Mother Tongue and Home Connections

After two months in Greece - a combination of sheer bliss and hard but productive work -readjusting to London isn't easy. I've often felt angry with people saying to me: Greece is so beautiful, the sun, ah the sun, why are you here? My response would often be: I'm not a vegetable to live off the sun; and Greece can be very ugly if you are an outsider. Both these statements I still stand by. Still, I'm now struck by homesickness and I've only been back for less than two weeks!

There is a primal desire to connect with other people in your mother tongue, to simply be in the place where you were born or grew up, amongst people who share similar cultural memories and experiences, that can only be satisfied physically. Of course as a writer your mind can go anywhere and it does. But the physical sensation of sitting at the balcony, surrounded by pine, willow and fruit trees, sipping your coffee and talking to people who know you from birth and really care for you, is one that the mind in and of itself cannot provide. The body needs to be there!