My homesickness for Malaysia continued until 2014.
That year, for the first time, I was able to return to my former home. I was given the most wonderful and generous gift – a holiday with my son, who was then 18, travelling from the UK to Singapore, Melaka, Kuala Lumpur, Penang and Langkawi and then back through KL to Singapore. In an extraordinary co-incidence (or maybe not, who knows?), five weeks before I was due to go on this trip I received an email from a former classmate, Theresa, who had found me on the internet. We were able to meet up in KL and you can read about it here. This was the beginning of my re-connection with Garden School mates and the beginning of the end of my homesickness.
KL was unrecognisable. Most people will be familiar with the Petronas Towers, shown below. It was the first time I had seen them and, for the most part, the city was like a place I had never been to before. Every now and then a familiar landmark would appear. I managed to find my old house but didn’t have time to visit the new Garden School.
What I did discover, however, was extraordinary. As soon as I set foot in Malaysia, I felt at home, more comfortable than I had ever felt in the UK. Even though I didn’t recognise the city, it felt like home. The years fell away as I spent time with my friend and showed my son where I used to live, explaining my young life to him in a way I could never have done without actually being there. I no longer felt sad; I was able to settle with the reality that I now lived in the UK and used to live in Malaysia.
Petronas Towers, KL, 2014
Some time later, Theresa told me about a reunion idea planned for June 2019 in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Although it seemed surprising, Santa Fe made sense as a location since our classmate Susan runs a mountain adventure centre there, and a fair proportion of those who might want to attend now live in the US. I thought I would love to go but family circumstances meant that I couldn’t even think about it much at that time.
In October 2018, I visited my uncle in Oklahoma City and took the opportunity to meet up with another classmate, Charlotte, in Tulsa. We made tentative plans to attend the reunion but it still seemed an unlikely dream.
I met Theresa again in Malaysia with my brother in January this year along with another school friend, Rebecca. Little by little more connections were being made and each time I saw one of these childhood friends it was as if no time had passed at all.
However a few things happened in my own life that led to my decision definitely not to attend the reunion. My dog was sick, I needed emergency building work done, the dog was sick again and then there was further building work. I absolutely was not going to Santa Fe.
But I stayed in the WhatsApp group for the reunion.
Ever heard of FOMO (fear of missing out)?
One day, a few weeks before the planned weekend in Santa Fe, I checked flights to Albuquerque and they were a little cheaper, especially if I was willing to travel at a less popular time and fly back in three legs. I reconsidered.
Then some funny things happened. Neither Albuquerque nor Santa Fe are particularly famous cities. They don’t turn up in songs and films all the time like Paris and New York. But in a 24 hour period my son suggested we watch Breaking Bad (set in Albuquerque) together, I got stuck in a traffic jam behind a large truck with ‘Santa Fe’ on its mud flap, and both cities turned up in separate songs (British ones!) on my car radio.
Result? I couldn’t stop thinking about the weekend and how I might just book that cheap flight.
I mentioned this in the WhatsApp group and someone said ‘just book it Harriet!’ That was all I needed.
Once the flight was booked, everything happened quickly. Charlotte and I agreed to share a hotel room to keep costs down, I checked my ESTA, itineraries were planned and arrangements made. But how would it really turn out? Had I made an extravagant mistake? Read the next post to find out!
