Ahh.

Back home in London, after a journey of many travails. Just don't ask what happened, but we ended up turning round on the motorway and having to drive back to town to look for my house keys, which (after my parents berated me into such abject confusion I couldn't even remember where I'd last seen them) I thought I'd lost, and turned up in the front pocket of the stupid red bag I made in Textiles class and was taking my toilet bag home in. Do. Not. Ask.

... and I'm so relieved to be home it's hard to believe. Hard to believe that I was wandering round my parents' house a couple of nights ago thinking 'I want to go home'. When did home become London? When did I start to feel like an awkward guest in my parents' house? I don't know, but it's happened.

/emo.

Anyway! I am back and more fangirly than ever, and online late at night because my landlady's grad student needs the downstairs PC to work on the thousand tons of work he's been buried under for the last few months (Note to self: never, ever become grad student unless you really want to). But oh well, it's nice in here. There's a plot plant and a cat and I am killingly glad of it.

Reasons I wish I was not back:

• My family, particularly my father.


• The kitties. My parents' kitties are cute and fuzzly and I want the girl one. Because she's adorable.
  
• My mother's cooking.


• Not having to pay for my food, heating, etc.


• Talking to my brother who is just as nerdy as I am, albeit in a rather different way.


• Clear nights - less light pollution, so at least I can see some stars.

Reasons I'm glad I GOT THE HELL AWAY:

• My family, particularly my father.


• Not being able to eat what and when I want - which feels like a major part of being independant.


• 'Family Meals' in front of horribly lame TV programmes.


• Family arguments damn near anywhere.


• The constant smell of paint - my parents are tarting up the hallway, and... oh, it's too boring for words.
  
• Feeling like I constantly have to be on my best behavior.


• My mother working herself up because one of the cats 'goes out the front'.


• My brother's status as one of the terminally unemployed.


• I'm tired of pretending I'm not an insane, bizarre yaoi fangirl who's thinking about Youji x Ken smut.


• Kent. Ugh.


• Small Kentish towns. Double ugh.


• London. That's my home now, okay?


• ... um, I missed my bedroom walls. Really. I did! I have nice posters on them! I missed that.


• Not having time to myself and being unable to concentrate in what I did have for fear of disruption.


• That weird smell in my brother's bedroom.


• '[Insert Name Here]? Could you do some typing for me?'


• My mother's crazy belief that I have a milk allergy and that drinking it at all will make me fat.


• My mother's equally crazy belief that I self-mutilate because the skin round my nails breaks easily.


• Board games. I DESPISE THEM.

... which I think, all things considered, is a vote in favor of coming back to London, please.

I love the way families work. Just this morning, after I was starting to feel a little maudlin and sorry for myself for having to leave and come back to London, my father and mother (especially my dad) started activating like good'uns and reminded me only too clearly of why I had to get out. It's nice the way they can be counted on to do that, so although I'm feeling a little lonely I am not missing my father's habit of yelling at me from a room two stories below mine and just expecting me to drop everything and come downstairs. Gah. Parents, eh?

The kitties were fuzzly, though. And very affectionate. Much more so than my landlady's cat, who is cute, but won't come and jump on your knee and sit there happily purring - both my parents' cats do that. Nor is he made (unlike one of my parents' cats) of finest quality Kitty Stuff; he doesn't feel like an angora sweater when you pet him, but my mother's girl kitty does. Even the annoying one's just annoying because he wants so much love. Give him strokes and let him sit where he damn well wants and he shuts up...

Now that, I will miss. But that's cat stuff. It's expected.

Oh, and finally - have a meme! Nicked from devida, who may or may not know when I'm supposed to be back in college and I hope like hell she does, because otherwise I am just screwed...

( I didn't need a meme to tell me this. )