I can't believe I've neglected my blog so shamefully. This time last week I had just got back to Kansas, feeling strangely relieved after the hectic eight days that was my stint on the Ford Fiesta World Tour. I was full of good intentions to blog at length and in detail about some of the crazy things we had seen, and instead I unpacked, took a long shower and flopped into bed. And then got cracking with Kansas life again. Oh dear. Anyway, there were a few highlights, which I thought I'd share with you here:

Visiting the Heidelberg Project in downtown Detroit. This is basically a live-in art installation in one of the city's poorest areas, dreamed up 25 years ago by an artist called Tyree Guyton who wanted to make a statement. And so he applied himself, and his paintbrush, to a rundown empty house on his street, decorating it with everything from random paint swirly to stuffed toys. Now, the street is full of these decorated houses (one has polka dots all over it), as well as random piled of what looks like rubbish. Except it's not rubbish, it's 'found objects' that symbolise like, loss and stuff. Hmmm. I couldn't work out whether I loved it or hated it, to be honest. We met the absolutely lovely executive director of the project, who had given up her Sunday - which also happened to be her birthday - to meet us in the blazing sun. She was so gracious - but when she introduced us to the artist, who was sitting with his posse on a deckchair under a tree, he told her she wasn't being 'respectful' in doing so. Well sorry mate, but it's your art, why don't you explain it, rather than expecting someone else to give up their day? Honestly, it annoyed me, and made me feel that little bit less charitable towards the whol affair.

Anyway, after that I flew back home, which was lovely. This week has been about catching up with life again, and remembering random moments from the trip, such as when the taxi driver I got from the airport asked me about what Susan Boyle was up to. Who knew she was so big over here?

In the meantime, it turns out that my feature for essentialwriters.com has been posted. You can read it here. I will post more often after this, I promise!