I'm still in a blogging frame of mind after all- perhaps I just need to round things off with an account of my return..

I'm not exactly pining because I'm all busy reconnecting with folk here, but I have been going over many moments and conversations in my head. At first I was fizzing with energy when I came back, talking a mile a minute (in a Slavic accent according to Mrs C, but no one else said so..) and practically bouncing off the walls. At first the London scene seemed suddenly exotic and novel with it's sushi bar next to a pizza place opposite a Cafe de Paris and a kebab house, with an African supermarket and some Thai cuisine place also a natural members of the street scene. It's good to be back where I'm not conspicuous in any way unless you count the knitting- I'm not outside the norm because it's kind've impossible to find a norm round here..

Poor Sir Smiley is currently being inducted into the next level of Bengaliness, preparing for the summer trip- he was gagging over the paan we made (we casually described to him the carcinogenic/ hallucenogenic properties beforehand, including stories of Cow's Bengali Dentist's Paan Cancer Book of Horror) and bolding biting into the 'bhut' or naga chilli he insisted on getting from Worldwide. Young Ray put the whole thing in his mouth like a madman and spent the next half an hour guzzling water and milk and sugar and all kinds, bellowing "PITY ME!" as my mother scolded.

We all looked like such tourists in the mishti shop as well oohing and aahing over the lacy patterns being formed by the jalabi-maker squeezing the batter into the vat of ghee. Bikey insistently recalled Sir Smiley's attention when the jalabi was lifted swiftly out of the oil and into the syrup- "you're missing the best part!" We're so hopelessly white inside..

Anyway I feel I triumphantly passed Sir Smiley's Bosnian testing- I mean my intonation and cases are pretty poor still but he acknowledged that I had picked up some conversation skills. I'm losing it already though so I need to find a Bosnian buddy in Manchester stat. I made a friend on the plan who didn't speak English but we still managed to sustain a conversation in Bosnian for 2 hours despite my limitations- I only resorted to drawing one picture, of a boat, to explain how Bengalis sometimes manage during monsoon. I think we didn't understand each other about 40% of the time but 60% comprehension turned out to be enough for happy social interaction.

I know I've been promising to put up photos forever and most of you have long stopped reading but they will come soon, soon. Because I'm not one for doing a whole slideshow description of my trip and I'd rather just integrate it all with stories of various events and refer people back to it if they're interested.