was quite enthusiastic about it all!
Could I do it again 15 years on?
I'd like to say that I could move somewhere else but I've become quite set in my ways and 'anything for an easy life' is my mantra.
Not to mention of course, that I'm not a bright young thing any longer and that london1952 would have to move too, because I can't envisage life anywhere without him.
So here's to the next 15 years!
Tonight on the way home when I go past Trafalgar Square and Buckingham Palace on my bicycle, I will try not to be blasé about being in London and remind myself that yes, I'm not in Kansas any more!