full stop

Jen left yesterday and my home feels a little empty, to be honest. It's not a large apartment but she was an excellent house guest (especially the jambalaya she cooked on the last night: so good!). Although she did use all my tissues in an effort to staunch the unceasing flow of mucus from her sinuses. But that's probably better than leaking everywhere..

It's been a while since last update - been a bit busy and too unfocused to blog frankly. Not that my blogging normally exhibits crystal clarity. But it's been a pretty fun and interesting last few weeks what with having my couch (sadly, the shorter version) finally delivered, going to see loud bands in sticky-floored pubs, more farewells (i.e. drinking) for coworkers on the project (which seems to be doing an impression of a collapsing souffle), a clean-up on the old house, and a surfing adventure down to 'nulla. That last was fun and tiring and chafing - my knees had very dodgy looking carpet burns from the board...

The final clean and exit from the house in Forest Lodge was far more emotional than I was expecting.

It wasn't quite so bad on the day Sas & I did the scrubbing, vacuuming and mopping - although saying goodbye to Rufus again, for probably the last time, was seriously awful. But for me it was going around a day later to pick up the last of the plants I could have at my new place that nearly cracked me. Leaving the garden that I'd pottered in for 5 years, plants that I'd grown from seed (the avocados are 5m tall trees now! and the bananas are producing fruit!), landscaping I'd done, composting I'd obsessed over, vege garden I'd completely failed to prevent being eaten by snails - it was traumatic.

It's a period of my life that's very much over now, and for good reasons. But parts of it were excellent: I just hope that in the future I can find as much happiness and contentment as I did in that house. Though to tell the truth I'd prefer even more.