Barry’s done a bit more in the kitchen – only took a couple of hours but it makes a real difference. He’s fitted the skirting boards back and they look really great! They still need repainting. He’s also run silicone around the bottom of the units and added the strip that joins the living room floor to the kitchen floor. That’s 2.5/8 of the kitchen tasks done and 3.5/8 of the living room ones!
Tag: home
Now I know where/when home is
I had a few responses, on here, in person, and on facebook, to the Home is where…? post.
Barry, for one, would like to clarify that when he says he is going home to Northern Ireland, he means the country, but when he’s coming back here, home means our house specifically.
My friend Bryonie, who recently moved to Australia, said she’s not sure where home is now. But she also introduced me to an expression I hadn’t heard before: you can be homesick for a time, not a place. I kind of like this because it’s true, but it’s also sad because it’s not something you can ever get back. Perhaps the fact that I’d like to return to Howden, where my heart is, is just me longing for my childhood.
Home is where…?
According to the adage, home is where the heart is. But can your heart be in more than one place at once?
I was born in Aldershot, but only have hazy memories of the place. After moving around the area for a few years (my parents had various pubs), we moved to Howden for good when I was five. Howden’s a village in East Yorkshire where my mum grew up and my maternal grandparents still live. Although we moved to the neighbouring town of Goole on my tenth birthday, my heart stayed in Howden, and it’s always where I tell people I’m originally from.
Barry’s from Northern Ireland, and if we’re going back there, he says he’s going home (but then he also says we’re going home on the way back!).
Does it have something to do with the house in which you grew up? I was studying abroad when my parents sold the house in Goole, and felt untethered since then really: it’s no longer my home. I suppose when you have children, you truly make a home of your own and hope that they always regard it as such.
Now we live in a village in the suburbs of Bradford, but if we’re abroad we say “near Leeds”. Naughty, I know, but we’re between the two cities so I think we get away with it. I took this photo of Bradford city hall last week, and it actually looks great.
But is it where my heart is? I can’t imagine growing old here. If work wasn’t an issue (i.e., if we won the lottery), I’d move straight back to East Yorkshire – Howden if possible! Barry can come too, if he wants.