Tag Archives: nostalgia
Et in Arcadia Ego
I found it hard to write about being back home while I was actually there. Like a painter sitting too close to my subject, I lacked perspective and context. Much of my writing about England is, of course, idealised, romanticised nonsense, and it’s very difficult to romanticise something when it’s right there in front of …
How to Cope with Homesickness: Top Ten Nostalgic Puddings
There are many different ways of coping with homesickness. One option is to indulge it completely by eating buttery toasted crumpets and sobbing to an episode of Countryfile. At the other end of the willpower spectrum we have the healthier, low-fat option: ignore the homesickness completely, go exploring, and lose yourself in the ‘otherness’ of …
The Rose-Tinted Glasses
It has been drawn to my attention (by my no doubt well-intentioned husband) that this patriotic expatriate’s descriptions of home are somewhat distorted by sentimentality, and that I fail to present a fair or objective case. Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I stand accused of wearing rose-tinted glasses when it comes to my reflections …
The Mystery of Murder
Why on earth are murder mysteries so comforting? They shouldn’t be, really. Given the sinister plotting of so many psychotic villains (which our quaintest British villages appear to be riddled with) and the violent dispatching of all those country vicars, farmers and baronets, murder mysteries should leave us quaking in our beds at night, terrified …
The World Wide Waitrose Web (or Why Globalisation is Sometimes a Nice Thing)
I have never taken Waitrose for granted. Even when I lived in the UK I always appreciated it. I was blissfully happy wandering up and down the well-stocked, bright, wide aisles, gazing dreamily at the tempting treats thronging the shelves. I have always considered it to be more sanctuary than supermarket. It comes as no …
WELCOME to all those who are fed up, foot-sore or far from home…
This is Homesick and Heatstruck, a blog about coping with my displaced (or misplaced?) existence. For three years now I have lived in a noisy city in the middle of a desert, 4000 miles away from home. One might think that the pangs of homesickness would wane after a while, but one would be quite …
