An editor's return to the UK - Yellow Scene Magazine

By now, you may or may not have cottoned on to the fact that your editor here at Yellow Scene is British. This is important for no good reason at all, except that my accent draws a few extra glances in bars and nobody can understand me when I say water (“war-ter” rather than the accepted US “wah-der”).B

I moved to the United States from England in January 2008, starting my American Adventure in Detroit, Michigan. Despite writing professionally in England for 7.5 years previously, it was in Detroit that I really developed my knowledge-base and my career took off. By the time I left the place, I had climbed to the position of Music Editor at the Detroit Metro Times (the local alt weekly).

Now here I am in stunning Colorado, heading up the edit department at Yellow Scene</em > with pride. However, having not returned to England since the fall of 2009, this past Christmas was the perfect opportunity to take a trip to the homeland for a couple of weeks.

On landing in Manchester and taking the drive to Birmingham (in the West Midlands), then taking a hefty nap, the missus and I went to see 1990’s indie band the Wonder Stuff. Great show, albeit acoustic, the band that once played “Welcome to the Cheap Seats” on Letterman and made a decent stab at the mainstream with the “Size of a Cow” single put on a great show in their hometown.

The next day, we took our son Dylan, along with his grandparents, to Thomas Land, a Thomas the Tank Engine-themed section of the Drayton Manor Park amusement park. We got to ride on Thomas, as well as Rosy. Dylan received gifts from Santa. It was like being inside the show, on a very cold day.

Other highlights of the trip included taking my American wife for tea and scones (what could be more English?), meeting up with old friends and family, Christmas TV in the motherland, and of course Christmas Day itself. The strangest thing about the trip was the feeling that I’d never been away at all, never mind for over five years. When I got back to Colorado, it was like I had never taken off from Denver. It’s nice to feel comfortable in multiple places.