Thursday February 18

Maja:

I’m excited about leaving tomorrow. But my body is filled with a myriad of emotions and self doubt. Am I doing the right thing? I am going to miss everything I have here, and it also feels absolutely horrible that I know that I need to leave my puppy Tommy as well. Pets are really hard. I’ve bonded so strongly with him, he even sleeps with his head on my upper arm, using it as a pillow. I used to toss and turn quite a lot before I got a dog, but now every time I need to move during the night, I wake up and make sure I’m not crushing him or disturbing his sleep. It’s a beautiful bond we have, and I never want to leave his side. Never. Ever. He is still tiny. And he is so innocent. He has never done anything wrong and he has no idea of what is about to happen. That the only person he trusts in the world has to leave him. I know that Harry and my mum are going to take great care of him while I’m gone, but I’m his world. He doesn’t really know anything or anyone else. He is only five months old.

It breaks my heart. I love him so much. 

Mark:

Today seems to stretch out into an eternity. One more day in what has been one of the longest weeks of my life and, I’m beginning to suspect, the actual longest of Maja’s. It feels like every day since the 11th has been a constant run of battles, justifications and fears of everything becoming derailed at any moment for any number of reasons. 

Maja’s says she would like to walk a little when she gets to London. The Corona thing means self isolation for ten days meaning she will have to stay in the house during that time, but transport from the airport is, by definition, allowed. That includes having to be among people in enclosed spaces. Surely it would be better to walk some of the way. Makes sense to me. But her reasoning is more the fact that once she’s arrived at the house she won’t be able to see London at all for 10 days and I’m only just learning now that, as good as her English is, she’s never been to an actual English speaking country. So this will be her first time in London and she won’t be able to see any of it for the first 10 days. Unless she goes for at least something of a walk before getting to the house. I’ve also discovered in the past week that she knows nothing of London. Nothing. Never even heard of Leicester Square. Oxford Street and Hyde Park could be little quiet backwaters for all she cares. And Big Ben? If I told her that was the name of the guy on top of the big column in Trafalgar Square, well she’d believe me. She’s heard of all the places I’ve written about in the Diaries. The Blues Kitchen, Aint Nothin But, and various other venues and such. But mainstream tourist places? Not a notion. So we’ll start from the beginning then. I’d already decided it would be a good idea to get the London shuttle bus from Heathrow to Victoria rather than the tube so that we spend more time above ground and she can get to see London that way at least before disappearing indoors for 10 days. I want to give her the best view of London possible when she arrives so I decide I should go and check out the route from Victoria to somewhere near our place. I can kinda see it on a route map but I really want to see for myself. I also want to know exactly where we’ll have to go to catch the next bus after getting off the shuttle bus. So I take a trip to Victoria, find the drop off point for the shuttle bus and then try to find the bus stop to bring us home. It’s a lot harder than I thought and nowhere near the coach station so I already feel glad that I’ve taken the time to come and see the actual view from the ground. So yep, I’ve found the right bus stop and now I’m going to ride that bus all the way home to see how much through the sights it actually goes. It doesn’t disappoint as it winds its way all through central London before taking me somewhere close to Kentish Town. I could take it a lot closer but I’m mindful of Maja’s request to have a bit of a walk so I get off at a stop I consider to be a reasonable distance away for a 10 minute walk through north west London suburbia, emerging at the far end of Kentish Town. From there it’s a full look at what will be her local high street and a straight shoot home. Which is where I find myself right now after completing all this.

When I arrive, Maja’s there, on the computer, telling me she’s just putting the finishing touches to her packing and asking if I’m ready for her my end. I am. ‘Great, it’s really happening,’ she says. Yep. She asks if I’m going to be nervous about this first meeting but I don’t think so. She says she is, but in an excited way. That’s about natural. We look at buses and conclude she’ll be leaving the apartment a little after 10 tomorrow morning. She goes on to talk about the wonderful day she has planned for tomorrow. The books she’ll read, the music she’ll listen to, the casual, meandering journey now the 10am leaving time has been decided on. And of course whatever is waiting at the other end, mostly the fact that she’ll be in London and far from this situation she’s been wanting to get away from for so long. The time is very much almost here. She still wants to pass a little more time tonight. Hell, we both do. So we get off chat and I go out into the street for a bit of a talk on the phone where we don’t really cover much more than what we’ve already been talking about but it’s cool to hang like this, although in not more than a few daylight hours we won’t be needing the phone anymore. We don’t sign off with a goodbye. Instead, it’s what feels like a surreal, ‘See you tomorrow.’