Yep! I can tell I’m back in the North East of England! It is Autumn, almost winter, but it is still looking pretty depressing outside. I’m sat here trying to find the motivation to complete the study I missed while travelling, wearing my Uggs and thinking I should just give in and put my Mam’s central heating on!

I’ve had a nice few days since I arrived back on Sunday night, after a three hour delay sat on the Tarmac in Athens because of the UK weather in Heathrow, but made it back in one piece. I caught up with Mam as she collected me from the train station, had dinner with Granda and her, we babysat on Monday, I saw Dad for lunch and a natter on Tuesday and spent most of Wednesday feeling hungover as me and my mate of 20 years GK went out and got accidentally drunk on Tuesday evening!

He lives opposite my Grandparents old house, so when we decided to go for breakfast on Wednesday morning I looked over to the house and realised they were ripping out windows and completing what looked like a pretty big refurb. Me being me wandered over and asked. The guys were lovely and invited me in to have a look around. Ohhhh, so, so many memories. And such sadness that I don’t have my Grandma and Granda anymore. There was a lot of work went in to that house when they had it. My Dad and his dad fitted kitchens and bathrooms and converted the basement. And it’s all going. Baths are out, kitchen is out, walls are stripped back to plaster. I was glad to see they were keeping the beautiful fireplaces, but not it seems, after enquiring, the original Victorian front door. It’s rather grand looking with beautiful stained glass and an original funny looking, by today’s standards, door bell! I am a very sentimental, emotional softy and even asked the builders what would happen to the door. They have said they’ll keep it for me if Dad could use it. He can’t, which I knew before I even asked, but it was a nice thought to try and re-use it. I guess we all just have to accept that things change and we must let go of a lot of things, even pretty front doors!

Ok, on with the study…..