I’ve been away for nearly a month now and must admit that most of the things that irritated me about specific people in Australia are now the things that make me smile.

The days of fighting about issues that normal people don’t fight about, the midnight rendezvous’ in the middle of nowhere, the comments you wish they wouldn’t make but they always do anyway because they know it gets to you… the list goes on. And no doubt, you know what I mean.

But if I go home, how long does it take until these things start to irritate me again? Can we only appreciate something truly from a distance?

Is that what “missing” something or someone is? Wishing you could have it again and then when you finally do you simply don’t want it anymore?

Perhaps it is another case of the grass is always greener. So, perhaps we should forget about the other side and start frolicking around in the greenery we have and know.

After all, you can’t live in two places at once. No matter how hard you try. There will always be changes. In you, in the people around you and in your environment’s development.

That’s a mistake I think a lot of people make when they travel. Often when someone ventures abroad their life changes – either a little or a lot. When the changed person returns to the original location only to find their new attitude no longer fits with their surroundings… disappointment ensues.

People like to say that travel changes you. While perhaps it is true to some extent, I find the expression redundant.

Quite frankly –life changes people. No term could be broader but no term more accurate.

As we move on down our own individual pathways we learn different things, experience different experiences and, ultimately, become different people.

My point being this – maybe the heart is growing fonder of someone we don’t really know anymore?