Back home..? 14 9 26 (17) 25 1 22

No, in truth I have just returned home not 12 hours ago from a 10 day autumn vacation in my beloved Scotland when, opening my own pc up and visiting my favourite places: Blogspot, Myspace, F-book and Google Mail in that order, it was nice to note 21 new page views here from my readers in the USA and France all fresh from the 19th September forward...suggesting that without more ado I should put pen to paper once again and try to write something clever for you all to celebrate being back among the living...   

Arriving late in the dead of night I crept into our house opened my pc poured a glass of red wine, after my drive home to arrive 2 1/2 hours after landing, and brought myself up-to-date with what's being going down in my absence...only meeting my wife as I arose at 9 30: she just about to depart to cycle 2 hours with her girl-friends and leaving me to continue to chill after my many exertions of the past 10 days...

The contrast between the two lives: being away from home alone visiting foreign places climbing new hills meeting new people and being back here where we have no hills where I know practically everyone in our small town, where we have lived almost 26 years, could hardly be more complete and I have to say it is good to be home.

Being away I got to meet an old friend for a super day out when we walked 37 km about 24 miles and climbed 2 of Scotland's more isolated bigger hills in the Cairngorm range during 12 hours fairly rapid walking, met some very interesting new people some of whom I have either heard from via e-mail or as new friends on Face****, and being alone for much of the time got to review all these activities and continuously up-date what I like to call my continuing story about the life I lead...


Returning to this my adoptive country then I switched languages from English into one of the several native languages, the main one spoken by 90 % of the population, and immediately felt a kinship with this relatively small group of people un-associated with that other vast group speaking the western world’s lingua franca: picking my car up from the long-stay car park at the airport only really used by permanent residents, leaving my bags almost unattended whilst I walked the several blocks of parked cars so I didn’t have to drag my luggage over broken ground, having bought a take-away of fresh smoked-salmon roll on rye bread and small tub of freshly prepared American coffee at the airport at an unbelievably low price, getting a 15% reduction for the car parking because of frequent flyer cards etc. etc., and feeling good just being the person I have become during all these years who in a manner of speaking has fitted into the life I now describe…

Visiting Myspace(s) it was also gratifying to note I had had visitors in my absence checking my progress in the mountains as also on Face book: a new lady fellow-scientist who engaged me in an hour-long conversation on a train leaving fresh comments, a new fellow Munroist chap I met during several nights at the same syha hostel among the hills, and emails from a delightful Chinese lady doing a PhD in linguistics I met on my last trip in June, together with one from a delightful French lady I met this last trip who gave me a lift into the hills where she with a colleague were repairing footpaths whilst I took in my last day’s walking big hills partially obscured by mist during an 8 hours, returning altogether to our hostel after their workday…    r
Have a good day everybody as I hope you also get to live among the living..?

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