Musings – Escape to Aurora Lane

Extra sausage

It’s 6am in the morning but it was still dark outside… and cold based on the thick condensation on my window. This means I readjusted my alarm to 8am hoping when I next woke up, there will be more daylight to encourage me to leave my cozy bed.

8am. A little more light yes but the sky was grey. Siri informed me that the temperature has risen to more encouraging 14 degrees so I rolled out of bed and prepared for breakfast.

One advantages of living in the town centre is being closed to daily amenities like food places and McDonalds is literally 50 steps from where I live, the only reason I dismissed a hot delicious english breakfast is because it is double the count going there.

McDonalds is busy and filled with Deliveroo/UberEat drivers. I guess more people foregone the idea of getting out the house completely when they saw the grey sky and wet roads.

As per usual the kiosk where I put my order in didn’t print a receipt. It’s either they haven’t replaced the cartridge from last night or it run out after the 98th customer of the day. I decided on pancake and sausage and a cup of hot choco. I felt like it has all the important calories I needed to sustain a Sunday I expect to be good but uneventful.

The staff are all busy and there was a system to the chaos that only themselves know. My drink was double checked and was replaced because it wasn’t hot choco…put back and replaced by the right one.

Once on the table I realised that they didn’t give me a sausage. I debated whether to go back to the counter I could partially see from behind the little crowd waiting for the orders…is it worth queuing again? But then…I really want the sausage so I went back and the manager himself assisted me. I told him it’s no problem at all when he apologised. I heard him tell the staff to put two sausages as an apology to me.

I happily walked back to my table, quite thrilled to get an extra sausage but I guess today it is really more hectic for them than usual.

No matter, today is a good day. I plugged in to my favorite playlist and enjoyed my 3 pancakes and 1 sausage.

Good morning

I have been home four days since my month-long stay in the States. The grey sky and the mercurial British weather welcomed me back. These are my constants here and I am grateful for it. When I walked out from the airport, I found myself smiling as the cold raindrops made dark patterns on my faded blue shirt that says Baltimore. Rain on a sunny day, I missed it. I am indeed home.

When I got home that day, I did not realize how tired I was until I saw my bed and I just literally fell on to it and the next thing I knew it was dark and I have missed a dozen phone call from friends asking how my trip was.

For the past weeks, I found myself paying attention more to my routines so I can savour and enjoy the almost ritualistic nature of the act. When I prepared my EnergyFizz of the day, I listened to the crisp sound the sachet made as I tore it open, the splashing sound as the water filled the glass and the fizzy sound the EnergyFizz made as it hit the water. I love my drinks elaborate so I put the mixed drink in the blender, threw in a handful of berries and voila! A drink so good it’s like drinking summer right in my kitchen.

Life happens and often times, I’m rushing around to get things done that I don’t get to enjoy the simple act of pampering myself. So today, I deliberately slowed down when washing my face and enjoyed the smooth and cool feel of the cleanser as I lathered it on my skin, the luxurious feel of the soft towel as it absorbed the excess water, and I imagined my skin invigorated and becoming wrinkle-free as I wiped the DermResults Daily Radiance Peel Pads with 2% Caviar Lime across my face (me actually holding the container and reading the label). Before applying all the creams, I made sure to apply the cooling mask (fresh from the fridge!) then I relaxed back on my bed with the spa music playing in the background. When fifteen minutes was over, I spritzed some toning mist on my face, applied collagen serum, then some eye cream to reduce the puffiness, fine lines and dark circles from sleepless nights and finally the moisturising cream with sun protect factor.

It’s nice to hit pause once in a while so we can breathe. Some moments in our lives can be too overwhelming when we don’t take our time to process it. Pause. Breathe. Feel.

Nature has a very gentle way of soothing a melancholic heart.

A beautiful Easter day

After so many cold gloomy days, I woke up to sunlight pouring inside my bedroom, bathing me in warm yellow light. It was so cozy I stayed cocooned beneath the duvet for a good couple of hours before I could make myself get out of bed. These past few days we were treated to a totally unpredictable weather (not that it was anything new)–but it snowed, in April! And weather forecast says snow on the weekend. We are probably looking at five days of summer this year. So waking up to a beautiful day with streaming sunshine and deep blue sky was a luxury. I felt really happy and my heart was imbued with gratefulness.

I leaped out the bed and run in the living room. As expected, sunlight was spilling in the room from the picture window and the flowers sitting on the table nearby seemed more vibrant. A perfect morning indeed and I basked in the sunshine while enjoying a bowl of granola. It was so invigorating. A while later, my sister and I decided to spend the day outside (like the rest of the masked populace) and drove to Coombe Hill which was about 15 minutes away from our flat. The small parking space and the whole length of street were packed with cars but surprisingly, the place was not too crowded. We meandered along small footpaths to avoid other people until we reached the peak of the hill. The light breeze blowing was chilly but as long as we were seated on a patch of sunlight it was bearable. The sky was so blue not a speck of cloud in sight. Occasionally, birds could be seen silently gliding in the air.

It was peaceful.