Home is Where the Heart is!

Arriving back to England on Saturday evening was a surreal experience indeed. 

Firstly, just seeing the little cookie-cutter houses that were neatly grouped into pockets as we were coming down was such a shock after being in Sri Lanka where I very much doubt they have heard of such things as 'town planners'. 

The second shock was in seeing this guy:  

 Admittedly, it was seeing him that made me feel like I was at home. However, as we discussed the experience of seeing each other for the first time in four weeks we realised that we had found exactly the same challenge before us: we didn't 'recognise' each other. Of course, I saw him and ran straight to him for a cuddle and "Love-Actually" style airport embrace so I did actually recognise him. He knew it was me (thankfully) but I suppose we must have got used to our 2-D skype personalities and seeing each other in 3-D was strange. It took a good half an hour for that feeling to wear off.

We spent the following day in London where we got to see my best friend and her boyfriend - it was absolutely great to manage to meet up with them especially as we don't see them as often as we'd like.

Still, after that it wasn't quite time to come back to the flat and put down my luggage (which, I confess, became more extensive as the trip went on) as we headed straight from London to my parents' house. It was really lovely that Ben understood that I wanted to see everyone even before we came 'home'. He understood that it was the people instead of the place that I was worried about seeing.

I love Lichfield. I've lived here since I was three years old so it could easily be lost on me but I think it was because I lived here that I've had an interest in history. Since I was probably around ten years old I could take people on the 'tour' of Lichfield and tell them the story of Dumb Dyott and Lord Brooke and explain how significant Lichfield was to pilgrims who came to see St Chad's head. It was a religious centre and the place, for me, still has that air of the spiritual.

 I've been able to rediscover the place through Ben's eyes. It's been incredible to see him come to live here and get to know the place and, I believe, start to love it like I do.

We have a twelfth century cathedral; one of the only two Cathedrals in the country with three spires. We have churches all over the place. Samuel Johnson wrote the first English dictionary here (he really must have been bored!). Erasmus Darwin (Charles Darwin's grandfather) lived here.

And now, we have a Debenhams. Life is good in Lichfield!

For me - it's mainly about this guy. :)