Arrival LHR:BA 036

I watched the lady sitting next to me trying to understand where she had been that would lead her here next to me on a 4:00am flight to London from Chennai.

She looked Indian, was attractive in a middle aged kinda way with a dark brown bob and round rimmed glasses.

She was eagerly reading 'how to have a perfect life in 30 days' by the best selling author of ' 'The monk who sold his Ferrari'. What kinda person would ever pick a book like that?Silently, I tried to contimplate the answer to that million dollar question as she exchanged the book for the horoscope section in Ok magazine.

My flight was good and aided by the fact I was upgraded into relative comfort. The plane landed early and I watched the sky, it seemed to make a patchwork pattern and looked like a blue and grey chessboard.

Walking though the areobridge gave me shivers, it was 6 degrees outside and a long way from sweltering India, I wrapped my scarf around me extra tight and set off into the microcosm that is Heathrow.

The gent at passport control was unseasonably jolly giving me tips on how to make it in London. I smiled.

I walked slowly and purposely into the arrivals lounge and remembered back to Love Actually and watched euphoric couples reunite and I looked around for the imaginary sign that might bare my name and laughed out loud when I saw a sign for Peter Crouch (my trivia team alter ego).

Next, it was time to buy my tube ticket, the guy at the desk was so friendly he had me laughing out loud as he officially welcomed me to London. I mused whether every one in London had taken happy pills?

People parted as I boarded the train, I wondered if I smelt that bad and an Irish man remarked on how light I travelled, his sarcasm was not lost on me. My back pack was given a badge of honour at check in and was labelled with a bright orange sticker that said heavy 25 kilos.

How did I carry it around?

It felt like a homecoming of soughts and as the train speed along the Piccadilly line to Hammersmith I remembered how much I loved London. As I sat trying to remember every second I admired autumn's left overs; there were countless trees with golden and auburn leaves glowing against the greying sky.

I had arrived.