[Written in Dubai airport on Sunday, only just got this to post.]

I’m on my way to China, while it’s hard to believe it right now I will eventually get to leave Dubai airport and if my there are no delays, I’ll be in Shanghai about 11 hours from now. [We were, 15 mins early, in Shanghai late evening on Sunday.]

Without question the thing I’m most excited about, going back, is the great friends I have there. Friends are what I thought I would miss most when I was planning to leave and it is friends I have missed most in the last 18 months since I left.

But what else?

Will it be as if I’ve never been away, as Newcastle is or will the bubble have really burst? Will I again be a complete outsider, as in 2003?

Will it feel like home and pull me back or will I immediately remember why I left? Though, in truth, I was pulled towards Prague more than I was ever pushed away from Hangzhou.

Regardless, right now I’m very excited to be heading back.