On Friday 25th November, Mitch and I touched down in the UK after being away for fifteen months. We lived in China for ten months and travelled for another five. We had the luxury of visiting Vietnam, Laos, South Korea, Canada (albeit briefly) and the USA. However, now I’m back in my hometown of Bristol.
To be honest, I was looking forward to coming home. That’s not to say I haven’t adored where we’ve been and what we’ve done. I’m so happy and am so grateful to been able to have our lifestyle. But fifteen months is a long time to be away from home.
Mitch and I are no longer spending all our days together. We spent the night in different locations for the first time in seven months. It’s a long time to be with somebody constantly and travelling with someone isn’t always easy. A lot has happened in fifteen months while I’ve been gone too. Friends of mine are engaged, babies have been born, people have gone through tough times. Time goes on, yet oddly enough, after only being home for a day, it doesn’t feel like any time at all.
My bedroom looks the same as it was when I was 11 years old, my parents are the same lovely people, First Bus are still charging too much for buses in Bristol and tea out of my favourite mug still tastes great. I’ve been back for one whole day and already I feel at home.
I walked through Bristol City Center last night. It’s funny how when you leave somewhere for a while you can come back and love it more. Being away from Bristol for so long reminded me what an amazing city it is.
I have a to-list as long as my arm and am frantically messaging a variety of people to try and meet up. It seems that despite being home I’ll still be travelling a little in the UK to see people. While readers of the Bristol Post and other local newspapers will think that all I’m longing for is a pint of cider, this is not quite true. While my first sip of West Country cider was indeed, wonderful, seeing my family, Mitch’s family and organising to meet up with friends in the upcoming weeks are what I really wanted.
Last year Mitch and I spent Christmas in China. I’m so happy to be home for Christmas this year. It reminds me of a Tim Minchin song…
I’m not expecting big presents
The old combination of socks, jocks and chocolate’s is just fine by me
‘Cause I’ll be seeing my dad
My brother and sisters, my gran and my mum
They’ll be drinking white wine in the sun…
It’s nice to be back.
I miss friends and family sooo much when I’m away. Sounds like you’ve taken to being back home much better than I did after spending over a year travelling. Glad you’re enjoying being back 😀
Thanks Charlie. After being back for 2 weeks it feels like we were hardly gone! It being Christmas and having lots of people to catch up with certainly makes it nicer to be home.