A week before my seventh birthday in England we went to Pakistan. My dad had a real desire to go back to his mother land. Like most of the first generation he left behind most of his loved ones and came out of a village first time on an aeroplane to an alien country that was cold, wet, snowy and unwelcoming. Now we see the Eastern Europeans going through a similar sort of process the only difference is they’re used to the bad weather!

My father came here when he was fairly young and he felt like he missed out on a lot so he wanted to go back and live the moments he didn't have but this time with all of us there. My brother didn't take to it so they sent him back to Bradford where he lived with my grandparents, my uncles and auntie. For me it was a real adventure being in a completely different country, the hot climate, school life and just being able to roam around freely in the village. People grew their own crops, tended to the animals, milked cows far more relaxed compared to all the running around I do here at home. The school I went to was fairly traditional in the sense we didn't have calculators and had to do a lot of reading and memorisation. The downside was me missing out on primary school back here in the UK but I didn't fair badly when I came back and I’m currently working in an art gallery because I have an arts background, textiles and design. To be honest I think that experience of going back home put that tiny spark inside me that made me want to travel to see things outside little Bradford, you know other parts of the UK and the world. Four years later my dad decided to come back.