tinyswirl

So tomorrow I head back up to Scotland, after my week’s visit back to the area I grew up in (I’ve been on a training course). It’s been a bit weird just being a visitor. My parents no longer live in my “home town” and I stayed out of town, so everything felt a little.. disjointed. It felt less odd than when I used to come home to the house I grew up in and everything so familiar and yet so different.

It’s eight years since I was here for more than a day (because of family weddings) and even when I’ve been back I’ve not been into the town centre, and I’ve been there every day, before the course starts, noticing the new, wondering about the gone, soaking up the familiarity of the still-there. I’ve found myself staring at everyone I’ve walked past, looking for any suggestion in their features that they could be someone I knew, of a name forgotten in the mists of time or a whisper of recognition from them.

I had that today, I saw someone in the cafe I had breakfast in who I worked and socialised with around ten years ago. Busy in conversation, her gaze flashed my way, but not a hint of recognition there…

Two successes this week (apart from completing the courses) were in managing to finally see people that Facebook helped me re-connect with. I had dinner with three school friends, one of whom was one of my “best friends” and who drove me to see my old house. We then went and sat outside the house of the parents of the other one of our trio, plucking up the courage to go and say hi and get some contact details for her. And we did.. and we made contact that night with the joy of texts…

Tomorrow morning I say good bye, once again, to the town, as I fly off to the place I now call home. But this time I am resolved to return to regularly once more.