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Not Sad or Happy? What's Going On?

Posted: 12-06-06

It has occurred to me recently and more than once, that some of my recent blog entries have been less than amusing to read. That said, those things that I have written about have been less than amusing to experience.

I am now in the land they call Old Blighty. Much like you I'd wager; I hadn't the faintest idea of the derivation of this peculiar saying either so went to look it up. It appears to be a British corruption of a Hindustani word making reference to something "foreign". It was popularised by British soldiers in the Indian campaigns of the First World War and appeared in many poems and stories from the time including those by Wilfred Owen. The "old" part of this saying seems to have been added more recently by Australians for reasons best known to them but which might be a reference to Britain having been around longer than your average Nullarbor Kangaroo.

Having endured nearly twenty four hours in an oversized Pringles tin with Air New Zealand daubed on the side I had expected to feel exhausted, hungry and pretty much ready for bed, not to mention generally bored or delighted to be back in the UK after almost a full year away. Sure, I was ravenous, could indeed have slept for my country and it took all my might to lug a suitcase, laptop and shoulder bag (No, not one of those shoulder bags) out of arrivals, past those people holding up bits of white card with the name of a business person and some company, over to the Piccadilly line tube stop. But I wasn't sad or happy to be back. I was just "there" and found this most disconcerting - to be back in the country of my birth and not to harbour some sentiment or other that might lead to something resembling a human emotion.

Well predictably enough, I got my sleep, visited some friends, had a few beers and once again, all was right in my world. And now it is sunny, calm and unhurried here in Bacup, Lancashire where I sit at a computer, with the back door of my Mother's house opening out as it does into her flowering and not un-arresting back garden.

Talking, reading, eating, sleeping and World Cup watching are the order of the day until this Thursday when I head up to deepest Scotia (Falkirk if you're interested) for the wedding of my great friends Elaine and John. I've been to only a couple of receptions but never an actual wedding, so am very much looking forward to it.

I get to wear a tux too.

I like that bit.