A few weeks ago I heard an interview with the parents of an England rugby player. It made me immediately, and immensely homesick.
They were from Knowle West in south Bristol and, although I'm not actually from that specific part of the city, My family are from the south side of Bristol and that accent is very evocative.
We hadn't been up to Bristol for a little while and although I do love living in Sussex, it's not the same.
So after a busy day of gardening, packing up the house and lunch with family, via a few miles' walking, we find ourselves at the station to head north.
Travelling on a Sunday is never the optimum way and Sunday evening even less so...but we got seats, and we made the journey in 4 hours which isn't at all bad.
We arrived at the flat at 9pm with that lovely feeling that we could chill for a couple of hours before going to bed and the journey was done. I slept better than I have for weeks.
Yesterday, we did our usual levels of (laptop-based) work whilst looking out at the city from our 10th floor eyrie.
Then we ambled around the corner to the Barley Mow (of course). The selection of beer was good and the fire was lit. After about 40 minutes, the bar manager arrived, saw us and gave us a really cheery wave and asked how we were. (I guess, I haven't seen him for 3 months). Yep, I was home.
Then one of our friends, who also lives just around the corner, popped in to make reservations for the quiz on Tuesday - so he stopped and we had food and drinks and caught up.
Utterly delightful!
I wouldn't normally think of myself as particularly tied to a place - but even though I no longer have work to do here in Bristol (it might be tempting to find some) and I love having a home in a seaside town, Bristol is the place I feel most at home.
What's even nicer is when Best Beer Buddy says to friend in the pub last night: "...as the train draws into the station in Bristol, I always feel immensely happy..."
Yep.
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