Looking back

I've spent the last few days exorcising old ghosts. Finally, the rain stopped and, before getting down to exam marking, it seemed to me that it would be interesting to visit some of the haunts of my childhood and young adulthood. Amazingly, many of the places I used to go with my parents are still there. It seems strange visiting them alone. Indeed, if I close my eyes, the years disappear and I can imagine that we've gone out as a family and my parents are celebrating showing me some of the great buildings and towns in the country, revelling in my delight. At the same time, those days seem so long ago. The past is, indeed, another country, but sometimes it's good to revisit that land and to see that things were as you remember (more often than not, of course, they've changed).

I wonder if I'll even want to revisit the last 12 months...