Back to UK for a second time

Something special about coming home, you immediately notice some things that you missed:
1. Birds singing
2. Fresh crisp and clean air
3. Cool water from the taps
4. Everyone speaks with an ‘English’ accent
5. The best of all thick and soft toilet paper, thank heavens for Andrex quilted with Aloe Vera.
This time my daughter was there to pick me up at Manchester airport and on the return journey Slaw had offered to pick me up so that there would be a familiar face I would see when I arrive back in Doha.
While in UK a quick European project visit to Ansbach, Germany was just what I needed. It was nice to re-experience a bit of my ‘old’ working life and meet up with ‘old’ friends. I was in a little German town (where I have been before) but it seemed exceptionally pretty this time. I guess this is due to three reasons:
1. I have just come from the dessert and it’s nice to see real buildings that say something about the history and culture of the place.
2. It was snowing and everything was white and it looked like a picture from a Christmas card.
3. And of course it is a pretty place as well and I never appreciated it before.
The other thing I experience is that there are no women in veils/abaya’s and no Arab men in thobe’s. Whilst at the airport and in the plane I encounter many ‘foreigners’ but these are foreigners of another kind. Foreigner’s on a Qatar Airways flight to Doha are made up of a completely different combination to those on a KLM flight via Amsterdam. I feel richer for being able to experience living with and associating with both kinds of ‘foreigners’.
At home it’s all go (no change there then) morning till night trying to get the neverending todo list finished. When I am back in UK I feel as though I never left. I slip back into my ‘old’ life immediately. I had a strange moment of realisation when I entered the departures lounge at Manchester airport on my return journey to Doha. As soon as I saw the Qatar Airways sign and logo, and the familiar range of ‘foreign’ people at the check-in queue, the switch was made to my second life which began again from that point onwards.