Sleeping Diagonally

For most of my life I've been used to having plenty of personal space. I've always had my own bedroom. I've have lived with people - family, friends & even employers (when I was an au pair) - but I've always had a door I could shut to separate me from them, and the rest of humanity.

I find solitude peaceful. I arrange my bedroom as a santuary. Everything is where I need it to be: all my favourite things on display, everything I don't want to see tucked away.

So now, I'm about to head off to Manchester, and at the age of 24 I'm going to have to learn to share my space. I can't just do everything my way. And I'm fussy about my bedroom. How is that supposed to work?

I'm also fussy about my bed. I like having the whole of it at my disposal. I go to sleep on one side, and I wake up on the other. I wriggle and twist. I like to sleep diagonally... Where exactly will C fit in all of this?

I calculate that I have at least twice as many belongings as C. I'll be moving into his room, filling it most of it with my junk and my life. I can hardly expect him to sleep in a ball in the corner of his own bed. Maybe he could sleep on the floor?

I'm glad that I'm not the only person that has these problems. I spotted this cartoon in the London Paper back in February, and it made me smile (I hope it's not too small to read):










http://www.emcartoons.com/february-2009/

Maybe it's time I take half my belongings to the charity shop and learn to sleep in a straight line?

A beginning, and an end

In just over a month I'm moving Up North. I'm going to go and live with my beloved C, and find a new flat, a new job and a new direction in a new city, 200 miles from where I live now. The possibility of significant change stands before me, and it makes me feel excited and startled at once.

It's something I've been waiting for for six months now and I finally feel that my adventure is about to begin.

However, new beginnings are inevitably accompanied by endings. I've lived in London for over a year and a half and enjoyed the experience immensely. Soon I'll be leaving friends, housemates and colleagues behind. Instead of seeing my favourite people on a daily or weekly basis, I'll see them once a month or less.

Although this blog will never replace the evenings spent after work in pubs, catching up, philosophising, plotting and laughing, it might help to make those 200 miles feel a little less significant. That's the plan.