Life After LA

Me, missing California? No way. All that sunshine? Who needs it. It’s England in September and I’m in a vest top and cotton skirt; I’ve had lunch in the pub; a walk in the countryside. What more could I want?

I spent three years living in LA and I couldn’t wait to return to the UK.  I’d got fed up of that easy lifestyle in the land of celebrity and excess. I’d got fed up of hearing about Kim Kardashian and Kobe Bryant (Kobe who?) every morning on the local LA news. The novelty of living in a bubble and not knowing what was going on in the rest of the world had worn off. In the US there is no rest of the world – the world starts at the Pacific west coast and ends 2,500 miles later at the Atlantic.  Anything north of Wisconsin or south of San Diego – who needs to know?  Talk about insular!

But  now of course, back in that lush green countryside, all those things I craved as normal now seem rather strange. I hadn’t realised just how acclimitised I had become – not just to the mega convenience of US life, but I’d become a townie.  Now I’m back in the longed for countryside  and I realise I’ve only been to movies once in the last 8 weeks. I’ve only had one takeaway, I have to get in my car every time I need something from the grocery store. And it costs me £50( $80) to fill my car up with gas.

I used to complain I felt I didn’t fit in – the friends I left behind were the ones I felt comfortable and familiar with. Now I’m out of touch with everyone again; I’m the fish out of water and I have to muscle my way back in. Last time I lived here I was a working mum of two teenagers. Now I'm this lazy leisure lady with too much time on her hands. My old friends are all at work; they have their routine.   I’m the one in the chaos zone.

Do I get up? Do I stay in bed? No I’ll write another blog. 

You see everyone writes a blog about being an ex-pat, but nobody warns you what it's like when you come back - as an Ex-ex-pat, and to be honest it is a bit weird.  It's unsettling; what I used to always think of "home" is actually unfamiliar territory.

Of course it wont be as exciting as Life in the LA Bubble because well, this isn’t LA any more. This is  England. But I still do things. I go out. I go to events. I visit places. How hard can it be to come up with 500 irreverent words every week?  Time to suck it and see.