Not only have we arrived back in Edinburgh, I think we may also have arrived back in 2005. Two birthday parties in as many days; fry-ups with Josh, talking up world domination via the infallible medium of an iPhone application; a commute to work which takes less time than a trip to the bathroom, and a Tesco within spitting distance which stocks overpriced Chinese cooking wine and sells chorizo sausage by the foot.*

It is good, and weird, to be back.

We celebrated Jeff and Vanessa’s birthdays back to back last weekend, smashing cocktail glasses and making rude jokes in the VIP area of posh bar Dragonfly on Friday night and eating homemade (and excellent!) pizza at Neil & Vanessa’s flat on Saturday. It’s a while since I’ve referred to ‘the usual suspects’ in anger, but I think it may be warranted: Ash & I, Jeff & Devon, Neil & Vanessa, Jez & Serena and of course Josh, our man from Ful-ham† in attendance and playing away from home for the first time in 2009. Jeff & Devon provided an inter-party fry-up on Saturday morning to grease our bowels with a little bacon fat. Josh almost fainted with delight.

Ash & I were in Glasgow yesterday to renew her visa for another two years. The appointment went without a hitch, almost like a check-up at the dentist where you’re waiting for a tell-tale intake of breath signalling that a tooth has to be drilled, filled, or yanked out, and yet it never comes. You walk out with all of your pent-up dread still there as if they’re going to turn, Columbo-like, and call you back in—“Oh, just one more thing…”—and it isn’t until you’re in the car with the motor running that the relief finally floods over you.

So that’s us, sorted out and settled in. Phew.

* And to all these reminders of Edinburgh days of old, I can now add a drunken band practice in a freezing shed in Granton. The Depot is The Lighthouse reincarnated: great gear, no heating and silly prices. At least the disembodied baby head poster is gone.

† Sorry, sorry. It just popped into my head and needed an airing. I promise not to ‘rhyme’ again.