The Sunday Reflection #68 - Where is home?

 I am writing this in the lounge of a hotel in Dublin. We've been away for a few days for a well earned break! The hotel is on the North Circular Road and is about ten minutes walk from the house where my great Grandfather was born a couple of centuries or so ago! I am not really into genealogy, but I was interested to have a look at the place. I didn't really know what to expect. I know little of him, but my cousin sent me the address, so I thought I'd have a look. I wonder what my great grandfather would make of Dublin today, a very different city to the one he knew.

The house where my great grandfather
was born in Dublin

The house is a small red brick house, probably a couple of hundred years old. I really didn't know what to expect. I knew that my Great grandfather was not poor, although clearly he had humble beginings. I sort of expected to feel some sort of pang of familiarity or ancestral connection, but in truth I didn't. In fact, I don't feel connected to any of the homes that my parents lived in before I was born. My grandmother lived in homes in Burnt Oak and Poets Corner, Mill Hill, but again, I've never felt any connection to these places. My own home is different. I've always felt very much at home and happy in my Mill Hill home. I bought it from my mum in 1987, after my Dad died and she told me she was selling it. I couldn't really afford it at the time, but it was worth the stretch. I've brought up my kids here and I think they feel connected to it. But it is not the bricks and mortar that make it. It is the memories, my own ones of Xmas as a kid, my children as babies, the dogs and the cats we've had. Each one has etched a small piece of love in my heart. It is odd, many of my friends want to move away from London. I can think of nothing more horrible.

Quite a few of my mates are of Irish heritage. I think many are often surprised by my lack of connection to the country, but in truth I have few memories apart from a holiday with my mum in 1974 to hang on to. Dublin is very much like many other cities. It is a fun place to visit, but seems very expensive and as a Londoner, it is only really somewhere I'd visit for a break. I am a city person and to me London is the worlds greatest city. We are all different and I get why people get sick of London, but I can't see that happening to me. But I'd recommend a trip here. It has been a real blast. In about six hours, I'll be back home, having a cup of tea and in truth I'll be glad to be back. My liver most certainly will!