2 March 2013
So that’s it – the end of Living Lightly in Laos - for a
while. We’re back in England.
After gruelling 30-hour journey we arrived home safely on
Friday, tired, but glad to be back. Actually, it wasn’t gruelling really, just
long, with protracted periods of sitting around waiting in planes and buses and
various airports – Hanoi, Prague, Gatwick, Heathrow. All par for the course
really.
Sadly, my trusty old Canon Ixus camera gave up the ghost a
few days before we left Laos, so my final visual memories are unrecorded. We
spent the last week visiting favourite restaurants for the last time, doing
favourite walks, picking up presents and saying our farewells to Khone and
Khoun and family.
Back in Poole everything seems remarkably, deeply familiar.
Coming back here is like slipping into an old, comfy overcoat. I understand the
culture, the countryside, the houses and towns, the people; it’s not even
particularly cold.
Fortunately,Ben has been doing a great job on looking after
the house while we’ve been away. Everything was as it should be – although it
was a slight surprise to find that the front room had been transformed into a
magnificent cardboard fort, complete with drawbridge and portcullis!
And Four Legs is vast! He’s clearly been taking the opportunity
to cozy-up to all the neighbours and eat out regularly. It may also have
something to do with the contrast with the skinny little cats we’ve got used
to!
So now we’re settling back into real life, unpacking and
making choices – deciding which bits of our previous life and habits we want to
pick up again and which we can choose to abandon. Cheese. TV, biscuits, cups of
milky tea, Radio 4, cereals, Neighbours, ironing, red wine, the Guardian, driving,
jeans – these are all things we’ve managed perfectly well without in Laos. Do
we want them now?
And similarly, which bits of life in Laos could we bring
into life here? Daily spirituality, thankfulness, nature, smiles, good food, making
time to just “be”? It’s all an opportunity for change if we choose it.
Bye for now.
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