Moving Day Thoughts

So here I am, once again, sat on the floor of the living room floor in Apartment 2202 Bamboo Grove. I feel like I have come full circle. It does not feel much more than a year ago (because it's not!) that I was sitting here, on this hardwood floor checking email etc...feeling chilly and realising that chairs were a most amazing invention! Still, this time, it's just for a day so the hardship will soon pass. For the next few nights, in this interval between departures, we will be well taken care of in a very lovely HK apartment, by some friends of ours, saving us $$$ on a HK hotel bill...one of the most expensive places in the world to stay as far as I can tell!

Right now, it's quiet here. The packing chaps have stopped for lunch and the workmen on the building site below appear to have done the same. Just a distant sound of drilling through my headphones and the churning of the tumble dryer as we desperately attempt to dry some stuff in time to get it packed for shipping!

Apartment 2202 has been good to us, overall... not the most homely place...we never really made it Ours in the true sense of the word Home. We had some furniture and some personal things but it always looked a bit like a student apartment to me, with a mix of things thrown together from a mix of other houses...which is exactly what it was, but it worked well enough for a year. After all, Alan was hardly here, so it has been much more a Home for me than for him...I think he'd agree. But all that said, I think I'll have fond memories of this place. The view is quite breathtaking even though I have come to take it for granted on occasion...especially on the days when it's been so grey that there is nothing to see... but it has been a great base for us, in a central location. Despite all my complaints that have surfaced over the last year, on balance, I think we've been lucky with our choice and I am so glad that we had a space big enough to accommodate some guests, even if it did involve some compromises and some shifting of furniture. Thank you again to all our friends and family who came out to see us here and make our year even more memorable! You know who you are...

Next we have a holiday. It probably looks like we are always on holiday to the casual blog reader, but what we have next, is a Real holiday...not a business trip extension and to a place so different to our usual destinations...I can't wait!

And then...I am looking forward to arriving Home and unpacking our things and really settling in this time. It feels different now that we have our permanent residency. Of course nothing is forever and things change...constantly...but I am still looking forward to some relative stability. A place to settle, to feel safe and secure and to stop for a while....