Ask - and ye shall receive!

It was all Carolyn's fault. I was having a bit of a wobble, feeling a bit sorry for myself and missing the UK and all my friends, and her smile popped into my head. I came here of my own accord, and I'm loving the job and the challenge so I'm not asking for sympathy, but it is tough here. My job, I mean. So if I have a tough day, and then I think of the stuff I'm missing back in UK - well sometimes it builds up. Anyway, I know there is no sympathy coming, so I'll just narrate.

It all started because I was thinking of UK, and I thought about my friends. I had a Strava comment from Jason which was probably the original trigger, and then I started to think about my pals. I'm really fortunate to have the three nicest people on the planet as friends. There are only three that I know of anyway, who qualify as unconditionally lovely people. (Mother Theresa may be another but we never met). Happily, I married one of them and have the other two as friends. The down side is that they, amongst all the other stuff I miss, are on the other side of the planet from me. I suppose, technically I'm on the other side of the planet from them, seeing as I was the one who moved, but the result is the same.
On Saturday morning I got a response to my simpering "I miss everything" blog from Rich, saying simply "I hear you" and sending a picture of Styal woods.
And LO! indeed HE heard. It peed down all night; I got up to do my ride/run brick session and it was wet, drizzling like a beautiful Peak District morning. Leaves were glistening, the grass sparkled with dew. It was fresh, It was lovely. The roads had a hint of danger, there was loose gravel, my socks got wet. It felt great. When I got home, "lovely person number 3" had found some cans of Boddy's and they were in the fridge. Bliss.