Homesickness

The homesickness was horrible at first. I'd look out of my bedroom window, across the alien landscape of Manchester, and panic would quicken my heart until its beat was like the wings of a hummingbird. Or I'd come back to my flat after a busy day and I would sit on my little chair and cry as loneliness took me into its hard, cold embrace. Sometimes I'd even start crying as soon as I awoke from my dreams of home. The familiar sounds and smells of home were absent; there was no grandfather clock chiming on the hour, there was no smelly cat litter tray that needed cleaning out. It was all the small, seemingly trivial, things that I missed. Believe me though, nothing is trivial.

I'm still homesick now. I probably will be for quite a long time. I've learned to cope with it though. We live in an amazing world which is full of equally amazing technology. My cousin told me that when she was at university, back in the good ol' nineties, they had to use a pay phone to call home and email wasn't as easy as it is today because the internet was painfully slow and ran on a dial-up connection. Fast forward to the present, however, a majority of people have a mobile phone in their possession. Phone network companies provide amazing text and call deals too; I have unlimited texts, unlimited internet and 300 minutes a month. My family correspond with me through all of these outlets so I can quite literally carry my family around in my pocket or my bag. For my friends, who are more technologically advanced, there's things such as Skype, Facebook and Windows Live Messanger to communicate through. Everyone whom I know and love is only a click away and this thought eases the homesickness.

Lincoln's only two and a half hours away from where I am now so I can quite easily get a train home. I have to count myself lucky really. Some people I've talked to come from far flung places such as Romania and India! I can't really complain when my grandparents drive across to see me every couple of weeks, their car laden down with provisions and ready-cooked meals for my freezer! Sheffield, where my mum lives with my brother and sister, is only an hour away. In fact, it's probably closer to Manchester than it is to Lincoln. My mum lives near the Penines and I can see these from my bedroom window. When I look out, I sometimes wave in that general direction, jokingly, and I suddenly don't seem so far away from everyone. If she can see the sights I see, then we are still connected somehow. I guess I can take that approach with anything though. I will look at the sky tonight and I shall see the moon in all its brilliant, glowing white glory. My grandparents shall look at the sky tonight and see exactly what I see. The moon will look upon us all and in a really weird, mystical way, this connects us. I'm perhaps over thinking things though. I don't care. It makes me feel better!

Anyway, yesterday, my mum drove across to see me, along with Mani and Mia! She used to live in Manchester so she was eager to see how things such as the Arndale Center have changed. It was nice to be out and about with someone who knew exactly where they were going, unlike me. As a student though, she didn't have a car so yesterday was basically her first time driving around Manchester. Let's just say it was a bit of a nightmare and leave it at that!

Once we'd parked up though, we walked to Piccadilly and found ourselves in Bella Italia. Both my mum and I ended up having a three course meal. I started off by having two grilled mushrooms dressed in melted cheese, followed by pasta in a rich tomato sauce with grilled aubergines. Mani and Mia's childrens' meals included a ice cream after the main course (which was fish fingers. They're fussy eaters!). My mum and I thought it would be quite depressing to simply watch them eat a dessert so we thought we'd join in and have a dessert ourselves! We both have a delicious ice cream sundae, with honeycomb, chocolate and vanilla ice cream, topped with whipped cream and popping candy and drizzled in luxurious, dark chocolate sauce. To hell with calorie counting for once, that sundae was so flippin' good!

The three of them were eager to see my flat and upon arriving, Mani and Mia produced some classic one liners that had me chuckling well after they had gone. Mia looked up at the building after we had pulled into the car park and announced "That's a big university!" and Mani, upon entering the building, looked around the foyer eagerly and told us "I've never been in a real life flat before!". Even my mum was impressed, remarking on the presence of vending machines (which are too expensive to use!).

Here are some lovely photos from yesterday!