I often thought …

… that it was possible to live without any reference to the UK. Since leaving, in 1998, at the age of eighteen, I was convinced that there was nothing that would take me back.

Whenever I cross the Channel, the first stop is almost always the fish and chip shop (although battered sausage, chicken and mushroom pie and a portion of chips is my standard).

BUT - I am the recent recipient of a hamper full of Melton Mowbray pork pies, Bakewell tarts, a jar of piccalilli (I had to look that up, but still don’t know if it needs a capital letter), some flying saucers, a Cornish pasty, mint humbugs and wine gums. I haven’t been this happy or fat in a long time.

Take me home …