Can you see Paris?

When I was a kid in the 90s one special monk said to me: “Squint your eyes! Can you see Paris from where you are?” I couldn’t understand what he was talking about. We were standing in a field somewhere in remote Russia, certainly very far from Paris! But people around me got excited saying he predicts I will be living abroad.

Soon it will be half of my life that I spent in the UK and every time I land in London I have this overwhelming feeling that I’m home. There is something about this place that had me at hello. It’s like the whole city is hugging me saying “Welcome back! I missed you!”

I just had the most amazing trip to Ukraine and am thrilled that throughout the years my connection with it is growing stronger than ever but I cannot help but get that special rush every time I look down at London from the plane. Even if I’m coming back from Kiev, Tokyo or New York I’m like Ed Sheeran “I've been away for a while, travelled a billion miles - take me back to London Town, right now!”

My mom is a bit jealous. She says I’m a traitor! ...Oh, well... too late now. Perhaps I was a Londoner in another life! Jokes aside, the answer for me is not in choosing one identity verses another but in this duality or even multiplicity as a playful, intuitive and a free-flowing experience of life.

Interestingly for the past 7 years I have been technically based in Kent, South of London not too far from the Channel. So, yes, If I squint I can pretty much see Paris..