Alreet, wee mucker?*

I know I'm coming home when I see this. This is the welcome home Jennie sign in Belfast internationl airport. Tayto crisps, one of Northern Ireland's favourite delicacies: the best cheese & onion crisps in the world, both an acquired taste and a romantic disincentive. They're made in Tayto Castle, the northern irish equivalent to Willy wonka's chocolate factory. It's a very exciting place to be. Even if you're a grown up like my friend Heidi, a chartered accountant. She said she had fun auditing the factory.

I'm home.

But I've forgotten about the microclimate that operates in this part of the world. The weather varies between pretty cold and... baltic. But today it's beautiful and one of my very good friends is getting married later. She picked a great day.

I love coming home. Especially here. The shores of Strangford Lough on a beautiful clear day in April last year.

I guess most people would say their home is the place where they know they can just be... For me, home is veda bread, Maud's ice-cream and barm brack. Home is a cup of tea and a wee bun and the Harland & Wolf cranes at Belfast harbour. I've been home sick for the last month, missing friends and family. I have a friend in London, I asked him when he was next going home, meaning, Northern Ireland. But, for him, this is a place which reminds him of loss; it isn't home. Nor is London his home, even though he has lived here for 40 years. The place he calls home is the place of his childhood, Argentina. Home is a place of unspoilt memories for him.

Home, I think, is more than a postcode. Home is more than just the place where you have sole ownership of the remote control or a carton of milk in the fridge. I find, when I talk about home, I talk more about the physical qualities. Like how close it is to M&S and Kew Gardens and the river. Well, this is useful if I'm giving you directions to come and visit. But if I just hold onto the things I can see, I forget about the stuff I can't see. What our house is really like. Well, we love to have people round for tea and just hang out with us. We invite people to just be. We invite people to get to know them better. I love this about our home. Both of these places are my homes. They are both very different and still, they are temporary. Each time I come back to the house where I lived for most of my childhood, it's changed. And so it becomes less about the physical state, and more about the memories. Very precious memories of my family.

But home, again, is more than this and I'll not say much more. But this wee passage has helped me remember about the more-ness to life this weekend. Psalm 27:4-6.

* You have just learned some N. Irish slang: how are you my friend?