10 years in Thailand seemed to fly by. A couple of jobs and a few rounds of golf. Two children born, but it all seems like yesterday. Meanwhile in England things moved at the speed of light. I remember Leeds as a run-down, frayed at the edges kind of city. I visited last month, a school trip to the Royal Armouries and was stunned. The canal basin area, which I remember as industrially depressing and bleak, is full of life. Where there were rusty supermarket trolleys and decaying lock gates there are flowers and restored industrial heritage; lovingly cared for, cast-iron makers plates painted black with white lettering fixed to green lock gates. The warehouses of broken windows now airy balconied student accomodation. The cycles are no longer discarded in the canals but being ridden along the towpaths; all carefully signposted for a whole new generation of cycle commuters. I feared for England when the oil runs out, but windmills and bicycles are not dead yet. And they're so much more pretty to look at than petrol stations.
