A Cure for Homesickness

Le Mal Du  Pays Rene Magritte  (The lions always make me think of Leeds Town Hal)l

While I love living up here in windy damp Northumberland I do get occasional waves of nostalgia and homesickness which have to be addressed from time to time.  I have to go 'home' and catch up with everyone and remind myself that variety is the spice of life and I'm not missing too much by living up north.. also if I lived in Leeds then I would probably have to get a proper job!!!! no more larking about student life - and most people I love in Leeds are busy and probably don't notice I'm not around as much as I lament that they are 2 hours away ha ha ... 

Last week we had a flying visit to Leeds - to do just that - catching up with family and friends negating the most recent bout of homesickness by spending a night near where I used to live... and being reminded of students.. noise.. traffic..mess.. I think the area is improving.. but its student changeover time so bins are overflowing, gardens and yards full of discarded furniture, potato mashers, other random stuff and decaying carpets.. The plus side is some people are very wasteful or lazy as some of the discarded stuff is perfectly usable and I have to summon massive will power to resist my skip diving tendencies and not end up with yet more stuff... fortunately Dr Fred keeps me in hand and my daughter is there to rescue any real bargains.  On a serious note it just is becoming quite alarming at the blatant disregard for sustainable futures..  Last year my daughter practically refurnished her living room with Ikea furniture which was mostly less then a year old... All picked up from discarded rubbish piles within two or three streets from where she lives.

So...pleasant times with family and pals in Leeds. I love my sons city centre flat it is so convenient for fabric rescuing, art galleries and shops although I didn't do much of that this time round - though I did buy some lovely hand made paper to draw on..we had a meal and drinks with friends and the next morning we had breakfast in LS6 - a student cafe/bar hang out that seems over priced for tasty but minuscule portions - (guess they are counting on hangovers) - was lovely to spend time with an old friend (as in lifetime rather then age - although we are allegedly knocking on a bit) her family and my family as well... we go back a long way - countless dramas, good times, lots of laughing, bad times, terrible times, tears, hugs, sunny days spent hanging out in the garden with paddling pools and face paint - we never got so far as imagining we would one day 30 odd years on be sat with our own grandchildren on our laps.. time flies... Breakfast was followed by a lazy pleasant meander through the local park our thoughts with people who would like to be there but couldn't - the sun shone for us and it stayed dry -

No longer homesick, I just want all my friends to move up north to join my life here - not too much to ask... but then maybe the cuddles with grand children and meets with friends might stop feeling so special and realistically I'm only a couple of hours away and the there is no beach in Leeds!!!!!