london to bangkok

The parting of friends continues and thus far we’ve bid farewell to two in a week; we just need someone to leave tomorrow and we’ll have ourselves a departure hat-trick.
As six of us sat, cozily, in Christina’s bedroom last night, while she distributed her excess belongings among us, my heart felt sore. Not only has she been a wonderful friend, a ray of sunshine in our group and a joy to be around, but she has had a significant presence in my life over the last 18 months.
Tears began to stream down my face as she summed this city up to perfection, saying, “Soon it will be as if I was never here. It won’t be long until another friend will come into your life to take my space. Tomorrow, someone moves into my bedroom. London is the city that heals itself quickly.”
Her words were like a piercing dagger of reality. London - the transient city that stops to lament no one. It is only the people whom you impact that will treasure your former presence here.
We prayed and us girls wept. Only Fox managed to hold it together – our pillar of strength.
Today I’m sitting at my desk in London, in my beautiful, newly acquired Thai skirt. Today Christina flies back home, to Bangkok, dressed in her London high St fashions. And I’m left contemplating how, when all is said and done, it’s not just our clothes that are the evidence of our cultural differences, but the distance that our friendship must now endure. London may heal quickly but, as I gaze down at Christina’s lovely skirt, I imagine it will take a bit longer for my heart to do the same.