February 2009

My hasn’t time flown since my last entry. So much has happened in that year – I’ve divorced, sold up, moved house, moved jobs, moved countries, moved hemispheres. Met a gorgeous man in Paris and am now living in the UK with him (and my cat and dog and three kids), riding out the recession not far from Reading. We’ve been here five months and have enjoyed the first snow falls, our first ever cold Christmas and the joys of the commuter lifestyle. We’ve been here just long enough to really feel homesick for the warm Pacific sun, and the smell of salt in the sea air. My youngest daughter’s school sent home a note demanding that she is outfitted correctly for PE. Correctly outfitted in New Zealand means bare feet..I raced into the shops to find the bits and pieces, including the plimsolls. Not knowing what on earth they are I finally resorted to asking the saleswoman and as I explained that I was new and from New Zealand, and knew not a soul because I’ve been encased in a work hole for a five month night, tears ran down my cheeks. The problem with plimsolls is that everyone else here knows what they are, and I have no idea. Plimsolls represent all that is different between the two worlds I straddle. “What shoes do you wear indoors?” the woman asked. We don’t. We’re just not that genteel. I like to feel the carpet between my toes or the cool bare wooden floor boards under my hot feet in summer. You know you’re stressed when asking for shoes prompts tears. It’s been too much all these changes in five months and then working fifty hours a week on top of that, with no time to search for PE kit, or friends or decent cafes, or find out what plimsolls are. The problem with Plimsolls is that it’s another example of the little things that are different that feel like huge things when times are tough. They make me feel on the outside. Homeless, and now jobless too. I just cannot sustain the pressure.  Read more... (366 words, estimated 1:28 mins reading time)

My hasn't time flown since my last entry. So much has happened in that year - I've divorced, sold up, moved house, moved jobs, moved countries, moved hemispheres. Met a gorgeous man in Paris and am now living in the UK with him (and my cat and dog and three kids), riding out the ...