Home is where the heart is.

As you would expect ruby slippers are very expensive, but despite that, I decided the UK was where I needed to be. Unfortunately my journey wasn't quite as quick as Dorothy's, but I made it back home eventually. The stress of the situation in the UK was clearly on the minds of the people who I saw at the regulation 2m distance after I had landed. They all seemed stressed and bad-tempered, not a smile amongst them. The weather in Manchester was grey, matching the mood around me and I looked forward to just being home. 

It wasn't how I expected it to be. A wave of disappointment washed over me as I sat and had a cuppa, things just didn't feel right. I put it down to jet lag, or simple tiredness. I hoped that the next day the world would seem brighter, even if I could only view it from my window for the next fourteen days. The following day the feeling was still there, a sense that something just wasn't right. Now at this point you might all think I have gone crazy, but it feels like I left Tall in Australia. I wish I could express what I mean better, I just sense that there is a hole in my world, a great big hole that wasn't there when I left. 

When I arrived in Australia it was night and so it wasn't until the next day that I saw the front garden. As I helped get the shopping out of the car I spotted a plant below L.'s office window. I commented on it and she told me she had planted it a few years ago, but it had not grown back before this year, when it had reappeared and flowered again. Tears started rolling down my face and I hurried inside. The plant? A simple snapdragon, Tall loved them, they were in his funeral flowers. Tall had been there before me and I fear I have left him behind.