There are a few things you tend to lose after having lived abroad for some time. Here’s two of the important things.

1. Tragically, all knowledge of current gossip from Aussie celebrity circles. Um, hello - Princess Mary’s popped one out? And Bec Cartwright too? How is it possible I did not know about this? Steph’s mum sent her a copy of the latest Who Weekly and it’s become our bible, tattered and worn as it makes the rounds of our four bedrooms, clutched to our chests at night and the first thing we lay eyes on in the morn….

2. My grasp of the English language; yes, despite the woes of my previous post, because I’m like, so fluent in German now. (Ha! Sarcasm detector on overload.) Instead of coming home with two languages I’ll probably be left with half of one. Virtually the only English I hear spoken these days is from the other three Aussie girls, and I don’t suppose that could really be called ‘proper’ English! I tried to email my tutor in Sydney the other day and for the life of me could not think how to spell ‘house’ - all that came to mind was the German ‘haus’. And all of our sentences are starting to be in the German way constructed, because we that all the time hearing are.