Greetings from Brighton.

Just to catch you up, since the last time I posted here, I have had a birthday. So that means that I'm either a full year older or one day older, depending on your perspective about birthdays. Personally, I prefer to see it as being not older, but richer. And not in any of that 'richer in life experience' bollocks.

Richer in presents. Where it counts.

So yes, I'm back in England and if I squint my eyes really hard, I can almost imagine that it's summer here. Almost. My god the weather here is awful.

Every time I come back here, I miss it horribly. It's a really amazing place and without a doubt, it is the one place in the world that I feel most 'at home'. Now, if someone could just sort the weather out that would be lovely, thanks.

I'd move back here in a heart beat.

Sadly, 3 years of living in the sunshine of California has kind of ruined me for the beautiful melancholy greyness of England. I love it (I really do) but I don't think I could live here most of the year. Also, my health really suffers every time I'm here. The damp weather and the mold kill me and I spend a lot of the time stuck in bed with aches and pains. No fun. When I lived here years ago, I just put up with that because I didn't realise there was another way. Now that I know I can be healthier, choosing to live here and be less healthy would be kind of crazy.

This sucks.

Knowing the one place in the world that you feel truly at home and yet not being able to live there - that blows. Big time.

I definitely need to find a place to settle down soon though. Sleeping in a new bed every week might sound like a lot of fun to some of you (perverts) but it's starting to drive me a bit loopy. I'm a sleepwalker which means that I tend to be pretty restless at night anyhow. Being in different beds and hotel rooms with all of the different noises that individual buildings make, the different smells native to each city - that all just adds to the unsettled-ness. In order to make sure that I don't blithely end up going for a sleepy wander outside of my hotel room, I have to drag my suitcase in front of my door so that I can't open it.

One of these days I am definitely going to wake up in my pajamas in the middle of a casino. (note to self: buy better pajamas)

I haven't been doing much sleep walking recently but my unsettled nature is coming out in a different way. Nightmares. I am having every kind of nightmare you can imagine and have had them pretty much every single night for the last 4 weeks. It's exhausting. I have killed (and been killed by) so many damn zombies in the past month that I should get a merit badge.

So, for the sake of my sanity I will be ignoring my health and spending more time in Brighton. Two of my lovely friends have just bought an incredible flat here with views out over the sea and they've kindly let me rent their spare room for the odd days that I'll be around. I'm going to be on the road mostly but at least it'll be a base for me, somewhere to leave some of my things and a bed to call my own. It's going to be lovely to catch up with my friends all and reconnect with their lives. It's been far too long since I was around this part of the world much.

And it has to stop raining at some point right?

Right??