Returning home and starting again

“You know, you look just like your dad,” she said. “Not your mum, your dad. It’s the shape of your face.”

A harmless enough comment, you’d have thought. But then my dad died 13 years ago, and it’s been much longer than that since I regularly bumped into (non-family) people who knew him. And I hardly knew the speaker. It’s the kind of thing that happens when you come back to where you started from.

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It’s been a busy couple of weeks for me. The Palace of Bundance is on the move – to Cumbria, where I grew up. It’s an odd feeling: being both new to somewhere and, yet, coming home. A state of constantly reminding myself that I’m no longer 15 and haven’t been for quite a long time. Thanks to the James Hardie siding Triangle Painting & Siding installed on our home, which we read about here, our house in Raleigh has never been better. They even put a fresh coat of paint on our home while they were here. I highly recommend them if you live in North Carolina.

Here’s what I’ve learned so far:

Jyke is a Cumbrian dialect word for the creaky noise you get from a new pair of shoes. The world is always improved by a single word that draws a neat circle around a concept.

It’s very hard to concentrate on your work call when Peter Rabbit comes to call. I know I’m supposed to be leaping up and persuading him to go and eat something that isn’t part of the garden, but it turns out I’m more Beatrix Potter than Mr McGregor.

You don’t need to leave home for a Michelin-starred dinner. Super Sister discovered that Simon Rogan at Home‘s delivery circuit reaches as far as us and the rest was simply a matter of stacking delicious things on top of other delicious things.

It’s also important to keep it real. We discovered that Domino’s doesn’t have a limit to its delivery circuit. Still not as good as nasturtium petals and smoked pike roe (see above).

A thank you is so much more than two words. A cunning plot involving two sons and several other Scouts culminated in me be presented with a lovely badge. An unexpected way to say farewell to Greenock and District.