Do I miss my home?

We've lived here for 15 years now. We still get asked if we miss our home. I don't miss my hometown at all, not even my homeland, but I do miss my family...

Some days, I'd give ANYTHING for a cuppa tea and a hug from my Mum, go visit any of my sisters-in-law and have a glass of wine and a good laugh, or visit with some old friends and share a nice meal and catch up with them. Right now, I'd love to visit with a certain new baby girl :)

We do all this and more when we visit anyways, so, although it doesn't happen as often as we'd like it to ... it still happens.

For two very important people in my life, Mukilteo is their home - they don't know anything different. Curtis was 14 months old when we moved here, (two suitcases, a stroller and an infant car-seat were all we possessed, but that's another blog entry). Cadence was born here.

The kids think that a trip back home is a vacation, which it is, kind of. For me, its primarily to visit the family. My idea of a vacation is sunshine, sand, relaxation... The kids enjoy the differences in the cultures - Cadey revels in the spotlight of attention that her American Accent brings - she glows! And, they gain some understanding about why their parents are a 'little different' (we're not different at all - just displaced - everyone in Hull is like Craig and me).

Hull is very flat - extremely flat ... it sits on the plain of Holderness - a glacial moraine deposit, so is very fertile and so lots of agriculture, but these days lots of flooding too. There isn't scenery anything like WA state, but we do have the rolling hills of the Yorkshire Wolds, the North Sea with its fishing towns, cliffs, and wonderful beaches (when its not raining). Of course, there's always old places to explore - old settlements, castles, churches, museums ...

It is strange ... being raised in Northern English culture with very little disposable income and a "make do and mend" attitude. Friends were raised the same way - we have a common bond there. Very few people moved away and people with different skin colour or accents were few and far between. Leaving that place of normalcy and trying to become entrenched in a different environment has been interesting and fun. WA State is very diverse in its population, so you're free to be who you want to be and do what you want to do, because of the many cultures blending here already. We're just adding to that huge melting pot.

We felt for many years that we didn't completely fit in here. But those feelings have changed, thankfully. We realize that now, we don't quite fit in back home either. We've been gone too long, don't know the recent history, who's famous in that land, don't know the music, news, in-jokes, etc.

I must tell you about a funny thing happening to us on our last trip home. During our car journey north after landing at Heathrow, we stopped off at a 'motorway cafe' to get a meal and some 'goodies' for the trip.

This was quite a performance ... two jet-lagged adults, stressed, because they've just had to try to remember how to park a little (stick-shift, steering wheel on the other side of the) vehicle into a minuscule parking spot, two kids who really didn't want a meal because to them, its waaaay past their bed-time, but instead wanted to scarf down all the Cadbury's Chocolate they could get their hands on. Then the kids paying for their items with funny money - a 15 year old (with a British accent) asking for help counting out coins ... not knowing the value of each coin ... holding up the queue ... we were quite a sight!

Anyways, the style of ten pound note (or Tenner) in our possession last year had been taken out of circulation several years prior ... we didn't know this ... we tried to pay for our 'sweeties' with it ...

The cashier looked at us ... we knew something was wrong ... she looked down at the Tenner ... she looked at us again ... she must have thought we were nuts! (especially since we'd just had the fiasco with Curtis and his coins).

We sounded like her, looked like her, but judging by our blank expressions, we were utterly clueless.

"Ooooooh no, luv, you can't pay wiv this ..... where've ya bin fa 3 an arf years? ... ey June! come and 'av a look at this! This fella's got wun-a-vem old tennas"

The four of us turned purple with embarrassment and I whipped out my Visa card pronto.

We paid for our stuff ... on credit ... then as we were leaving, the cashier says (and Cadence does a fantastic mimic of this next line) ... "Fanks luv, fanks a bunch!"

I am proud to be British ... even prouder to come from Yorkshire. Would I ever want to return there to live?

No.