Hibernation

After almost six hundred days in weather consistently in the thirties landing in London at minus two degrees was a bit of a shock to the system. The film of tiredness and plane grime covering me after twenty two hours travelling provided scant protection against the biting cold but soon we were in Ma’s toasty SUV heading to our new home for the next year (exact timing to be confirmed).

Since returning we have mostly hibernated, it has been lovely spending time with Ma and the big fluffy ginger tom cat who shares our home – having a pet to love has been something I have most definitely missed and anyone who knows me knows my fondness for my Ma. The weather has been consistently glorious, bright and blue, the ground glitteringly frost covered every morning in response to the temperature dipping below zero each night. A friendly pheasant we’ve named Phil has been making our acquaintance, bolding proclaiming the garden to be his own.

I can’t lie, it has been surreal, like fish out of water we’re busying through each day, wrapped up against the chill, errand running or slowly opening and sorting the many many boxes we have stored here. We’ll be having one hell of a car boot sale once the weather improves! Other than suppers around a few of Ma’s dear friends I’ve hardly spoken to anyone outside of these walls, needing the time to…what I don’t know…ground…or something less spiritual…adapt. After so long just J and I, and so long of having scant communication due to bad wifi and time differences I haven’t yet accepted that I can simply pick up the phone and the person on the other end will most likely be awake.

In the not too distant future we will start looking for jobs, which is after all why we are back to save so that we can head off to the East and warmth once more. We’ll start locally at first and reluctantly, if nothing suitable can be found, the search will move to London and the much more fertile job market. But for now our plans for the coming weeks are loose, we aim to find and buy a little runabout as Ma, and now we, live deep in the countryside with public transport some miles away. And there are still many more boxes to sort; piles to keep, to eBay and to car boot are steadily forming around us. I think anyone who has moved will appreciate the despair of opening boxes and wondering why on earth you had kept and packed so much of it in the first place. I am horrified by how much I still have when I know how much I disposed of to charity and friends before we left, what a colossal waste of money all of that was. Having quite happily lived from one bag I am being ruthless, no one needs all this crap, least of all me.

I’m looking forward to reconnecting with loved ones near and far, to being gentle with ourselves and enjoying every minute of Blighty while we are here, because I know before we know it, in the blink of an eye we’ll be on our way once again Xx