The same yet different

I've now spent nearly a week back home and, as always, it's a weird experience. On the one hand I'm back to the place where I was born and pretty much had all my growing up adventures so I should know it like the back of my hand... but it is a huge progressive city and of course a lot changes in a short time so there are many parts that I can barely recognize.

I hadn't been back in 3 years and everything is so familiar yet so strange: roads that I know very well look nothing like I remember them but at the same time they take me to the same places. It's almost like a half-remembered dream. It is both fascinating and frustrating to find that what I remember is not quite right or was right but has changed so much that it isn't right anymore.

The one thing that has remained unchanged are my friends: they are still here, still loving and still very much my friends. It has been amazing to catch up with old friends and, even thought we live thousands of miles apart, as soon as we are in the same room again it's like nothing's changed. I do have technology to thank because that of course makes keeping in touch easier, but that doesn't change the fact that our friendships are strong and have stood the test of time. And no matter how many years go by between visits, nothing at all changes.

I am very lucky to have such good friends. They don't even laugh when I get lost trying to find the restaurant that we used to frequent all the time!