Bitter Sweet

We’ve just come back from a whirlwind trip to the UK.  It was absolutely lovely to see everyone, to feel reassured it was all still there, and everything’s ticking along as normal. 

I do feel I need a week to recover after spending too many nights drinking, and not sleeping very much.

We ran around like headless chicken and there were a ton of people I didn’t even get to call, let alone see, but we couldn’t do it all. The kids are exhausted after fun sleepovers and the excitement of seeing their friends and it was lovely for me to catch up with people and celebrate Dad's birthday with the family.

But it’s always a little weird stepping into your old life, then popping back to your new one, never quite fitting into any of them.

We all felt it coming back, the kids didn’t want to go back to school on Monday and we all felt a little flat.  But it is amazing how quickly you have to get back into the swing of things – what with school, homework and stuff to do, it’s almost as if we never went away.

I asked my mum if indeed it did it feel as though I was far away,

‘No' she said, 'Not really, and Skype really helps, I feel as though we are in the same room’

It’s true.  Technology, Skype, email, mobile phones mean that we’re really never more than a click away.  

I can’t imagine how my parents ever let me go travelling around Asia, the only communication between us was a few phone calls when I could afford them, and letters between home and the Poste Restante.

Does the Poste Restante still exist I wonder? Or has it been driven to ground by new media, facebook, facetime etc.  I’ll never forget trying to find where my post had ended up in Indonesia, we'd gone to the main post office only to find it was being refurbished and we took a tuktuk out of town to the warehouse where the post was being stored.  I was desperate to find the parcel from my mum – it  contained 2 precious objects essential for travelling – a new contact lens and a bank card it in (I’d lost my lens partying in Ko Phangan).

Nowdays I can see my mum, chat, hang out, even if it’s virtually, and it’s amazing. 

Still it will never replace the one on one contact and with that, I’m so glad we came this weekend.