Empty shells and chai and chatter

We are almost at the end of this adventure and almost as far south in California as we can be without being in Mexico. It is hot and sunny. The sky is as blue as we remembered it and the sea just as wild and beautiful. It's strange being back where we lived for so long. It was the start of the life NInesh and I have shared together ever since and for that reason it will always hold a special place in our hearts. We are staying with ourfriend Gerhard, in San Clemente, catching up on old memories and creating new ones.
Friendship lends everything a richness and depth that just " visiting," a place can never have.
Friendship makes the leaving of anywhere all the harder.Friendships are what kept us so many years in Southern California.
"Why are you leaving paradise?" friends and family asked us as we packed our bags. 
" How can you leave constant sunshine and such blue, blue skies?" they wondered.
But the strange thing is, we didn't wonder at all.
Because something we realised when we lived here, is that a perfect climate, the glistening ocean and the bluest skies are not enough to create the perfect life.  For all its opportunities, there is something "empty shell-like," about the Southern Californian dream.
People own huge, beautiful houses, many with swimming pools and breathtaking views. But they never spend any time in them.
Here work comes first always. 
Work takes priority over your your family.
Work comes before your dreams.
Visiting some of our oldest friends here, Rafi and Athiya, last week, we suddenly remembered so clearly why we left. It was a Friday and Rafi doesn't work Fridays. In theory his office is closed. But often he goes into work anyway because everyone else does and it would look bad if he didn't. 
And that constant fear that somebody else might be doing something that you should be doing, casts a permanent shadow over your life. But Rafi was brave last Friday. He stayed home and only answered a few emails. He and his young son went to pray at the mosque together and we stayed with Athiya and her mother and her daughter and drank chai and chatted and remembered and dreamed. 
And that's what seems to be missing from life here sometimes. 
That chance to fill a house with chatter and laughter and to make it into a home.
And now it is time to enjoy our last day in Paradise and search out the sun.
And tonight we will barbecue in Gerhard's backyard, wrapped in a warmth that comes not from the sun, but from a friendship that has survived distance and time. 
And I will pretend that tomorrow will never come.