Return to the City

I am returning once again to the city. Thankfully not for good – just a few days, a brief trip to hand in my dissertation and see some old friends. But it feels odd. That back to school feeling remains, partly due I suppose to the prospect of handing in my dissertation and also the long journey. 

In many ways, it has been a blissful summer, pottering around, writing, enjoying the sunshine, reading, fresh fruit and veg, and all that. Even the dissertation has been enjoyable (most of the time). So it does very much feel like that has come to an end, not helped by the rainy, gloomy days, and the oncoming cold, which make it seem very autumnal and wintery. Despite that, I am still in shorts. 

It is strange to be in the city again. 

Everything moves much faster here, and there are lots of people, milling around. I like that I can walk to cages and shops, but it doesn’t feel right anymore somehow. It is time to say goodbye to five years in this place, time to start afresh, a new life, something different. 

It’s certainly time to return to the country. My dissertation is all handed in now, goodbyes have been said, and that part of my life is over. It's mad to think that it's been five years there. And now, the unknown waits...