Tag Archives: leaving

Transitions

Written on train from Manchester to London 08/09/14
We pack up Anna’s flat and go for a ride.

 

Before you can go you must leave. Leaving is ending, and ending something good is sad.

We’ve just spent another weekend packing up Anna’s flat of three years and shifting her things to her childhood bedroom at her parents’ house. Before they could fit however this room needed to be cleared of the detritus of her late teens and 20s- endless A4 sheets of academic notes, a box or two for jumble sale and a few gems to keep.

It’s at times like this I wonder what we’re doing- it seems like a massive effort to pack everything up and away, rather than just shift it all to a bigger place and settle in. Of course this is madness. Everything needs a good weeding out every once in a while but there’s always something better to do unless forced by something like this. And it feels good once completed- a clear room and the knowledge that everything you’re carting around and storing is actually good and useful to you. I went through this a few years ago before moving to London- sorting, weeding, storing (in easy to move, easy to find boxes- with labels! If you can’t find something you need in 2 mins is it’s not worth keeping it. And, ‘If in doubt, chuck it out.’)

We even found time to hit a circuit around the Lancashire moors; the first time on our road bikes for ages. I was a bit worried I might have gone off road riding, but sure enough it was still a buzz and the legs, bikes and bums held up fine to a hilly 20 mile loop. I can’t wait to be off with everything we could need with us; and a whole land of the unknown to discover.