Right back where I started from?

Can I start this post with my favourite satirical photo of the month. I am sure none of my friends are Trump lovers, shudder at the thought so here it is:

This photo needs no explanation unless you are a really stupid cretin. 

I could use the title of this post to play the Sinitta song (which was a cover) and I think I will do that as I am in a relatively silly and happy mood as I type this despite my stressful morning. I am travelling to Shropshire this morning and this involves taking the DLR then the Tube, then another train and another and my lovely weekend bag decided to fail on me as I was getting off the tube.  The zip and the strap failed on me. Fun. I've managed to fix the zip though I am being very generous to myself as it is fixed but cannot be moved, as for the strap, meh, it's in the bin.  I've ordered a lovely new bag, sky blue, ready for my big Australia trip in less than 5 months time (3 cities, lots of friends plus Abu Dhabi in 14 days). I am looking forward to the trip so much. I have not been back to Australia since leaving in August 1999. 

So the post title? Well on January 8th I went back to my old employer, they asked me back and I was ready to return.  I have been back 3 weeks now and so far so ok, I won't say good as it is too soon to tell, I like being back in a more structure environment but it has changed a lot since last year and it has changed very much since the summer of 2016 when I was first hired.  Change is good in some cases, not in others and time zones are now an issue more than ever so we shall see. I am going to be super busy from late February until early June and by then I will have decided if moving back to that organization has been good for me.

I am travelling today to see my half-brother Dan, same father, different mother. We weren't brought up together, he and his older brother were brought up far away and we didn't meet until 1984 or 1985 and only saw each other 2 or 3 times between then and 2000.  Now we are all approaching middle age and our father is frail and shows little interest in me (or us?) we've seen each other more often, this will be my 3rd visit to see them in Shropshire and it is always lovely. I even got to see my father's 2nd wife, Fiona, who has known me since I was 2 and it is odd as she had nothing to do with the failed marriage of my mam and my father so me and her have no baggage, but as for my father, let's not go there.  No communication with me from the age of 4 to 15 then he burst on the scene expecting me to worship him as the Dad god, he isn't.  I think he is a very flawed man and a terrible father from my limited experience and the stories I have heard.  Broken families are not always a bad thing if one part of that broken family does well.  I communicate with him once or twice a year and he now sends me birthday cards and has done since 1985 or so but as he never sent one when I was a kid it feels like guilt to me. I am happy getting to know my brothers and their families and that is the most important thing about this story. 

And my favourite singer, Mylene Farmer, released her new single last week and last night it went to # 1 in France, her 16th # 1 and I can't wait for her new album.

Virgin Trains have talking toilets, it is very odd to be using the toilet when a female voice (why not male?) starts introducing herself as the toilet. Almost in Birmingham now in the now lovely New Street station (it feels like a Westfield shopping centre that happens to be a train station).

January 27, 2018