Feeling like a local…what makes a place feel like home?

It has now been six whole months since the tribe and I moved back from France to sunny Western Australia.  It dawned on me today that the West Coast is starting to feel like home again. For me a place becomes your home when you feel comfortable, inspired and ultimately feel like you belong. I also have a mental checklist (no surprise there since I am a serial list-writer) of places/services I must discover and add to my new community before a place feels like home. A great hairdresser who listens, doesn’t cost the earth and will encourage me to take a risk. Check! (ta-da, check this out http://www.thisgrandlife.com.au/the-long-and-the-short-of-it-stuck-in-a-hairstyle-rut/) A couple of fab parks and outdoors spaces for the tribe to run free (http://www.thisgrandlife.com.au/the-great-outdoors/). Check! Finally, great coffee.  This was next to impossible in France, so it is brilliant to be back in the land of great coffee. That also brings me to this mornings conclusion that this is starting to feel like home.  I have not one, but a whole bevy of favourite coffee spots (pun fully intended)… My morning kick-starts with a macchiato (God that sounds just a little obnoxious doesn’t it) from one of my now favourite coffee shops. Weekdays that spot has become Rosso: where the barista owner is super-friendly/makes great coffee/has fab GF breaky treats. For a leisurely tea my top spot is Tiger Tiger, tucked away in a laneway, with a lovely selection of tea, served up in mismatched vintage teapots and teacups. Weekends now usually include at least one trip to Boubar, where I get my fill of hipster cool (dreadies and hipster beards abound, along with some super-cool Stormie Mills street-style art) and coffee - in a cool Stormie Mills-adorned-takeaway cup, naturally. If I am on tour with the tribe, it’s One For the Road: drive-through espresso coffee with delish locally produced milk (have you tried Bannister Downs milk?) or Rocket Fuel: name says it all, plus they do a fab milk-sippah-straw-drink for the tribe. Ah, it is great be home! When do you feel like a place has become your home?  Do you have a fab coffee spot to share? Enjoy xx