I got up at 7am on Saturday to catch my flight back to London. Glad to have sat in between normal, non-smelly and thoughtful people in the plane so that made the trip bearable. Except for a baby nearby that wailed with all its might every half an hour throughout the flight.
The plane touched down at 3.45pm, half an hour earlier than scheduled and the immigration queue was blessedly short! Less than 10 minutes compared to the 2 hour wait I had to endure last year when I first arrived in London.
I was glad that Chris R and Martin F came to pick me up from Heathrow airport when I found out all trains passing my stop has been cancelled and taxis cost a bomb (£30-50) on weekends. But due to traffic, I had to wait for a while before they managed to find me.
At the arrivals area in Heathrow airport
The weather has turned quite cold, it was about 4 degrees when I landed. It's not too bad, I just need to remember to carry gloves with me. I am just a little surprised that I adjusted to the cold quite well. In fact, I had the heater on for the first time since I moved into the church flat, and I woke up to a not warm, not cold room this morning and felt it was a little suffocating. I actually prefer my room to be a little chilly in the mornings.
Where's the fun of life without a little hardship eh?
After Chris and Martin picked me up at 7pm, we went to Martin's place for supper. He bought the house some months back, and I didn't manage to visit it until yesterday night. It was small but cosy, and I think the guys are pretty happy to have a proper bachelor's pad for them to hang out in.
By the time I got back and ready to get to bed, it was 10pm London time. About 6am Malaysian time. Needless to say, I knocked out pretty quickly.
During my first service back in London, I sat all the way up front, where a few rows of seats are aligned to face the right profile of the podium, and where all the other seats are placed facing the front of the podiun to the right. I sat right at the end, so it was positioned slightly behind the podium itself. Being seated there also meant that I could easily see the faces of those seated in front of the podium and vice versa.
I thought that Paul L, the pastor, had seen me as he looked over to my direction a couple of times. But when he was preaching, and just getting to the swing of the message, he turned to his right to look at those seated there and he suddenly stopped and exclaimed loudly, "EW, you're back!! It's good to see you!! We've been praying for you!! Why are you seated there?!"
I had to resist the urge to slide down my seat in embarassment but I guess I'm glad to know that he genuinely likes me! Someone pointed out afterwards that his reaction in seeing me is forever immortalised in the tape recording of the sermon.
There was a moment during the service when I felt a little down missing family and friends back in Malaysia, but looked over to the faces of the people and saw some of them smiling warmly back at me, and I felt infused with a sense of gladness. It was like a reassurance from the Lord that where He leads He will always provide. There is a joy, in knowing that you give your fate over to an all-powerful, all-mighty God who is good and will never bring you harm or evil, but in everything, in every unsure step you take into an unknown future, it is for your good, to bring you one step closer to that eternal joy.
KiCheol and family had me have breakfast with them, while in the afternoon John S invited me to have lunch at his place. That's one thing about the folks in IPC, when a family came back from a stint overseas doing mission work, and when a mother gave birth to a new kid, they got different people to provide them meals until their lives settled down for them to go back to a routine of living. I'm thankful that they are also taking care of me.
I'm not glad to be back, but I am glad to finally stop having my life being put on hold. I am not glad to leave family and friends in Malaysia, but I am glad that God has blessed me with family and friends in London in stead.
Labels: Travels