Where's home?

It's coming up to a year that we've left New Zealand and made Dubai our home. After a year of being away from work, family and friends, I have to say that a little homesickness is kicking in...

Spring in NZ is one of my favourite times of the year. The weather starts to warm up, Christmas is around the corner, and nature is at its best. I have a soft spot for tree lined avenues and there aren't too many of these here in Dubai. I miss the green of Victoria Park, I can just see the new leaves forming on the winter-bare branches of trees around Wellesley Street, and I especially miss the drives down my favourite tree lined avenue - Franklin Road.

It's also coming up to 18 years that my family left Malaysia to make New Zealand home. While I was quite young and spent most of my life and formative years in Auckland NZ, I do miss the familiarity of family that are still in Malaysia, the shopping, and of course the food!

We had a friend over for dinner a couple of nights ago, who'd grown up in Pakistan, studied in the US and spent almost half his life there before recently moving to Dubai. When I asked him where home is, he couldn't say for sure. He suggested that perhaps home is where ones mother is.

If that is the case, then home for me is Melbourne, Australia. Now, that doesn't really work because whilst I've been there dozens of times to visit, I've never lived in the home my immediate family are currently residing in nor have I spent enough time in Melbourne to say I've lived in this city.

If home is really where the heart is, where's home if your roots are deep and widespread?