Back In Londinium

So here I am after a rather fantastic little sojourn in the motherland. It's both nasty and nice to be back, but the jaunt was an eventful, enjoyable and enlightening one. If I could think of another adjective beginning with E, believe me I'd have thrown it in there too.

As I sit here at my desk in that slightly dazed, recovering from jetlag and feeling a bit lightheaded, partly because I haven't managed a decent poo in the last twenty four hours, I miss lots of things about Sri Lanka.

There's C for a start. This long distance relationship thing is hard at times, harder at other times. And this is one of the latter. But I won't get all poetic about that sort of thing, it would freak you out a bit I'm sure.

There's also the heat.

While you lot are mostly putting up with and complaining about the current heat I struggle with a temperature of about minus nine zillion degrees. The heating in my office is on and I'm wrapped in more layers than in a chocolate biscuit pudding. Well, one with three layers that is.

On the nice side I missed A and K when I was away and it feels good to be back with them. K sort of moved in to my apartment when I was away and has left it in a state of tidiness and cleanliness. I must admit to some surprise of the pleasant variety at that.

I haven't seen them since getting back but will in the next couple of days, a serious plus to being in the same country!

And I do like to orderliness of the UK. Seriously. I like the fact that we have road rules, ones that are obeyed by most people and primarily designed to keep people safe. I think I'm a pretty calm and mellow chap, rarely scared by Sri Lankan driving and drivers, but my journey to the airport in the rain on Saturday night genuinely made me worried.

The cab driver was driving way too fast, too close too other vehicles and made me feel wholly unsafe. At one point, being the Brit, I nearly said something to him.

After getting back I had to nip down to my local Tesco to get some supplies in and got a little inner pleasure at the good manners and politeness of people. That British thing is quite nice you know. Sorry. Just saying.

A few people said some nice things about this blog too, about that fact that they miss more regular posts, that I've been quiet lately. Well I return with a large dose of potential posts to write, so will endeavour to get those done in the near future. Some of them are probably about you, especially if you're the proud owner of an bag; one with a proper light that straps to your head, you know the sort.

I had a go at taking some pictures of the lightning during that big thunderstorm last week. I've never tried it before and it's mostly a combination of luck, chance and the tiniest little bit of judgement. After about an hour and what would have been two to three rolls of film, were it not for the joys of digital, I caught this one. I rather like it. It's not perfect but it will go in my file of personal favourites. Excuse the onscreen quality. I think it's to do with Blogger, compression and things. The real thing is much tastier. But, even if I say it myself, wow, just look at that lightning.