Homecoming

Quite a few of the people that I've had the pleasure of travelling with over over the past months have been returning home recently, for all kinds of reasons. However, whatever the reason, it's usually not because they've had enough of travelling. My advice to avoid the imminent homecoming blues is to pretend that you're still travelling. Irish of UN fame (still in the field no less) sent me this genius piece of literature today. Inspired Christine. Thankyou.

How to Avoid the Homecoming Blues

When you return home from travelling it can be a shock. The culture shock, the shock of no longer backpacking, the shock of being clean. Therefore, to let yourself gently back into the normality of life at home I suggest the following steps be taken:

1) Replace your bed with two or more bunk beds, and every night invite random people to sleep in your bedroom with you.Ensure at least once a week a couple gets drunk and shags on one of the top bunks. Remove beds one by one as symptons improve.

2) Sleep in your sleeping bag, forgetting to wash it for months.Add some bugs in order to wake up with many unsightly bites over your arms and legs.

3) Enlist the help of a family member to set your radio alarm to go off randomly during the night, filling your room with loud talking. This works best if the station is foreign. Also have several mobiles ringing, without being answered. To add to the torture, ask a friend to bring plastic bags into your room at roughly 6 in the morning and proceed to rustle them for no apparent reason for a good half an hour.

4) Keep all your clothes in a rucksack. Remember to smell them before puting them on and reintroduce the use of the iron SLOWLY.

5) Buy your favourite food, and despite living at home, write your name and when you might next be leaving the house on all bags. This should include mainly pasta, 2 minute noodles, carrots and beer.

6) Ask a family member to every now and again steal an item of food, preferably the one you have most been looking forward to or the most expensive. Keep at least one item of food far too long or in a bag out in the sun, so you have to spend about 24 hours within sprinting distance of the toilet.

7) Even if it's a Sunday, vacate the house by 10a.m.,and then stand on the corner of the street looking lost. Ask the first passer-by of similar ethnic background if they have found anywhere good to go yet.

8) When sitting on public transport ( the London Tube would be ideal) introduce yourself to the person sitting next to you, say which stop you got on at, where you are going, how long you have been travelling and what university you went to. If they say they are going to Morden, say you met a guy on the central line who said it was terrible and that you've heard Parsons Green is better and cheaper.

9) Finally stick paper in your shower so that the water comes out in just a drizzle. Adjust the hot/cold taps at regular intervals so that you are never fully satisfied with the temperature. Because of this frustration, shower infrequently.

I think you'll find this helps.