leaving the house, and I didn’t even need to decide what to watch on TV as Mum was checking every programme to make sure there wouldn’t be anything that would upset me. Before, I wouldn’t have given a trip to the cinema a second thought. If that’s where everyone wanted to go then I’d happily have gone along too. Today felt different. I just didn’t want to go. Actually saying it, not being rude about it and thanking them for the thought, reminded me that I could take back a bit of control over what I wanted to do and that it was okay to do that.
In the book I’m reading about training dogs it says that you should always remain calm and assertive so that the dog knows who is in charge. Turns out that works on humans too!
Six
I am sitting in my new bedroom, surrounded by boxes, and rather than unpacking I thought the most productive thing I could do was write in my journal. It could be that I really need to write or it could be that I’m just brilliant at avoiding the jobs I don’t want to do. Either way, I’m not going to be doing any unpacking in the near future!
Today was the big move. It started off well with the removal van and a team of guys turning up. Mum was getting slightly neurotic about whether they’d be here on time so she was very reassured when they were a whole four minutes early. They must be used to slightly neurotic people though as they were very patient with Mum as she went through a detailed explanation of how important every single box was.
Mum cried as we locked up our house for the final time. I suppose that if it wasn’t for everything that has happened she wouldn’t even have thought about moving. I know that a little part of her would be thinking of Daniel too. I couldn’t help thinking that maybe this was a good thing for both of us. Mum couldn’t spend the rest of her life in this house just on the off chance he might turn up one day. I couldn’t care less if he never turned up. I kept that thought to myself though.
As usual, we had packed up a picnic for our journey. The search for the cheese had created a small panic this morning as Mum thought she’d put all the cold stuff in one place and we can’t go anywhere without a cheese and pickle sandwich. Luckily the crisps, jaffa cakes and Haribo had been spotted, and I can’t say I worried too much when we couldn’t find the apples. We had all of our really special things in the car with us. It was a four-hour journey and as usual, we travelled for about 10 minutes, got on the motorway and then started on the sandwiches. I don’t think we have ever actually left our picnicalone for more than 20 minutes, regardless of what time of day it is or how far we’re going.
We had about an hour to ourselves in the new house before the removal team arrived. Mum had thought of everything though and magically produced two mugs, teabags and milk from a little cool bag. She’d even remembered to pack a teaspoon. We sat on the floor in our brand-new, empty, beige living room, cuppa in hand and continued tucking in to our picnic.
I had remembered everything about our new house and I immediately felt safe. As it is brand new, on a new housing development it really is just ours. Nobody has ever lived here before and that feels really special. It also means that everything is beige and magnolia. That’s okay though as Mum said we can put our pictures up and make it our own. There’s a rule about not painting the walls for a few months apparently, but there aren’t any rules about posters and pictures!
I just sat there, on the floor of my new room. It was a completely empty space. No furniture, no curtains, not even a lampshade. A brand new start.
My special boxes couldn’t be unpacked until I had something to unpack them into, so I did what any girl in my situation would do and tweeted a picture of my empty room. Nothing is real until it has been tweeted. It is official, I have moved house and I have no idea what to do
In the book I’m reading about training dogs it says that you should always remain calm and assertive so that the dog knows who is in charge. Turns out that works on humans too!
Six
I am sitting in my new bedroom, surrounded by boxes, and rather than unpacking I thought the most productive thing I could do was write in my journal. It could be that I really need to write or it could be that I’m just brilliant at avoiding the jobs I don’t want to do. Either way, I’m not going to be doing any unpacking in the near future!
Today was the big move. It started off well with the removal van and a team of guys turning up. Mum was getting slightly neurotic about whether they’d be here on time so she was very reassured when they were a whole four minutes early. They must be used to slightly neurotic people though as they were very patient with Mum as she went through a detailed explanation of how important every single box was.
Mum cried as we locked up our house for the final time. I suppose that if it wasn’t for everything that has happened she wouldn’t even have thought about moving. I know that a little part of her would be thinking of Daniel too. I couldn’t help thinking that maybe this was a good thing for both of us. Mum couldn’t spend the rest of her life in this house just on the off chance he might turn up one day. I couldn’t care less if he never turned up. I kept that thought to myself though.
As usual, we had packed up a picnic for our journey. The search for the cheese had created a small panic this morning as Mum thought she’d put all the cold stuff in one place and we can’t go anywhere without a cheese and pickle sandwich. Luckily the crisps, jaffa cakes and Haribo had been spotted, and I can’t say I worried too much when we couldn’t find the apples. We had all of our really special things in the car with us. It was a four-hour journey and as usual, we travelled for about 10 minutes, got on the motorway and then started on the sandwiches. I don’t think we have ever actually left our picnicalone for more than 20 minutes, regardless of what time of day it is or how far we’re going.
We had about an hour to ourselves in the new house before the removal team arrived. Mum had thought of everything though and magically produced two mugs, teabags and milk from a little cool bag. She’d even remembered to pack a teaspoon. We sat on the floor in our brand-new, empty, beige living room, cuppa in hand and continued tucking in to our picnic.
I had remembered everything about our new house and I immediately felt safe. As it is brand new, on a new housing development it really is just ours. Nobody has ever lived here before and that feels really special. It also means that everything is beige and magnolia. That’s okay though as Mum said we can put our pictures up and make it our own. There’s a rule about not painting the walls for a few months apparently, but there aren’t any rules about posters and pictures!
I just sat there, on the floor of my new room. It was a completely empty space. No furniture, no curtains, not even a lampshade. A brand new start.
My special boxes couldn’t be unpacked until I had something to unpack them into, so I did what any girl in my situation would do and tweeted a picture of my empty room. Nothing is real until it has been tweeted. It is official, I have moved house and I have no idea what to do
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