Still Here

Time to put aside those hazy thoughts of distant lands, for the next twelve months anyway. Come September, it looks like I'll be working part-time at South Tyneside College while finishing off my teaching qualifications in Newcastle.

So no street food smoke and hill-top temples, dust-swept baroque towns, all-you-can-drink rooftop bars, neon signs switching on at dusk, cobbled squares and 50p beer, dancing lessons in public parks, falling asleep to the sound of waves, sunlight streaming in through wooden shuttered windows, full moon stripes across an inky-blue sea, bike rides through paddy fields, onion-domed churches or back street shrines.

Here is different. No less interesting to an outsider's eye, perhaps, but much more familiar to mine.