Oh January, you bleak and brutal beast! Since our return from Bali you have frozen us, whipped rain on our faces and made the dog's football so hard that it's like kicking a canon ball across the garden. You've reminded us of log-fires, hygge living-rooms, snuggly socks, warm blankets and what deep winter in England is all about. The last few weeks since coming back (two weeks? three? time feels strange in January) I’ve spent a lot of time inside. Not just physically, but inwardly too....

Our last week in Bali passes in a blur of tropical Christmas madness! Christmas. Films. Badminton. Family meals. Secret Santa. Laughter. Lovely rituals of being together in a clan in a totally different place. I feel at home here. My feet like this soil. And then, suddenly, it’s time to go south again. Back toward the airport. Back toward departure. Back …. home. We teeter on the edge of leaving and time feels strangely elastic. “I can’t tell if we’ve been here for ages or it’s gone really...

Our car arrives back in Ubud from Lovina and I am filled with a massive surge of relief. The noise, the scooters, the crazy jammed up streets, the now familiar chaos all feels like a breath of fresh air after the heaviness of the north. Driving slowly up the road to our previous previous apartment feels comforting, like slipping back into a home/neighbourhood that I hadn't realised I'd rooted down in. Glitzy Christmas decorations hang between palm trees and shrines. Restaurant doorframes are...