To store or not to store.....that is the question.

So here I am..........sat in my room on this the last night of renting Frithville (officially anyway because I am staying unofficially until next sat). I haven't written for a while partly because I have been in a practical mode rather than creative whilst I get ready to go to Ecuador for three months. 

The last two days have been filled with the joys of cleaning, packing, cleaning some more, packing some more.......I think you get the picture.

You know those sliding puzzles where you have sliding squares and you make a picture by moving them around and getting totally frustrated when you have one piece at the opposite end to where you want it? Well, that's been my world for two weeks. 

AH HA! You may say. A logistical FEAST for those well endowed with logistical synapses. Mine, (synapses) however, just look at the challenge and whir up like an 80's Apple Macintosh classic computer or come to think of it my current Toshiba laptop. (Someone PLEASE crank the handle) 

It's ONLY three months but BOY what a massive amount of work has gone into assigning my possessions to: 

1. storage

2. winter needs (for when I get back)

3. rucksack for trip to Eastbourne (before I go away) to see parents  

4. suitcase for Ecuador, Costa Rica and LA (for some reason I have chosen a pink one! 

Even before I started packing, questions were being asked by the inquisitive and slight worried (and very well spoken) synapses.......

1.What does one pack for three months when one may encounter all four seasons? 

2. What does one wear having arrived at Heathrow for fives mins midwinter to prevent one freezing ones derriere off? 

3. Storage, recycling, charity shop or bin? 

('Traid' in Shepherds Bush have done really well out of me. I half expect to walk past their window display made up of ALL the clothes I have donated. I have visions of me, having to economise after my trip and FREEZING in Jan so having to pop in to buy EVERYTHING back).

So what am I feeling at this precise moment? Profound thoughts for the future? A tear for the past and the memories of Frithville? Neither. I am too tired to go to any depths other than eat, sleep and DO but what I will say is this...............why I have even considered the possibility of moving away from this area when I get back? The last few weeks have shown me that what has been started at Frithville will continue long after I leave. N and Mr K are now settled in a lovely flat in Chiswick. M is staying at Frithville and she has got two guys to move in who are lovely. A community has been started. New friends, old friends..........a network, a support system, a place to pop in for a cuppa, a place to kip when I will need it the most AND overall A HOME. 

Frithville has been an adventure on many levels (good and bad) but it has also been the start of something really really special........a legacy. I may not have a permanent base yet but I think I truly needed to learn the full impact of the saying that home is NOT just four walls and the things in it.............its the people that count the most and it's these special people I will miss the most. 

That's it folks.      

This gal needs some kip.

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. (nods off with finger on zzzzz).