An Expat's Embrace

Catching up with friends is always a fun affair - but when you're on the 'other side' of the world the catch-ups are far sweeter. If it's a girlfriend that's visiting then your initial embrace will coincide with screams and giggles and squeals of delight. You'll hug a few times, look each other over, comment on each other's changes (or lack of changes), and then start chatting away at a million miles an hour, each of you talking over the other your excitement and adrenalin somehow allowing you to hear and speak at the same time. And then you'll breathe.

If it's girl meeting boy after a long time apart, then the hug is far less intense, you'll probably give them a kiss on the cheek, look each other over and rather than comment on specific changes in features are more likely to simply say, "You look great!" And then you'll look each other over again and assess (in your head) whether or not you're meeting up again as just friends or friends-with-benefits. That is, will the evening include one bottle of wine, or two?

Having witnessed a few long-awaited reunions between boys it is clear such interactions begin with the least ado and end the loudest. After sharing a few beers and stories regaling past drunken times, guards are let down, and then and only then, is it time to hug - briefly.

Feeling at ease with my new life in London (some might call it a love affair), seeing old friends luckily doesn't send me into a spin of homesickness - rather the opposite... I go into recruitment-mode and feel the need to sell my new hometown to whoever is visiting. I often go further and begin to plan the finite details of their obligatory relocation. Good friends placate me and join in with my planning, and we while the hours with fun and fancy. After all, that's what friends are for.