Has it really been two weeks?

More than that in fact. I suppose it reinforces the concept that I was knocked speechless. Have I changed? Has the world changed? Both?

No, of course not. I'm the same except I've had some experiences which, judging by the treatment meted out to this poor sod, I should probably not talk about. The article I've linked there is a blog about going round South East Asia by a fairly green young man. The controversy has arisen from other than his writing (which is better than mine, but I'm not being published by the website of a major national British newspaper), but rather his subject matter and how he got the gig. He is, apparently, the son of an occasional freelance writer for the Guardian (the aforementioned newspaper) and this has given rise to cries of nepotism. This may be the case (and a comment like "his dad worked hard to get him a break in journalism" won't have helped), but it is possible that he really did get in on merit: having creative parents may have led to a creative environment at home for example. His faux-naivete has also wound folk up, claiming not to know what to expect in Thailand when he visited there just a few years ago. But a lot of the issues were seemingly borne out of the fact he was doing the cliche-ridden tour, following in the footsteps of ten thousand other upper middle class yahoos and getting paid for it. I'm sure we all would have if we could. But, my goodness, The Beach was only a good book for those precise people who do that trip. My holiday was paid for by me and no-one may feel obliged to read my witterings as no-one is publishing them beyond this.

A lot of other things haven't changed as well (nice sentence structure, is it not?). And I'm learning to cope with them. It is odd to be back, but I am determined to at least find a different rut.