Touchdown, London

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by daretodre95m

by daretodre95m

11 April 2019

Blue skies and spring weather greeted me upon my arrival at Heathrow Airport and boy, was it great to be back on the ground after two flights and a 3.5 hour layover. Leaving Manila for this job opportunity felt like the right thing to do and I was certainly glad to have listened to my gut. It has been nearly three years since I moved out of my parents house and into my own flat, which I bought with my own earnings, and ended up hitting another milestone: moving out of the country and finding work in my favourite city.

"Thank you," the stewardess who attended to me during the flight to London said as I lugged my suitcase along the path. "Thank you as well," I said, giving her a hug. Christine was so accommodating during the flight, helping me with my luggage and bringing me a shit load of drinks since I was feeling a bit under the weather. Luckily, I took medication upon descending and think it started to kick in. I was about to head towards the immigration line when my phone started ringing and opened it to find my boyfriend calling.

"Hey babe," Martijn started off the conversation, seeming smiley. "Hi, I just got to the airport," I said, to which he replied with "I'm glad you got to London safely." It's been nearly two months since Martijn and I saw each other, the last time being at this very airport. Being in a long-distance relationship since last November, we had to rely on texts and calls, be it via iMessage or Skype, in order to communicate. However, we were fortunate enough to have spent time together in Frankfurt back in January and in London and Amsterdam back in February. The entire of March was difficult, as we had to revert back to our normal means of communicating. Now that I moved to London and he would be moving here at the beginning of next month but visiting in two days, we would no longer have to worry about the distance.

"I'm surprised you're awake," I men. It was only quarter to eight in The Netherlands, which is a rare time to hear from him. "Yeah yeah, smarty pants," he laughed, thus making me laugh. "Can we switch to texting first? I'm about to line up for immigration," I asked, changing the subject. Being on the phone whilst in line at immigration is considered illegal after all. White noise filled the air before he decided to open his mouth again. "Sure thing, babe. I'm getting ready for work at the moment, but will text you once I get to the office," he assured me. Getting used to this routine took a while, I'm not gonna lie. "Of course," I told him. "I love you, baby. Let me know when you get to your place," he said, which was just for safety purposes. "I love you too," I said. "Bye, baby."

I looked at my phone to find a text from Martijn, which read "On the way to the office. I can't wait to see you in two days. :)" Kind of preoccupied, I put my phone in my pocket and headed for baggage claim. It was a miracle that the immigration line was not as long as I had expected it to be, which made my day. Anticipating a slow start to the day because of how airports usually operate in the morning, I was hopeful and felt like I could get a lot done. Not only did I have to start unpacking my things, buy groceries for the week and pack for Barcelona, but participate in an online conference for work, specifically this fashion-related event that Vera asked me to help plan. Working in the fashion industry has been tough at times, especially because of the events that take place and every single detail that goes into the preparations. Aside from that, I had to do my payroll and fix resignation-related documents. Administrative work isn't always fun, folks.