36 reasons to fly back home.

36 things I look forward to experiencing on returning to Peterborough after 25 days in Sri Lanka. I know that some of these sound trivial or petty, but sometimes the little things mean a lot.

1. The familiarity of my own house, bed books, kitchen etc.
2. Going to Drolma Buddhist centre. So lucky to have this on our doorstep.
3. Some nice cold or cool weather. Still not used to 30 degree heat with high humidity
4. Playing walking football
5. Going for a run, or spin class
6. A decent cup of coffee, either at home or in cafes
7. A decent cup of tea with cold non uht milk. Tea tends to be served with hot uht milk in Sri Lanka.
8. Cooking. Longest period of my adult life with no cooking. My expensive vitamix will be rusting up with disuse.
9. Not living out of a rucksack. And stuffsacks. 
10. A break from hotel buffets. These are great, but have had too many of these because there aren't a huge number of evening restaurants in Sri Lanka outside of Colombo.
11. Talking to people about things other than travel
12. Reliable and reasonably fast wifi and affordable 4g.
13. Normal local bird watching, even in the wind, rain and cold.
14. Live football on TV and radio. This seems to be one of the few places in the world where hardly anyone cares about soccer. cricket on the other hand is very popular.
15. Pavements to walk along without fear of a broken ankle
16. Going to a nature reserve without queuing for a ticket. Ticket buying can sometimes be slow business and in national parks you can't buy them in advance. Surely they can improve on that.
17. The familiarity of a British supermarket.
18. seeing Family and friends or communicating with them in the same time zone.
19. western art and culture
20. Charity shops
21. Fenland skies and weather. Lovely flat landscapes.
22. Cycling on familiar routes
23. No more bakery tuk tuks playing a crappy electronic version of fur Elise 
24. Traffic without horn parps every few seconds
25. No more bumpy noisy rides in tuk tuks or jeeps.
26. Cheese. Proper cheese. 
27. Beer other than the standard nothing to write home about lager.
28. No more air con noise
29. A real log fire in the living room
30. Cities that are not horribly polluted and full of chaotic traffic.
31. A washing machine at home. I became an expert at wringing out clothes washed in hotel sinks. 
32. Quorn. Yes I know it's sometimes derided, e.g. by jay rayner, but it's not done mo farah any harm has it?
33. Bare trees.
34. No more negotiating with tuk tuk taxi drivers to save the equivalent of 50p. If you don't do that, other tourists think you are horribly naive, and encoraging exploitation of tourists by money grubbing locals.
35. Seeing adult couples without a guide/driver. This seems like a win win  situation bringing income to Sri Lankans and benefits to the tourists , but it sometimes turns intelligent visitors e.g. Retired head teachers into the equivalent of infants. The classic was seeing so many tourists being put on a touristy train ride whilst the guide driver transports their luggage by car to meet them down the line to continue their tour. We are glad that we only had a guide driver for 4 days out of 25, and that was to buy in specialist birding experience, not easily available at short notice.
36. A choice of walks that are possible that are off road and do do involve hiring a local guide. For my next trip abroad I am thinking of having a sign printed in the local language saying "I am primarily a bird watcher. I am not really interested in getting to the top of a hill to see the view. Please find me a nice woodland glade with some tall trees,  ideally bare at the top, where I can stand, or preferably sit, for 10 minutes. A wetland edge habitat is also good, but no crocodiles please."