Describe your most memorable vacation.

While I have several holidays that could be mentioned here, all for good reasons-Vietnam earlier this year because it was my first time visiting the country, Thailand nine years ago when my cousin got married and any of my trips to New Zealand because it is a beautiful country. My most recent holiday back to the UK has been my best.

I say this is my most memorable for a few reasons. I visited Belfast for the first time and found the city to be a really friendly place with great architecture and small enough to explore a lot on foot if you don’t mind walking. I loved it.

I also went ‘home’ to Chorley for a few days. My lovely sister got married, which was the whole reason why I went back to the UK in the first place. Her wedding day was great and I saw lots of family I haven’t seen for a long time which was also good.

The thing with going back to where I grew up, but haven’t really liked as a place since I was a young kid, is always an interesting experience for me. As I went back in summer, and with actual sunshine for a change (Lancashire is rather wet a lot of the time), did remind me that the countryside is a rather lovely, green and beautiful place and still felt a little like home in some ways. The big bit is the fact that the town itself hasn’t changed since I left twenty years ago and yes, that is still where I grew up, but it isn’t real ‘home’ and it’s the weird conflict between the countryside feeling like I was at home, but the town not that was a strange feeling that I haven’t felt before. It’s for this reason alone that this reason this holiday was memorable.

After the odd feeling of being in Chorley, Lancashire, I went to London for a few days before coming back to my real home in Australia. In London, I went to three shows and spent my days visiting lots of interesting places I’d wanted visit for years but never had the chance to before. This was a great few days that I also thoroughly enjoyed.

My holiday back to the UK was varied and full of activity and seeing lots of family which was great. The odd feelings about my childhood home that’s always felt a bit rubbish (and still is) was something I wasn’t expecting!