Rhymes, reasons and rude words - look away now?

It probably hasn't escaped some people's notice [sceptics, anti-romantics and just plain naughty kinds of people] that the title of this blog rhymes with something a bit rude. It took me two whole postings to realise this and then I blushed to think of the laughs, the sniggers. I even, for a moment or two, thought of changing the name.

But then I realised that, [setting aside the sexual aspect where we won't even go], that the scurrilous version of the title kind of nicely echoes the question in my first posting: Why am I here? After all, being a temporary ex-pat could, if you looked at it cynically, be just a kind of pointless, self-indulgent . . . well, you know the word. And to tell you the truth some of it is just that.

But it's not only that. Sometimes what feels like a life that made sense, no longer does so. A lot of things had come to a stop: full time work, having children at home. The sense of belonging in a particular place also seemed to have diminished. Solid ground turned out to be shaky and some things I'd always believed in turned out to be wrong. To just go on in the same old way began to seem like just going on in the same old way. I wanted to discover whether a shift in place could mean a shift in perspective. To find out where home might be, heart as well as place. To learn to do some things better. That's part of the reason we're here.

[As well as the cheese and the wine that is. And the view. And summer when it comes. And . . .]

So I'm keeping the name!