'The cheese is always bluer on the other side'

Gorgonzola, Emmental, red Leicester, Port Salut ... every expat has a little nostalgia about home and something that they ache for. My homesickness can be summed up in one word: cheese.

The mere mention of cheese, from Ardrahan to Zamorano, is enough to get my mouth and eyes watering for home comforts. Like for like, in those moments when I see a picture of a London cab or turn on the BBC's Radio 4 Today Programme (at 2 pm rather than 6 am as it is in the UK), my cheese craving kicks in with a vengeance. It is as if presenter Jim Naughtie's dulcet tones were wired to my taste buds.

It took a while for this somewhat inconvenient psychological tic to develop. But what started out as the occasional "Ooh, could really fancy a spot of cheddar" has now become full-blown cheese sickness. Once my cheese sickness strikes, I know I will have no peace until it has been satiated.