When I was first teaching in Thailand, there was a British
guy in my school called Martin. Martin
came from Newcastle, was tall and thin, and had travelled around South East
Asia with a kettle so he could make a proper cuppa (and before anyone rolls
their eyes at this ridiculous British need for tea with milk and sugar, let me
tell you that I met a lovely French lady in Darjeeling who did exactly the same
thing.). Martin had a theory about the
things you miss from home. He said they
all began with ‘F’. I’ve thought about
this idea a lot over the years I’ve spent in Asia, and he is quite
right. All the things I miss begin with
‘F’. So, in no particular order, here
they are!
F Number One: Family
Aah, family. Yes,
sometimes they drive you crazy, but when you spend a long time apart from them
you really grow to appreciate them. I’m
sure that the reason my family gets along so well now is because I spent almost
four years away from them, and when I got back I realised how much they meant
to me. It’s even worse now because I
have a little niece and nephew who didn’t exist last time I was in Asia and who
make being away much more difficult (next time I may smuggle my nephew out of
the country in my backpack; he wants to see an elephant). Adults may collect some more wrinkles and
grey hairs in nine months, but little kids change so much, they’re going to be
completely different when I next see them.
I really feel I’m missing out on seeing that evolution, not to mention
birthdays, Christmases and making Halloween scary spider cupcakes. Added to which is the fact that my parents
are not getting any younger and dad’s in poor health, so from time to time I
feel bad to be away for so long. So far
it’s not been possible to have a good long chat on Skype because of slow
internet connections, but I’ve been writing real letters on real paper, you remember those!
F Number Two: Friends
I don’t know how many friends are reading this, but if you
are a friend and you are reading, I miss you!
Like, a lot! Friends are the
people you drink tea with, have coffee with, chill out with, put the worlds to
rights with and share your shit with. I
really miss all that! Probably it’s
exacerbated by the fact that I cannot have a conversation with anyone at the
moment, but I’m really looking forwards to just being able to hang out with
people I know and care about, have fun and relax! Since I left, one friend has had a baby, or
at least his wife has, and another baby is due before I get home. There’s going to be a lot of catching up to
do!
F Number Three: Food
Okay, so it’s not like the food here is in any way bad. In fact, today’s lunch was quite a feast (no
idea why!), but I think everyone who spends time away from their country misses
food. Sometimes when I’m training, I’ll
get a phantom food smell. Once, quite
early in my time here, I could smell fried egg sandwiches which was most
distracting, and I have also smelled apple crumble which is enough to reduce me
to tears. The worst is when my mind
starts playing the ‘what would I eat if I could eat anything’ game, never a
good idea when you absolutely cannot eat anything of your choosing. It goes like this:
‘Hmmm, eleven thirty, nearly lunchtime. I’m quite hungry! Do you know, a nice, spicy chili would be
really good today, maybe with a baked potato.
And some sour cream. Yeah, that’s
what I’d like. Bit of side salad
too. Desert? Why not!
Aha! One of Aaron’s chocolate
mousses. And a coffee…….’
Then you come back to reality and the likelihood of noodles
which, delicious though they are, are not a chili with a baked potato!
F Number Four:
Football
It’s possible there may be limited sympathy for me here. I am quite surprised myself as to how much I
actually miss football. In other places
I’ve been to, I’ve either had access to ESPN, or I’ve been able to stream
matches online. I don’t have my own
internet connection here, nor do I have ESPN.
I’m reduced to reading post-match reports. The worst thing about it is that Spurs are
having their best season in a very, very long time. (Let's ignore for a minute the 0-0 result against Stevenage!) ‘Tottenham Hotspur’ and ‘contenders for the
title’ are not words I ever expected to see in the same sentence, but that’s
how well they’re playing. And I can’t
watch anything! It’s infuriating beyond
belief, especially as it looks like the man who’s in a large part responsible
for their current good form may well be off to manage the national team. Boohoo!
Don’t care about them!
Then there’s a few general things I miss. The sound and smell of rain. Being able to understand people. Washing machines (you have no idea how lucky
you are to have a washing machine!)
Radio 4. Spliffs. Has to be said. I was doing fine, not missing it at all until
a couple of weeks ago when I suddenly thought how nice it would be to smoke a joint
while I watched ‘Boardwalk Empire’.
Then there’s pubs, friendly dogs, being clean, having more than two
possible outfits to wear……….. I could go
on but there’s an FA Cup post-match that’s just waiting to be read.
