Note to self, never go out during a bank holiday. This is the first holiday we're experiencing here and not even hospitals were open today.
We set out to register at a General practitioner but all we found was a truly empty street. The city center that I like to think is the buzzing heart of Nottingham felt like a ghost town and was completely unrecognizable.
I don't know the story behind Bank holidays and I've not done my research either but I'm guessing it has something to do with banks closing up shop for the day because of the name. However, I doubt it will be something as simplistic as that.
Seeing the street completely empty as they today is a bit of a culture shock for me. In Nigeria, we have public holidays that largely have religious affiliations but the streets are never this empty because of them.
At the end of the year, activities slow down as many companies close for the year and whatnot but that's only for a few days a year and never in August. There's hardly a time during the course of the year that activities completely wind down to halt, as I saw in Nottingham.
In Nigeria, the show must go on and life never really just pauses. There are breaks along the way but it never really seems like a holiday because when you return to work, you're simply going to be met with double or triple the workload.
One of the things I'll have to learn is the ability to relax and stop looking over my shoulder. I haven't had this luxury throughout my adult life and I'll have to learn it here.
People around here seem very chill, if I may. Everyone seems to have a chip on their shoulder and carry themselves with an underlying certainty that everything will fall in place eventually.
That is an admirable quality that I'd like to emulate one day because right now, all I have is anxiety and probably, high blood pressure. I spent the last five years living off volatile cryptocurrencies, hustling to get writing gis and scrapping every corner to survive, so please forgive me for having this anxiety.
Funny thing is that I didn't even realise I had this level of anxiety until I was exposed to the United Kingdom. I see a society that I can truly reach my full potential in and now, all I can think of is how I'll make that a reality.
