Back in Blighty...

My mad month in Melbourne has flown by, and suddenly, work permit firmly in hand, the time came to fly back to Heathrow and board the bus to Oxford.

My flight felt mercifully brief - I really can't quite believe I killed 24 hours, but sleep, half-decent movies and a few glasses of red did the trick nicely.

Returning feels much less of an adventure than arriving did a year ago. Heathrow is now drearily familiar, with its low ceilings and yellow and black signage everywhere, as is the M40, our major road home. I still don't understand why, when in England, Australia doesn't feel nearly as far away as England feels when in Aus.

But as I pondered over the route back to Oxford, I realised that there are a bunch of British things that I've really rather missed, and am looking forward to getting back to:
- green grassy hills; after Melbourne's yellow and brown vistas, they're a site for sore eyes
- gooseberry fruit fool and timpany rhubarb flavoured yoghurt
- sitting up front, up top, in double decker buses; my pal Crusty Chick and I do it every day on the way to work (or did,until she started driving - traitor!). My Mum gave me Bill Bryson's 'Notes from a Small Island' as an early birthday present, and he writes about being able to give new passengers 'that knowing look that says I've just seen the top of your head' from the upstairs seats. I'm not sure it's that - more like the fact that I still flinch everytime we go under the Oxford railbridge on Botley Road, because it looks like we're about to bump heads with it.
- heating one's towell up on the radiator while one in the shower, so it's toasty and warm for drying
- being able to use the pronoun 'one' in a sentence without sounding like a complete twat
- ciders on tap; there's a different one for nearly every pub, although if you find Addestones or Old English you're onto a particularly good thing!

Then, of course, there's the big stuff - the historical bits that so fundamentally shape daily living, the live music scene in Oxford and the opportunities this community has given us. And last, but never least, the friends we've made. It's good to be home again.