Salisbury

I seem to end up in the UK a lot. It is supposed to be only 2 hours away but after a 1hr delay in Lisbon and an hour holding over London it didn't seem so close. I headed to Bristol to meet people who understood why leaving a sunny 30deg day in Lisbon took some adjusting. The support process included drinking capirinhas in a Brazilian bar with Portuguese friends in Clifton. What the?!

Then the next day it was off to Salisbury to meet my brother who was singing at the cathedral for the weekend. The cathedral has the highest spire in the UK and dominates the town skyline, I have millions of photos of it to prove this fact. The normal postcard photo is the catherdral seen from across the fields, however I like this one better.
As blogged before I always find it interesting dealing with the English after being away, the nuances, the wit,the cynicism, the questioning about who you are to try to connect with you ("Ah, Evora, we thought of buying a house there once"). Thus being part of a choir thrown together for a weekend was interesting, watching the group interact tentatively, shifting between points where I was comfortable and where I felt as if I didn't fit (since I was a child in England I wasn't involved as much in social situations as my brother). As if getting used to that wasn't enough we were staying in a theological college in the Cathedral close, not the sort of place you'd expect to find me staying. The close is like a town within a town, surrounded by 10m high walls and gates that close at 11.30pm every night. Definitely not the sort of accommodation I'm used to. In revenge for this curfew being placed on our drinking we spent one night trying our best to drink the college bar dry, proving our aim for the weekend wasn't exactly "intellectual and spiritual growth and development".

It was also interesting, and good, to be back with my brother - we live on opposite sides of the world and catch up all too rarely. Yet bizarrely with a lot happening in our lives (especially at the moment) there are times we don't have much to say to each other. It's a credit to the effort we make to keep in contact and the effectiveness of email but also reflects that with somebody close it can be more important to be able to be comfortable enough to relax over lunch and read the paper unlike with others where you need to spend the time getting to know each other

Anyway one essential part of coping with the slightly familar is to get back to something you feel more comfortable with. So I set off on a Bank Holiday Sunday to have a few beers and think Australian instead of English (pardon?!) while catching up with Cathy and some other Aussie mates. One thing to remember is that Bank Holidays means rail maintenance means instead of a 2hr train ride to London I ended up on a 2hr bus trip through Surrey with half a dozen drunk Aussies next to me and got into London 4 hours after I left Salisbury. The other thing to keep in mind is that Bank Holidays always mean great weather for being outdoors. The English attitude of "We're here, it's a holiday, we're going to enjoy the outdoors despite wind and rain" may be bloody stupid but you have to admire it.
After all that the prospect of a the return trip, and the likely outcome of standing outside aforementioned locked gates at 11.35pm without a bed was enough to drive me to drink. None of you will be surprised that I ended up crashing the night in London, the decision made halfway through 2-for-1 cocktail hour, and some may have well copped sms's just before closing time (I still never know when pubs close in London!). But it was good to see people from "home" and feel that the world isn't so big after all, also to share some stories and talk more about the experience I'm having here. That continued later in the week when Derek came back to Portugal with me and experienced some of the "wows" that I end up gushing about on here all too often. As with Bry it amazed me how much I want visitors to enjoy Portugal and the pride I have in the place.